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Universal UK theme park in Bedford

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

View attachment 38505

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.
IMG_20250720_191532.jpg
 
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.
 
^ 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.)
 
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