Rail and road disruption planned for same weekend

Railway passengers travelling through Gloucestershire are being urged to plan ahead of rail improvement work which is due to coincide with roadworks.

Great Western Railway said it would run replacement road transport between Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa or Worcester Foregate Street, plus to and from Birmingham New Street, on the weekends of 10/11 and 17/18 October.

The work coincides with Cheltenham Literature festival, which is due to take place between 9 and 18 October, a weekend closure of the M5 and A417 and the start of work at Almondsbury Interchange, just south of Gloucestershire, near Bristol.

Great Western Railway said the work was important to maintain rail services for passengers.

Network Rail will carry out the work, which will entail track renewals in the Cheltenham and Tewkesbury areas as well as track maintenance work in the Worcester area.

The work would help maintain reliable train services on the routes for those travelling between Gloucester and Worcester for the years to come, Great Western Railway said.

"We know that disruption to journeys is never welcome, especially at weekends, and we are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause," Chloe Coglan, from Great Western Railway, said.

"We would encourage customers to plan ahead, as the alternative travel arrangements are likely to lengthen the usual journey times."

Great Western Railway said it would still operate trains between Gloucester and Swindon or London Paddington as well as between Gloucester and Bristol Temple Meads or Westbury.

For those opting to travel by road instead, the A417 was due to shut between the Shab Hill junction and A429 Burford Road from 23:00 BST on 9 October to 06:00 on 12 October.

Just outside of the county, the M4/M5 Almondsbury Interchange works are due to start on 11 October.

A section of the interchange from junction 20 of the M4 westbound to junction 15 of the M5 northbound will be closed until December.

Traffic will be diverted via the M5 southbound from junction 16, which is expected to be "under extra pressure", National Highways said.

The following weekend, the M5 will be closed in both directions between junction 11 (Cheltenham) and junction 12 (Gloucester) overnight to allow for the demolition of two pedestrian bridges over the motorway.

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