Cheltenham Spa — Local services in Cheltenham

A friend and I had booked tickets to take our three children to London for the day on Tuesday (22/8/17) morning. We allowed half an hour before our train departure to get parked and print our tickets from the machine. Unfortunately, upon arriving at 10am for the 10:36am train, there was not a single space to be found in the station car park. We drove round for what seemed like ages, as did other desperate and exasperated passengers. As a last resort we drove around the neighbouring residential area but this has been recently converted to 100% permit parking. What do Cheltenham Borough council actually expect people to do???? We eventually missed our train for which we had specific tickets. A fantastic chap called Robin who works on the platform must have sensed my impending hysteria because having returned to the station and gone in (just to confirm that we had indeed missed the train, still with no parking space) he took amazing care of us. Firstly he tipped us off on some untouched free residential parking on the other side of the station, then sorted us out on the next train to Paddington without any extra charge and also gave us £15 of food/drink vouchers to spend at the station cafe. He is an absolute gem and turned our day from a potential disaster into a great experience. However, the situation with parking still needs to be resolved. Customers cannot be expected to experience the stress and upset which we endured on Tuesday morning. It is NOT the fault of station staff yet they must have to deal with furious and emotional members of the public on a daily basis. This unholy mess has been caused by the greedy (and lacking in insight) team of idiots at CBC. When they created the extensive permit parking in the surrounding area they didn't take into account that the station car park has never managed to accommodate the volume of cars the station experiences. Least of all in the school holidays and that the result is that train passengers have no choice but to look for parking close by. So, having practically written my life story here; my review is 5* because this is a review of the station and its staff who are not responsible for the ridiculous parking situation. Furthermore, my advice to anyone wishing to park at the station is; DON'T! Get a...

A very busy...but very small railway station...but despite it's diminutive size it manages about 2 million passengers each year.Direct trains to London,Cardiff,Edinburgh Bristol, Birmingham and many popular destinations in the West of England including Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance. On the platform 1 is a Pumpkins cafe and newsstand. Immediately outside the station there are 2 good Cafe's...Madison's...for good coffee and delicious home made cakes and biscuits. Close by is the Green Coffee shop...excellent comprehensive range of Barista made coffee. Very close by is a Domino's Pizza take out, the excellent Popeyes Fish & Chip shop and a Barbers shop. There is a very busy Tesco Express store directly opposite the station entrance, open from 6am to 11pm daily. If you need a place to stay overnight...the recently renovated Midland Hotel is right opposite the rear station exit. Getting into Cheltenham town centre (about 1 mile) from the station is multi choice.Taxis always available immediately outside the front entrance to the station. Bus D runs to Cheltenham town centre approximately every 15 minutes from around 6.30 am until around 11pm. Walking from the station to the town centre takes about 20 minutes using the trafficless Honeybourne Way foot/cycle path...dotted with exercise apparatus and...

This is a lovely old building. Trains run regularly. There's a cafe, ladies & gents loos, and a ramp for wheelchair access/exit & for easier transporting of heavy bulky luggage ect on platform 1. Then you have clean, spacious, comfy & warm waiting rooms on platform 1 & platform 2. Platform 2 also has a ramp for same use as one on P1. Gated {manned p/t} entrances from Gloucester Road & Queens Road. Large car park with ANPR cameras & varied fees depending on time parked. NOT run by GWR rail. There's a public phone, Cash point machine, Bus stop running a regular service to Town and Bishops Cleeve & a Taxi Rank outside main entrance. In Customer Assistance office on upper level of station just inside main entrance, you'll usually find knowledgeable GWR staff for help with train times, journey advice and disabled assistance & more. There's a handy 8 port USB charging block on the front of the counter, so you can charge mobile phones ect a little or a lot. Cheltenham Spa Station, it's customers & staff are kept safe by G4S Security Officers, who are willing to help you in any way if able. All in all quite a nice experience as long as the trains are running...