The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway was a railway company intended to link Cheltenham, Gloucester and Swindon, in England. It was authorised in 1836 but it found it very hard to raise money for the construction, and it opened only a part of its line, between Swindon and Cirencester, in 1841. It sold its business to the Great Western Railway, which quickly built the line through to Gloucester in 1845 and Cheltenham in 1847; part of that route was shared with other companies.
From 1903 the route introduced railmotors, small self-powered coaches, that enabled the opening of numerous low-cost passenger stopping places.
The Cirencester branch (as it had become) closed in 1964 but most of the 1845 network is still in use as a main passenger line between Swindon and Gloucester.
Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway
The first railway in the Cheltenham area was the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway, authorised by Parliament in 1809. It was operated as a horse-operated plateway of gauge, chiefly intended to bring building stone down from quarries at Leckhampton, and to carry coal and other supplies from the docks then under construction at Gloucester. Cheltenham was growing in importance due to the supposed healthy qualities of the waters, which encouraged well-to-do residents to settle there. The line opened in 1811.
Great Western Railway
In 1835 the Great Western Railway was incorporated, to build a trunk railway from London to Bristol. The engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the line was to be built on the broad gauge and it would use locomotive power. It opened through Swindon on 17 December 1840, although at first there was no Swindon station.
Birmingham and Gloucester Railway
Birmingham promoters could see that if they could build a railway from their city to Gloucester, onward river-borne transport would connect with Bristol, at the time an important port serving the transatlantic trade. They were successful in promoting the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, which obtained its authorising Act of Parliament on 22 April 1836.
Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway authorised
Even before the Great Western Railway had been authorised, people in Cheltenham had determined to promote a line from Cheltenham through Gloucester and Stroud to join the planned Great Western Railway near Swindon; they appointed Isambard Kingdom Brunel as their engineer, and he advised that a suitable line could be built. Enthusiasm was weak in Gloucester, which was already connected to Bristol by water, and which was planning expansion to its docks. The cost of construction of the line would be £750,000.
Accordingly they submitted a Bill for the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway in the 1836 session of Parliament. It was passed on 21 June 1836, with authorised capital of £750,000. It is likely that stationary steam engines were intended to work the steepest gradient near Sapperton Tunnel.
The line was from Cheltenham, and from Gloucester, joining just east of there, to Swindon, with a branch to Cirencester. The proposed alignment of the C&GWUR and the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway was almost identical between Gloucester and Cheltenham, and the two companies, being authorised in the same session of Parliament, agreed a collaborative arrangement. The C&GWUR was to make the half of the line between Gloucester and Cheltenham that was nearer Gloucester; the Birmingham company was to pay half the cost of construction and have sole control of the line as if they had made it themselves. They were to construct the Gloucester station, and the C&GWUR were to make the Cheltenham station, and both companies could use both stations.
The C&GWUR was destined to be broad gauge, and the Cheltenham to Gloucester line was to be built on the narrow (), but the C&GWUR could lay additional rails for their broad gauge trains, at their own expense. The C&GWUR were obliged to complete their portion near Gloucester in time for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway's opening. Both companies shared the Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramway, already purchased for £35,000 by the Birmingham and Gloucester company; as a plateway its route was unsuitable for use as a main line railway but its advantage was the access it had created to Gloucester Docks.
Squire Gordon of Kemble, near Cirencester, made considerable objection to the railway and had to be bought off with a substantial cash sum in compensation. Moreover he insisted that the railway should pass through his land in a tunnel, and no public station was to be built in his lands.