Council funds Broadway car park

Wychavon Council has agreed to fund the £650,000 cost of building a car park for the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s new station at Broadway.


A GWSR engineering train calls at Broadway station for the first time since the station was closed to passengers by BR in March 1960. The original station was demolished three years later. GWSR

Ahead of the station’s opening on March 30, council members unanimously agreed at a meeting on January 10 to fund the car park, which will be built on a stretch of land alongside the railway between Evesham Road and Childswickham Road. The money also includes funding for a pedestrian crossing over Evesham Road to allow pedestrian access to the railway’s new terminus, which is on the opposite side of the road.

Linda Robinson, Leader of the Council, said: “It’s a great news story – Wychavon is very happy to support it. It’s a wonderful way to bring tourism into the district and there is the potential for the track to go even further than Broadway.”

The new car park is hoped to be completed in early August 2018, meaning that there will be no car parking when the station opens at the end of March. The railway is urging passengers to begin their journey either at Cheltenham Racecourse or Toddington stations.

GWSR Finance Director Chris Bristow said: “The railway is transferring ownership of the land on the west side of the railway between Broadway Road and Childswickham Road to Wychavon and they will build a car park for which they receive the income from parking fees. The (railway) Board has agreed that part of the cost of parking will be refunded to passengers who start their journey at Broadway.”

The ‘GlosWarks’ recently completed its extension to Broadway, with the last rails connected on December 23. The first train to call at Broadway since the station closed in 1960 ran over the newly commissioned extension later that day.

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