The world-renowned Cheltenham Festival runs from Tuesday the 15th to Friday the 19th of March 2022. Thousands of racegoers will be making their way over to the meet by train from Birmingham and are being advised to:

• Plan their journeys
• Check before they travel, and
• Allow extra time to catch their train

David Pinder, head of stations for Network Rail‘s Central route, said:

“We’re really looking forward to welcoming festival-goers back to Birmingham New Street this week after Covid restrictions meant last year’s meet was called off.

“I’ve got three top tips for passengers travelling to Cheltenham: firstly, plan ahead and know what train you’re planning to get before the day of the races. Secondly, make sure you check your journey before travelling and finally allow more time than you might do usually to get on the train – there may be queuing systems in place at busy times.”

Extra staff will be available at Birmingham New Street station for the period of the festival in order to support passengers.

Planning by the station team has been underway for weeks to prepare for the thousands of extra passengers using the station to travel to Cheltenham Racecourse.

A queuing system is possibly going to be used for extremely busy periods, however, fans won’t need to wait for long as regular direct services to Cheltenham Spa have been put in place.

Passengers can check their journeys and find up to date travel information via: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk