Cheltenham Festival travel advice: 16 extra trains every day
Cheltenham Festival goers will benefit from 16 extra trains, helping to provide more than 15,000 seats every single day of next week’s Cheltenham Festival.
Returning for the first time since 2020, the four-day festival between Tuesday 15 and Friday 18 March attracts thousands of horse-racing fans – many choosing to start their journey with a glass of Champagne on board a GWR service from London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa.
With more than 64 extra trains being provided over the course of the week, seven towards the festival and nine away from Cheltenham each day, passengers are reminded that a queueing system will be in place at London Paddington taking customers towards Cheltenham and at Cheltenham Station for the return journey, enabling trains to be boarded safely.
Cheltenham Spa Station Manager Chris Rule said:
“We are delighted to be able to welcome back passengers to the Cheltenham Festival, but after a couple of years away we might need to remind people of some housekeeping.
“We’ll have additional staff on hand to help keep people moving, but a queueing system is needed at the busiest times to help people board trains safely. We’ll always get you on board as quickly as we can, but please do be prepared to have to wait a little bit to get on board.”
- Over 28,000 additional train seats provided over four days
- Over 25 extra toilets provided to help people queueing outside the station
- 15 additional station staff every shift
- 500 crowd control barriers
Trains will depart from London Paddington to Cheltenham at:
- 07:27
- 08:02
- 08:25
- 09:02
- 09:28
23 GWR trains have been timetabled to take race goers home again, towards London; Bristol and Worcester, excluding services provided by other operators.
Passengers are reminded to check for their latest connecting service before they travel.
Notes to editors
First Greater Western Limited, trading as “Great Western Railway” (GWR), operates trains across the Great Western franchise area, which includes South Wales, the West Country, the Cotswolds, across southern England and into London. GWR provides high speed, commuter, regional and branch line train services, and before the covid-19 pandemic helped over 100 million passengers reach their destinations every year. GWR was recently awarded an extension to its direct award franchise (called DA3), which shall run up to 31 March 2023 with an option to extend for a further year.
Find out more here: https://www.gwr.com/about-us
GWR’s enhanced cleaning regime includes:
- A 24% increase in cleaning hours every week since March 2020
- Sanitising (fogging) of 1,120 vehicles every 4 weeks
- Carrying out 2,150 on board surface tests (ATP) every four weeks, to ensure the effectiveness of our cleaning
- 272 train cleaning processes reviewed, and many adapted
- Hand-sanitising facilities at key stations across its network