| Golden Valley Line | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Type | Heavy rail |
| System | National Rail |
| Status | Operational |
| Locale | Gloucestershire Wiltshire South West England |
| Operation | |
| Owner | Network Rail |
| Operator(s) | Arriva Trains Wales CrossCountry First Great Western |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) Standard gauge |
The Golden Valley Line is a railway line from Swindon to Cheltenham in the UK.
The line was originally built as the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway in the 1840s. It diverges from the Great Western Main Line at Swindon and (after going through the Sapperton railway tunnel and down the Golden Valley to Stroud), joins the main Bristol to Birmingham main line at Gloucester, having run parallel with the former Midland line from just north of Stonehouse. The intermediate towns served by the route are listed below.
Kemble railway station used to a be a former junction for two branch lines serving Cirencester and Tetbury. Both of these lines closed in the 1960s and the Swindon-Kemble section of the line was reduced to single track. Today, Kemble station is mainly used by commuters from Cirencester.
Local passenger services between Swindon and Cheltenham are currently operated by First Great Western. Services are approximately hourly but with some gaps. These are filled by express services from London Paddington to Cheltenham (via the Golden Valley), which are operated by First Great Western.
The part of the line between Swindon and Kemble is single track, the second track having been lifted in the summer of 1968 by British Rail. At that time it was intended that the whole of the line between Swindon and Standish Junction would be single track only but protests caused British Rail to abandon the project after reaching Kemble. Network Rail proposed to put back the second track in September 2008, then September 2009, but the plans were referred to the Office of Rail Regulation. Despite protests by local MPs[1], the ORR made a preliminary decision that it would not be included in the 2009-2014 HLOS plan for new rail infrastructure.[2] In the 2011 Budget the government announced that funding for the redoubling was to be made available, with works reported to be completed by Spring 2014.[3]
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