Golden Valley Line

The Golden Valley Line is a railway line from Swindon to Standish Junction, which is just south of Gloucester, UK. Most passenger services continue beyond Gloucester to Cheltenham Spa.

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.
*Swindon
*Kemble
*Stroud
*Stonehouse
*Gloucester (reverse)
*Cheltenham Spa

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 had plans to put back the second track in September 2008, then September 2009, but it is now before the Office of Rail Regulation. The O.R.R. has made a preliminary decision that it will not be included in the 2009-2014 HLOS plan for new rail infrastructure, but are accepting submissions until 4 September 2008 on including it in the five-year plan. Partial Oxford-to-Worcester redoubling was included in the plan. A Parliamentary debate was held on the redoubling of Swindon-Kemble on 30 June 2008. A copy of the debate is at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2008-06-30a.703.0&m=1494. Gloucestershire Transport has an ongoing discussion on the Swindon-Kemble redoubling at: http://www.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/boards/index.php?showtopic=2035 It includes (in post #106) the address of O.R.R. for those interested in submitting comments on the redoubling. There is also an e-petiton on the prime minister's website in support of the re-doubling [http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/goldenvalleyline here]

ee also

* For fuller details of the earlier stations on this line see the article on the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway and also http://homepage.ntlworld.com/davidlloyd/CGWURLYHOME.htm