page_title: Camel Trail
section_title: Current trail
hierarchical_section_title: Camel Trail / Current trail
caption_attribution_description: English: This former-LSWR railway bridge over Little Petherick Creek near Padstow is now part of the Camel Trail cycleway in Cornwall, UK
context_page_description: The Camel Trail is a permissive cycleway in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, that provides a recreational route for walkers, runners, cyclists and horse riders. The trail is flat; running from Padstow to Wenford Bridge via Wadebridge and Bodmin, it is 17.3 miles long and used by an estimated 400,000 users each year generating an income of approximately £3 million a year.
  The trail is managed and maintained by Cornwall Council.
context_section_description: The railway was built so that the trains would not have any steep inclines or sharp turns. It is these characteristics which make it suitable as a cycle trail. The first bike hire in Cornwall was set up here in 1983. The trail is now owned by Cornwall Council who bought it for £1 and the bike hire shops operating along it pay an annual fee to help with its maintenance. Only a small part of the trail, through Wadebridge, is on roads and shared with normal traffic.
  Car parking at Padstow, Wadebridge and Poley's Bridge allow the trail to be broken into 5-mile (8 km) sections for shorter rides.
  There were efforts in the 1990s to convert the northern part of the cycleway back into a railway, part of the Bodmin and Wenford Railway a heritage line, to carry china clay traffic again. This was rejected on the grounds that the cycleway provides more benefits to the local community than removing heavy lorries from the local narrow winding roads, many of which have had to be converted to one-way operation in order to allow them to carry the lorry traffic. The railway still has a long term aim to extend its operations from Boscarne Junction to Guineaport at Wadebridge alongside the cycleway.
  In 2006 two extensions to the trail were completed. The first was from Scarlett’s Well car park in Bodmin up into the town. The second was from Poley's Bridge near St Breward to Wenfordbridge through the old clay dries, which was made possible by Imerys donating the land.
caption: Approaching Padstow, the Camel Trail crosses Petherick Creek on this bridge which formerly carried the North Cornwall Railway
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