Cheltenham Spa railway station is a railway station serving Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, England. Situated on the Bristol-Birmingham main line, it is managed by Great Western Railway (despite most services being operated by CrossCountry, which does not manage any stations) and is about one mile from the town centre. The official name of the town is simply Cheltenham, but, when the station was renamed in 1925, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway chose to add Spa to the station name. The station is a key regional interchange and is the fifth busiest rail station in South West England. History The first railway to Cheltenham was the broad-gauge Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway (C&GWUR), authorised by Act of Parliament in 1836, and opened between Cheltenham and Gloucester in 1840. In the same year, the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) opened its line between Cheltenham and Bromsgrove, whence trains ran on mixed-gauge tracks to Gloucester. Both railways had their own stations, but the B&GR station, which was then on the edge of the town and was named Lansdown after a housing development in that area, is the only one remaining. The buildings were designed by the architect Samuel Daukes and the station was opened by the B&GR on 24 June 1840 as Lansdown. The C&GWUR was taken over by the Great Western Railway in 1844, and the B&GR by the Midland Railway in 1846. Within the town, there were three other passenger railway stations: Malvern Road, St James's and Cheltenham South and Leckhampton; there was also High Street Halt and the Racecourse Platform, open only on race days. From 1892 there was a route from Cheltenham to the docks at Southampton, via Andoversford and the Midland and South Western Junction Railway. The station was renamed Cheltenham Spa (Lansdown) on 1 February 1925 by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and renamed again as Cheltenham Spa by British Railways at some point after 1 January 1948. Stationmasters William Turnbull 1844–1872 (discharged for failing to report his ticket collector for fraud) Joseph Vizard Bendall 1872–1900 (formerly station master at Harpenden) Henry Ward 1900–1907 (afterwards station master at Bedford) Horace E. Horne 1907–1909 (formerly station master at Harpenden) Charles Williams 1910–1913 (formerly station master at Hay) G.Preston Heggs 1913–1914 (afterwards station master at Sheffield) Henry Pitt 1914-1918 (formerly station master at Rushden) Arthur Ernest Chandler 1918–1928 (afterwards station master at Burton upon Trent) John Richard