Cheltenham Spa railway station

Cheltenham Spa

Cheltenham Spa station

Location

Place

Cheltenham

Local authority

Cheltenham

Grid reference

SO931220

Operations

Station code

CNM

Managed by

First Great Western

Number of platforms

Live arrivals/departures and station information
from National Rail Enquiries

Annual rail passenger usage

2002/03 *

0.881 million

2004/05 *

1.036 million

2005/06 *

1.128 million

2006/07 *

1.206 million

2007/08 *

1.338 million

2008/09 *

1.529 million

2009/10 *

1.599 million

History

Original company

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway

Pre-grouping

Midland Railway

Post-grouping

LMS

24 June 1840

Opened as Cheltenham

1 February 1925

Renamed Cheltenham Spa (Lansdown)

Renamed Cheltenham Spa

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Cheltenham Spa from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

UK Railways portal

Cheltenham Spa railway station is in Gloucestershire, England, on the Bristol-Birmingham main line. It is managed by First Great Western and is about one mile from the town centre.

1 History
2 Services
3 Future plans
4 References

History

Railways around Cheltenham

Legend

to Birmingham

Cheltenham Racecourse

Cheltenham High Street Halt

Cheltenham High Street

Cheltenham St James

Cheltenham Malvern Road

Cheltenham Lansdown

Cheltenham Leckhampton

to Banbury

to Gloucester

The first railway to Cheltenham was the broad-gauge Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway (C&GWUR), authorised by Act of Parliament in 1836, and opened between Cheltenham and Gloucester in 1840. In the same year the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) opened its line between Cheltenham and Bromsgrove, whence trains ran on mixed-gauge tracks to Gloucester. Both railways had their own stations in the town, and the principal one, Cheltenham Spa (Lansdown), named from the principal road in the area, is the only one remaining, although without its secondary title. It was opened by the B&GR on 24 June 1840; was renamed Cheltenham Spa (Lansdown) on 1 February 1925 by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and again renamed Cheltenham Spa by British Railways at some point after 1 January 1948.^[1]

The C&GWUR was taken over by the Great Western Railway in 1844, and the B&GR by the Midland Railway in 1846. Within the town there were three other passenger railway stations: Malvern Road, St James's and Cheltenham South and Leckhampton; there was also High Street Halt and the Racecourse Platform, open only on race days.

Cheltenham Spa Malvern Road West Signal Box, and its east equivalent, had the longest namesigns on the GWR.

Services

Cheltenham Spa station has a staffed ticket office and two passenger-operated cash-and-card self-service ticket machines. There is a buffet on southbound platform 1, and extensive car parking. The station is served by approx 8 to 12 trains every hour during the daytime on Mondays to Saturdays (less frequent on Sundays).

First Great Western operate approx hourly Cheltenham Spa/Gloucester/Stonehouse/Stroud/Kemble/Swindon services, some (operated by InterCity 125 High Speed Trains) extended to Reading & London Paddington. A small number of these services extend beyond Cheltenham Spa to/from Worcester; a few extend at the Swindon end via Melksham to Westbury and beyond.

First Great Western also operates local services on the Bristol (Temple Meads/Parkway), Yate, Cam & Dursley, Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa route, most extending north to Ashchurch/Worcester (and some beyond there to Great Malvern). South of Bristol, many services operate through from stations on the Bristol TM/Bath Spa/Westbury route continuing to Weymouth, Salisbury/Southampton or Portsmouth/Brighton.

CrossCountry Trains serve Cheltenham Spa on two routes, the Cardiff/Gloucester/Cheltenham Spa/University/Birmingham/Nottingham service and the longer-distance Penzance/Cheltenham Spa/Aberdeen route, giving Cheltenham excellent and frequent rail connections to Birmingham, Manchester, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Arriva Trains Wales operate approx. hourly with a Maesteg via Bridgend, Cardiff & Newport to Chepstow/Lydney/Gloucester/Cheltenham Spa service.

Stagecoach in Cheltenham Bus Service D serves the station forecourt, providing a very regular link to Cheltenham Town Centre which is approx 2km to the North-East.

The London Midland Worcester to Gloucester service was discontinued from the start of the December 2009 railway timetable due to low passenger usage.

Preceding station	National Rail		Following station
Gloucester		Arriva Trains Wales Maesteg - Cheltenham	Terminus
Gloucester		CrossCountry Cardiff - Nottingham	University or Ashchurch for Tewkesbury or Bromsgrove
Bristol Parkway or Gloucester		CrossCountry Cross-Country Route	Birmingham New Street
Gloucester		First Great Western Cheltenham - London/Swindon	Terminus
Gloucester		First Great Western Great Malvern - Westbury	Ashchurch for Tewkesbury
	Historical railways
Churchdown Line open, station closed		Midland Railway Birmingham and Gloucester Railway	Cheltenham High Street Line open, station closed
	Disused railways
Leckhampton Line and station closed		Great Western Railway Midland and South Western Junction Railway	Terminus
	Proposed Heritage railways
Terminus		Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway	Cheltenham Malvern Road Line and station closed

Future plans

Gloucestershire County Council are currently proposing a new station called Gloucestershire Parkway railway station. Local fears were that this would severely impact services to Cheltenham Spa; as of August 2011^[update], the project is currently shelved.

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (which currently terminates at Cheltenham Racecourse some few miles away) intend (after a further couple of years) to eventually extend to a new heritage platform or two (next door to the mainline station), to where it could interchange with services on the Cross-Country Route which runs by.