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Alton Towers rail link in 4 years?!?

For as long as I've been an enthusiast (about 7 years), there has always been talk of improving transport links.

Charging people for parking hasn't reduced the number of cars (as far as I'm aware), it's just a tax on visitors.

Hopefully this won't just be another piss-in-the-wind idea and actually happen.
 
Yeah, here's hoping it it's not all talk and it does become a reality.

Have you read the comments on the news article Ian? Someone is already complaining about chopping down trees, the line running by their house and a boys football team having to move their ground!! You can't please everyone I suppose!!
 
There is a rail link...

Just so happens you need to get a bus from either Stoke or Uttoxeter, and it wasn't as painless as I thought it could be... Drops you off right at the park entrance as well...

I'd rather see the bypass first before train lines though, but I don't know how popular the buses really are for Alton so I could be talking out of my arse, will find out soon though...
 
That bus left us stranded at Alton because it was too full (and we were there about an hour early, on a weekday in term time!)

Anything that isn't that hideous bus is welcomed!
 
I think it is a great idea, but I have heard it before just the road link.

No doubt the locals won't want the rail link due to noise and the fact some countryside will be dug up.
 
Just by looking at that train map you can tell it would take FOREVER to get to Alton Towers by train. The bus from Stoke would be quicker than any line they re-instated..

They need to build a by-pass around the local villages first, then worry about silly little trains.
 
The should get Intamin to install a Rocket Coaster to get you from Stoke to Alton. Then you could have a ride to actually get to Alton Towers! That would be awesome!




I wonder how many people will actually leap on this as a good idea?
 
Yes, small talk is silly and not needed.

I personally think this is a more feasible idea than the bi-pass one. But something definitely has to be done, as public transport to Alton is dire. And I live down the road :lol:
 
I am all for a 'direct' rail link to Alton.
Public transport to the place is dire, specially on a Sunday!
This could prove a bigger success than what the relief road turned out to be, seeing as the line already exists and all they would have to do is flatten a bit of land and lie down some track, this would mean the locals have less to moan about.

But, from looking at the map that Ploddish has posted, for anyone coming from the South to Alton would need to change at Stoke and somehow find a way of getting to Leek from there before catching the train down to Alton.
You'd be better off with the bus in that circumstance as it does seem a right faff, unless they can link it in with Stoke somehow!

I'd personally love to see this go ahead, or a bus service from Stafford to the park similar to the one that runs from Nottingham/Derby.
 
Yeah, that map has put me off. What's the point in a railway connection if it's only gonna take you to other **** holes that are in the middle of nowhere too?
 
I agree with Ben...

A 'direct' rail link should be from stations such as Stoke, Manc, and possibly even Brum... Going to Leek then Alton when you may as well get off at Stoke and get the bus is a silly idea...
 
I'm sure there'd be a direct link (ie, trains skipping all the stations) to Alton from Stoke, considering the popularity that line would have. Getting from Stoke to Alton wouldn't take longer than 15-25 minutes, at that distance, and given that most of the stops would be request only, if stations at all.

It would make Alton a decidedly more accessible park, and indeed a decent day trip from Cardiff, at about 4 hours there, and 4 back. Shame the line can't carry on till Uttoxeter really, the JCB factory has been built over the old station :C

And is the red line will be open as a heritage site, and may well have steam trains going along it. Catching a steam train to Alton Towers would be glorious, frankly :D
 
I'd have doubts about the viability of it as a passenger line, simply because it would be sparsely used for many months of the year...And, as people have pointed out its not very direct, so its not going to compete well with the buses for speed (Plus the Alton train station site is a bit of a walk from the park, so you'd need shuttle buses up to the gates anyway, and if you are going to do that....)

There's no reason the bus service there has to be crap..Surely if you put more of them on, and ran more direct routes (Instead of stopping as some crap looking bus interchange in the Middle of Stoke for 15 minutes for no reason )then it might be less of a problem.
 
I'd be afraid that with a better transport link the park would become even more crowded than at the moment. On the days I've visited in the past, the park was rammed and thats with a crap transport link so imagine what an improved system would do with people from even further away able to commute there easier.
 
^So, means more money for the park in the long-run...

If you don't like the park when busy, don't go in busy times, we all know generally when parks will be busy, and I do dislike it when people complain about parks being busy, like no-one else should ever go to these places...
 
Though logically, if there were some form of an improved transport link, then the locals would be able to complain less about traffic, and the park would be more free to build larger capacity monsters.
I mean they recently went through the various options for the parks future, and the option of high investment was sort of struck off because they didn't want to cause further impacts on locals.
 
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