Cheltenham Spa railway station

Cheltenham Spa railway station is a railway station serving the Cotswold town of Cheltenham Spa, England. The station is located on the main Bristol-Birmingham line; however the station is not situated right in the town centre. In the past there were 7 stations in Cheltenham: St. James', Lansdown, Charlton Kings, and others.

1 Current services and station facilitates
2 Greater Western franchise new timetable from December 2006
3 Further service changes at Cheltenham
4 External links

[edit] Current services and station facilitates

The station is served by several operators:

First Great Western operate an hourly Cheltenham-Swindon with 2-hourly extensions to London Paddington. These services are provided via the Golden Valley Line of Stonehouse, Stroud and Kemble
First Great Western also operate local hourly Taunton-Cheltenham services, some of which are extended to and from Great Malvern
Virgin Trains serve the town with services to Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance to the south, and Birmingham, Leeds, York, Edinburgh, Manchester and Glasgow among other destinations to the north
Central Trains serve the town as part of their Cardiff-Nottingham Citylink service

Cheltenham Spa station is served on Mondays to Fridays by:

about 8 trains every hour
a 2-hourly service to/from Ashchurch for Tewkesbury, Worcester & Great Malvern
an hourly service to/from Swindon with 2-hourly extensions to London
an hourly service to/from Taunton & Bristol
an hourly service to/from Cardiff & Nottingham
a half-hourly cross-country service operated by Virgin Trains
3 trains an hour to/from Gloucester

The station has a ticket office, located just inside the station entrance on the car-park side, which is open for most of the day 7 days a week.

There is another ticket office at the top of the stairs of platform 2 for northbound trains, open in the morning peak Monday-Friday selling tickets for the day's travel.

Ticket machines can be found at the top of the stairs on platform 1 and inside the booking hall.

Snacks and drinks are available on both platforms.

[edit] Greater Western franchise new timetable from December 2006

First Great Western's timetable changes have brought in a number of improvements for train services at Cheltenham, including:

A new hourly clockface timetable between Cheltenham & Swindon, with trains every 2 hours during the day continuing to Reading & London, thus also giving an extra train an hour to/from Gloucester. This timetable also gives Stonehouse, Stroud & Kemble a solid hourly train.
All Weston-Super-Mare to Great Malvern local journeys will extend to Taunton with some to Exeter, giving an hourly service at Highbridge & Burnham & Bridgwater. A constant 2-hourly timetable to Ashchurch, Worcester & Great Malvern has been kept. A new hourly-clockface service at Cam & Dursley has also been introduced.

[edit] Further service changes at Cheltenham

In 2007, the Central Trains franchise will end and will be split up into the Cross Country Franchise route and other routes as well. Further changes to services can be expected then.

[edit] External links

Train times and station information for Cheltenham Spa railway station from National Rail
Map and aerial photo of Cheltenham Spa railway station from Multimap.com

Preceding station		Following station
Gloucester	Central Trains Cardiff-Nottingham	Ashchurch for Tewkesbury
Gloucester	First Great Western Intercity services Golden Valley Line	Terminus
Gloucester	First Great Western Local services Taunton/Exeter - Great Malvern	Ashchurch for Tewkesbury
Gloucester	First Great Western Local services Golden Valley Line	Terminus
Gloucester	First Great Western Local services Cheltenham-Swindon-Westbury	Terminus
Gloucester 1 train a day to/from Gloucester	Virgin Trains Cross-Country Route	Birmingham New Street
Bristol Parkway	Virgin Trains Cross-Country Route	Birmingham New Street

Railway stations in Gloucestershire
Mainline:	Cheltenham Spa - Gloucester
On the Golden Valley Line:	Kemble - Stonehouse - Stroud
On the Bristol-Birmingham Line:	Ashchurch for Tewkesbury - Cam and Dursley
Others:	Lydney - Moreton-in-Marsh
Heritage railway stations in Gloucestershire
Dean Forest Railway:	Lydney Junction - Lydney Town - Norchard - Parkend - St Mary's Halt - Whitecroft
Glos-Warks Railway:	Cheltenham Racecourse - Gotherington - Toddington - Winchcombe
Railway stations in Gloucestershire