All roads, rail tracks and flight paths lead to Cheltenham Festival next week

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From thisisgloucestershire:

Whether travelling by air, rail or road ^ Cheltenham will be the destination for thousands of racegoers next week.

Punters dreaming of backing a winner at the four-day flagship National Hunt festival will be descending on the town from all over the world from Monday.

CrossCountry trains, the official travel partner of the event, has launched a campaign to get people off the roads and on rails for the world-famous event which runs from Tuesday to Friday.

Gold Cup winning jockey, Sam Thomas, who will be in action at the festival, has turned his attentions to those using a different form of horse power next week. He said: "Getting there via the road network can take a long time. We are encouraging people to travel smart and take advantage of the extra services being put on for the festival."

In the last three years CrossCountry says it has encouraged more than 45,000 racegoers to switch to the train by putting on extra services.

With more trains running from Birmingham, Bristol and Derby as well as 94 regular services running into Cheltenham, it is expecting to ferry almost 15,000 race-goers over the four days.

Those travelling by rail are also being advised to avoid queuing at Cheltenham Railway Station by buying a 'bus add on' ticket online.

Stagecoach West is expecting to ferry nearly 70,000 people back and forth from the town centre and railway station to the racecourse during the festival.

[anthony215]

I think if the gloucestershire & warickshire railway eventually reached honeybourne and get a a mainline  connection then maybe some special could run to cheltenham racecourse , would certainly bring a bit of extra cash to the railway

[IndustryInsider]

The usual thinned out service from London to Cardiff as a result.

[inspector_blakey]

From thisisgloucestershire:

Those travelling by rail are also being advised to avoid queuing at Cheltenham Railway Station by buying a 'bus add on' ticket online.

Or a PlusBus ticket, as it's known. Heaven forbid that the mee-ja (or whichever press office is principally responsible for this puff-piece) should actually give the readers the correct name of the ticket to help them find it.

[willc]

I think if the gloucestershire & warickshire railway eventually reached honeybourne and get a a mainline  connection then maybe some special could run to cheltenham racecourse , would certainly bring a bit of extra cash to the railway

They have run charter trains for racing fans from Toddington during festival week since the line reopened to the racecourse station but will miss out this year. And getting to Broadway is now years away, never mind Honeybourne. The cost of rebuilding the second failed embankment at Winchcombe is crippling

A little bit of good news is that the extension from Toddington to Laverton will open at the start of April http://www.gwsr.com/news/latest-news/countdown-to-opening-^-2nd-april-at-toddington.aspx