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Universal UK theme park in Bedford

Nicky Borrill said:
I thought this was impossible....

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Direct Disney to Universal train 'could' be a thing!!!
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I'm afraid again it is, this is the Mayor of Bedford's vision, who evidently does not know about loading gauge restrictions. There is absolutely no chance that SNCF will allow a UK loading gauge train compatable with Midland Main Line tunnel sizes on their TGV lines. There's also no chance that the treasury will fund the reboring/widening of the Midland Mainline tunnels to fit an old (absolutely not the new unless you rebuild the entire line to European loading gauge) Eurostar, or pay to modify the old Eurostar (again the East Coast Mainline modified sets are long scrapped) sets to fit.

It just will not happen, if it was possible we'd have direct Eurostar somewhere useful, like Manchester, instead. Yet we do not, and there are no plans do so even with the European Loading Gauged HS2.

Everything is possible from an engineering standpoint... IF money is no object.
 
Tonkso said:
I'm afraid again it is, this is the Mayor of Bedford's vision, who evidently does not know about loading gauge restrictions. There is absolutely no chance that SNCF will allow a UK loading gauge train compatable with Midland Main Line tunnel sizes on their TGV lines. There's also no chance that the treasury will fund the reboring/widening of the Midland Mainline tunnels to fit an old (absolutely not the new unless you rebuild the entire line to European loading gauge) Eurostar, or pay to modify the old Eurostar (again the East Coast Mainline modified sets are long scrapped) sets to fit.

It just will not happen, if it was possible we'd have direct Eurostar somewhere useful, like Manchester, instead. Yet we do not, and there are no plans do so even with the European Loading Gauged HS2.

Everything is possible from an engineering standpoint... IF money is no object.
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This is in the transport section of the planning application under 'rail.' I would be very surprised if they added that to their documents on the whim of 'the mayor.' Surely if it's not possible, basing your whole transport strategy off a plan that includes this, and presenting that to the government, would be a bit embarrassing. It would make the entire transport strategy void, if they've included this in calculations, when there was zero chance of it happening.

Or maybe they've left it in by mistake, and that explains why there's only the 'figure 3' and no text that actually references figure 3... ;) Maybe they've not based any of their transport strategy on this at all... ;)
 
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The "solid" coaster on the example skyline is presumably the Wicked/Jurassic coaster, unless I've misunderstood things? It looks about 67m tall, so could quite possibly be the first Vekoma hyper coaster? I'm thinking back to the proposed design for Hyperion at Energylandia - it's not the same design, of course, but it may be that "type" of product?
 
This is the best video ive seen so far going through the documents, its an interesting watch if you have the time.


One thing i dont think ive seen yet it what looks like the theme park border, from the plans the red line looks like a service road with some roundabouts at the end to turn around.

IMG_20250720_190614.jpg

Ive added a little note to where they say and i agree looks like the entrance. Considering the concept its interesting how it would fit.

They also discuss the planning timeline.
IMG_20250720_191032.jpg

And i did not realise that in the documents you can see everyone's comments on the project which seem mostly positive.
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Niles said:
This is the best video ive seen so far going through the documents, its an interesting watch if you have the time.


One thing i dont think ive seen yet it what looks like the theme park border, from the plans the red line looks like a service road with some roundabouts at the end to turn around.

View attachment 38734

Ive added a little note to where they say and i agree looks like the entrance. Considering the concept its interesting how it would fit.

They also discuss the planning timeline.
View attachment 38735

And i did not realise that in the documents you can see everyone's comments on the project which seem mostly positive.
View attachment 38736
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Came to post that video... Didn't need to bother.. I agree, their videos are incredible, it was their video that forced the project to go public earlier than planned, such is the quality, and their videos on Epic were incredible too.
 
Crazycoaster said:
£35 for parking is insane 💀
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It is, but that's a pretty standard kind of price in the US so it's not too surprising. It was a trip to the States that made me realise that Merlin wasn't really that bad for parking!

I expect many locals will take advantage and list their driveways on JustPark 😆
 
^ I thought I saw some mention in something official (perhaps those planning docs) that I skim-read, about discounted train/entry tickets (I assumed that meant they'd bundle the train and entry at a lower price than if you bought them separately).

I might have imagined this though?
 
davidm said:
^ I thought I saw some mention in something official (perhaps those planning docs) that I skim-read, about discounted train/entry tickets (I assumed that meant they'd bundle the train and entry at a lower price than if you bought them separately).

I might have imagined this though?
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It'd have to be one hell of a discount to make the drive and parking less appealing than the train though. At least, anywhere along Great Western Main Line.
 
Hixee said:
It'd have to be one hell of a discount to make the drive and parking less appealing than the train though. At least, anywhere along Great Western Main Line.
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It'd be tempting from here... If only the direct trains were a more regular thing...

Screenshot 2025-07-24 211043.jpg

For comparison, it's currently showing a 1 hour 40 minute drive. (Even changing at Kettering is 1:15 on the train, so still a tempting prospect.)
 
I wonder if the additional hotels near the proposed petrol station will be leased out to third parties? Seems like Universal would rather keep there branding on site if possible.
 
witchfinder said:
It is, but that's a pretty standard kind of price in the US so it's not too surprising. It was a trip to the States that made me realise that Merlin wasn't really that bad for parking!

I expect many locals will take advantage and list their driveways on JustPark 😆
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I hate this lol

I guess they can do it because it's Universal and people will pay anyway, but it feels like it's one of those things that caters to rich folk coming from abroad rather than the people who actually live here in this time of greedflation! It's one of the little things that cements this hobby as a quite privileged one.
 
To be honest unlike a lot of the US parks, I would hope this is easily reachable by public transport (rail/bus)

Thorpe, Chessie, BPB, all very accessible to tourists and non drivers. I would think all the tourists visiting would come via rail, as people visiting London tend to not get a car as it's usually slower anywhere within 20KM of London lol
 
Nicky Borrill said:
It'd be tempting from here... If only the direct trains were a more regular thing...

View attachment 38779

For comparison, it's currently showing a 1 hour 40 minute drive. (Even changing at Kettering is 1:15 on the train, so still a tempting prospect.)
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For most of us we’ll need to factor in getting to and from the station, the inevitable ‘get there a bit early’ plus the £10 or whatever you’d be paying for parking at the train station anyway…

Unless you’re going solo it will often be cheaper - and barely slower door-to-door - to just drive, even with petrol, plus you get the luxuries of having your own ‘travelling space’ and stowing whatever you may need in the car.

£35 is still grim, but probably the least worst option… if you have a car.

Edited - replacing ‘almost always’ with ‘often’ as there’s way too many variables for that…!
 
Nitefly said:
For most of us we’ll need to factor in getting to and from the station, the inevitable ‘get there a bit early’ plus the £10 or whatever you’d be paying for parking at the train station
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I feel most places in London have easy bus links/tube links literally everywhere to where you wouldn't even need to move your car from your driveway. Obviously there is exceptions, but public transport is literally everywhere.

I feel as well like a lot of people coming from London/around to visit Universal up the M25 at 7-10am could be a potential problem, and I'm sure everybody has been stuck on it for hours at least once. I think maybe the charge is warranted if it means less congestion, I don't think the roads are designed for thousands of cars at a time. Particularly with the roads around Bedford, simply not designed for thousands of cars. I presume Universal wants to push public transport hence the fee, as obviously 5000 cars clogging up small roads might be infuriating for locals, and for Park Close.

I feel the US parks are a little more unfair, as quite a few of them are simply impossible by rail/bus

Alton definitely feels this problem IMO. Way too many cars for the tiny roads
 
It may be everywhere but sadly public transport by train is aggressively expensive. For me, It’s £75 for a ‘super off-peak’ return to just get from Bristol to London (direct). It’s currently £95 return (this is per person!) to get to Bedford, with a 3 hour journey time - not including to and from the station. Yikes.

It’s both quicker and significantly cheaper to drive… from Bristol anyway.
 
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Yeah from other cities sure it's a lot faster. I guess for the other cities like Bristol and Birmingham, the charge is in many ways kind of brutal.

But for the metropolitan population of London including commuter towns, that is just over 15 million people living there. Nevermind the millions of tourists who visit a year, and with that I would presume it would be an issue if Universal were to receive all of it's visitors via car, I'm guessing that would be a issue for the already congested roads and motorway. Which I assume could justify the charge, cars are advantageous for flexibility, space, but equally motorways like the M25 are already drowning in traffic. I think public transit is going to have to be a big part of this project.
 
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