Trail transport
Kemble (KEM) is the trailhead station and sits about 2 km from the source at Trewsbury Mead, roughly 650 m off the line where the path passes closest. It is on Great Western Railway's Swindon to Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham route, so it is reachable direct from London Paddington and from Swindon.
Kemble (KEM) is the trailhead station and sits about 2 km from the source at Trewsbury Mead, roughly 650 m off the line where the path passes closest. It is on Great Western Railway's Swindon to Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham route, so it is reachable direct from London Paddington and from Swindon. Practical detail worth knowing before you arrive: the ticket office opens Monday to Friday 06:30 to 13:00 and Saturday 07:30 to 14:00 and is closed on Sunday, and the station is step-free category B2 with the Gloucester-bound platform reached by local roads and footpaths rather than a bridge or lift. There is a 24-hour car park run by APCOA. From the air, the National Trail team name Bristol Airport (BRS) for the western end, but for most people the workable airport route is Heathrow (LHR) and the RailAir RA1 coach to Reading station, which runs up to every twenty minutes and takes about forty minutes, then GWR westward through Swindon to Kemble. Beaumont Travel service 55 is reported to call at Kemble station on runs to Cirencester, Northleach, Bourton-on-the-Water and Moreton-in-Marsh, which is the only bus link at this end, but that comes from a search snippet rather than the operator's own page and needs confirming.
The finish is the best-served trail end in Britain. Within about a mile of the Thames Barrier there are four stations: Charlton (CTN) is the closest at roughly 1 km, Woolwich Dockyard (WWD) about 1.3 km, and a little further east Woolwich Arsenal (WWA) on Southeastern and the DLR, and Woolwich (WWC) on the Elizabeth line. The Elizabeth line is the quickest way back into central London and runs through to Paddington, which is where the Kemble train leaves from, so getting from the finish back to the start end is one cross-London ride and one GWR train. Uber Boat by Thames Clippers has a pier at Woolwich (Royal Arsenal) and runs to 24 piers between Barking Riverside in the east and Putney in the west, on every day of the year apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which makes the boat a genuine alternative rather than a novelty. The Woolwich Ferry to North Woolwich is free for foot passengers. London City Airport (LCY) is close enough to walk to in principle and is a few DLR stops from Woolwich Arsenal via King George V, which is unusual for the end of a long-distance path.
Both ends sit on the national rail network and the connection between them is a single journey through London, so this is the National Trail where bringing a car buys you least. If you do drive, the one long-stay arrangement confirmed at the start is the APCOA car park at Kemble station: 327 spaces, open 24 hours, CCTV and staff patrols, with monthly, quarterly and annual season tickets sold alongside the daily tariff. APCOA publish no maximum stay for it, so ring them before leaving a car for three weeks rather than assuming. There is no equivalent at the Woolwich end and none was found, which means a car left at Kemble has to be returned to by train anyway. Oxford station is the other confirmed long-stay option mid-route, with a 230-space main APCOA car park open 24 hours and season tickets, which suits anyone splitting the walk at Oxford. Nothing was established for Lechlade, Cricklade, Abingdon or Wallingford, and none of those towns has a station car park because none of them has a station. Many people book the walk as a package instead: the trail's own walking holidays page lists fifteen operators who will arrange accommodation and move bags.
One thing first, because it is the only place on this trail where the route itself depends on a transport operator. The official Thames Path crosses the mouth of the Wey on the Nauticalia ferry between Shepperton and Weybridge, near km 228. It runs every fifteen minutes on request from 09:00 to 17:30 daily between March and October, and from November to February it runs at weekends only. If it is not running, the National Trail's own alternative is a mainly road route north via Walton Bridge, which is a longer and duller way round. A winter weekday walker should plan for the road route rather than turn up at the slipway and ring the bell. Now the general picture. This is the defining transport fact of the Thames Path, and it is two different answers at the two ends. Downstream of Oxford, effectively every day finishes within walking distance of a station, and it is the easiest National Trail in Britain to walk in sections or to abandon at short notice. The National Trail team put it as good access by train, bus and even boat downstream of Oxford. Upstream of Oxford there is nothing. The national station list holds no station at Cricklade, Lechlade, Abingdon, Wallingford or Cirencester, and Walk the Thames state it plainly: there are no train services to locations between the source and Oxford. That is about 83 km, three to four days of walking, with Kemble at one end and Oxford at the other and no rail in between. The escape from that stretch is a bus to Swindon, which is 9.8 km from Cricklade and 15.8 km from Lechlade in a straight line: Stagecoach West 51 from Cricklade, and Pulhams 64 or Stagecoach West 77 from Lechlade. Longworth is the worst point on the whole path for this, 13.4 km from Oxford station with nothing closer, though the X15 calls at Standlake about 4 km north and runs to Oxford rail station daily and late. Two towns downstream look like exceptions and are not: Abingdon lost its station and is served instead from Radley (3.0 km) or Culham (3.5 km), and Wallingford is served from Cholsey (3.9 km) or by the Thames Travel X40 bus. In London the boat is a real bail-out as well as the trains, because Uber Boat piers sit directly on the path.
The trailhead station. About 2 km on foot to the source at Trewsbury Mead, and the path passes roughly 650 m from the station. GWR services towards Swindon and London Paddington one way, Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham the other. Step-free category B2, with the Gloucester-bound platform reached by local roads and footpaths. Ticket office Mon to Fri 06:30 to 13:00, Sat 07:30 to 14:00, closed Sun. 24-hour APCOA car park.
Year-round.The railhead for the whole rail-free upper section. 9.8 km from Cricklade and 15.8 km from Lechlade in a straight line, connected by Stagecoach West 51 to Cricklade and by Pulhams 64 to Lechlade. GWR main line to London Paddington and to Bristol.
Year-round.The point where the trail joins the railway and stays with it. 1.8 km from the path at Binsey and about 180 m off the line where it passes closest. GWR to London Paddington and Didcot, CrossCountry north and south, Chiltern to Marylebone. APCOA station car park, 230 spaces, 24 hours, season tickets available.
Year-round.The nearest station to Abingdon, 3.0 km away, since Abingdon itself has none. About 1.2 km off the path.
Year-round.3.5 km from Abingdon and about 1 km off the path. Walk the Thames note that Culham and Appleford are both some way from the path, so they are section-start stations rather than doorstep ones.
Year-round.The mainline station for Wallingford, 3.9 km away, since the Wallingford station on the map is the heritage Cholsey and Wallingford Railway and not a scheduled service. About 1.5 km off the path.
Year-round.On the path at the Goring Gap, about 550 m off the line. Thames Travel 134 runs from here to Wallingford via Cleeve, South Stoke and North Stoke, which is the useful link into the one stretch below Oxford without its own station.
Year-round.About 380 m off the path and 3.2 km from Purley on Thames.
Year-round.