Rail strikes and new road layout may lead to heavier festival traffic warns Cheltenham

Cheltenham is warning racegoers to anticipate heavier traffic at the festival due to rail strikes and the partial closure of a key road from the course.

Evesham Road, which links the racecourse to the town, will be shut southbound from 4pm to 8pm after racing to allow a wider route for pedestrians exiting the track. 

Congestion is expected to be at its worst on the Thursday of the festival, March 16, when there is a rail strike. National Express is offering a festival-specific coach service, operating from as far as London, Liverpool, Swansea and Leeds.

The partial closure of the road will be among a number of measures taken to tackle anti-social behaviour as part of the track's Love Our Turf campaign, with temporary toilets and stewarding on the route.

With the Evesham Road restricted to northbound-travel only, it means motorists exiting the course will have to travel up to the crossing towards Bishops Cleeve before heading left or right to return to the town. The crossing is just over three miles north of the town centre but the new route reportedly worked well when tested at the November meeting. The B4075, east of the racecourse roundabout, will also be shut from 4pm to 8pm to allow for a new taxi rank and bus pick-up point.

Around 250,000 are expected to attend the meeting across the four days, with Gold Cup day on the Friday set to reach full capacity of 68,500, more than double the attendance for the busiest day in November.

Cheltenham's assistant general manager Andre Klein said: "We’re hoping it [the road closure] should be all right. In November it worked quite well. Our biggest concern is we’re expecting a lot more traffic because of the rail strikes. We’ve got the National Express buses so that, fingers crossed, will ease some of the pressure but ultimately people have to calmly anticipate that it’s going to take them a bit longer.

"The road closures remain the same as November. You'll only be able to go northbound on the Evesham Road. People coming up will go towards Bishops Cleeve, then go to the traffic lights, where they can go left into town or via Southam.

"In reality, that road is basically always closed because of the amount of people walking on it after racing. We’ll put a water barrier all the way down the middle so pedestrians will be on the one side and vehicles on the other. Some of the local residents have expressed concern but we’ve put gaps in some of the barriers and the stewards are there to help and have the ability to reverse the traffic." 

The campaign to crackdown on anti-social behaviour comes following a number of complaints from residents last year,  with racegoers reportedly publicly urinating in front gardens and Pittville Park and confronting motorists. The local police said there were no incidents for the three-day campaign trial at the November meeting.

The Love Our Turf campaign was launched in November with postcards given to residents and hospitality businesses while the slogan 'be considerate racegoers' will be on flags and the side of buses.

Klein said. "We’ve got a significant number of stewards and we’ve stepped up the number of volunteers that are helping out. We’ll have litter picking and a lot more temporary toilets too. Everyone we’ve discussed it with in the town is fully supportive. I really hope it’s an improvement but it’s never easy getting 68,500 people out of an event."

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