Plans
As of June 2012, the railway has two major development projects in progress.
- Re-building the second platform at Cheltenham Racecourse Station
- Extension of track northwards from Toddington towards Broadway, with the construction of a new station at Broadway. The railway has so far completed trackwork for the first 2 miles of the new extension to Laverton Halt as part of the extension towards Broadway by 2015.
In 2011, it ran a DMU service from just short of Laverton to as far as Hayles Abbey, while the railway was still cut in two by the land slip at Chicken Curve). Work on Laverton loop is well advanced, as is construction of the first platform at Broadway station.
The water tank at Toddington, replacing the original that stood on the same spot, has been installed and awaits final plumbing before it can be brought into use. Water cranes have been installed at the end of both platforms.
In the long term, plans could include a southern extension to link up to the national rail network at the nearby mainline station in Cheltenham Spa via a proposed Cheltenham North (serving a nearby stadium), and extensions further north towards Honeybourne and possibly may eventually Stratford Racecourse in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
The extension as far as Honeybourne has been facilitated by the upgrade of the Cotswold Line to double track. A new third platform at Honeybourne station has been provided which will allow services from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway to re-connect with National Rail services.
However, extensions to the ends of the closed sections of line at Stratford and Cheltenham are impossible at present. The trackbed to Stratford is blocked by a road, and the trackbed through Cheltenham, while mostly intact, is in need of expensive rehabilitation and reconstruction, with the primary impediment being a bowstring bridge, unusable by rail, near the Waitrose store built on the site of the old St. James station.
At present the extension to Broadway has so far reached Laverton Halt, where a bridge has been reinstated. The former GWR station at Broadway is being rebuilt. As of June 2012, the section of line towards the Broadway station site is likely to re-open the same time as the station site itself, which appears likely to reopen about either spring or summer of 2015.
Read more about this topic: Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
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