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Universal considering UK theme park in Bedford

One interesting detail I noticed in there is that they think that 35-40% of guests will travel to the resort by train.

I can’t help but think that this sounds a little bit optimistic. Perhaps my view is skewed by living a good 2-3 miles from a relatively infrequently used railway station, and by many existing parks in the UK not being overly close to railway stations, but I’d imagine that most would probably drive to a major park, no?

Universal thinks that 10% of guests would drive and a further 25% of guests would be driven by these drivers, equating to around 35% of guests travelling to the park by car overall. I trust Universal’s data, but this sounds a bit too small to me. I grant you that many international tourists probably wouldn’t drive, but we Brits are predominantly a nation of drivers!
 
Matt N said:
One interesting detail I noticed in there is that they think that 35-40% of guests will travel to the resort by train.

I can’t help but think that this sounds a little bit optimistic. Perhaps my view is skewed by living a good 2-3 miles from a relatively infrequently used railway station, and by many existing parks in the UK not being overly close to railway stations, but I’d imagine that most would probably drive to a major park, no?

Universal thinks that 10% of guests would drive and a further 25% of guests would be driven by these drivers, equating to around 35% of guests travelling to the park by car overall. I trust Universal’s data, but this sounds a bit too small to me. I grant you that many international tourists probably wouldn’t drive, but we Brits are predominantly a nation of drivers!
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Well my immediate thoughts, when I saw it was on the MML, were that I might finally be able to use a train, rather than drive, to a major UK park.

If the Nottingham - London trains do indeed stop here, as it seems they may, I'd pick train every time, faster, stress free, relatively cheap, and I could enjoy the famous Universal refreshments if I wanted to.

Nottingham - Bedford: Just 1 hour 11 minutes on the direct train... (1:18 changing in Kettering... These are WAY more frequent.)
 
Matt N said:
One interesting detail I noticed in there is that they think that 35-40% of guests will travel to the resort by train.

I can’t help but think that this sounds a little bit optimistic. Perhaps my view is skewed by living a good 2-3 miles from a relatively infrequently used railway station, and by many existing parks in the UK not being overly close to railway stations, but I’d imagine that most would probably drive to a major park, no?

Universal thinks that 10% of guests would drive and a further 25% of guests would be driven by these drivers, equating to around 35% of guests travelling to the park by car overall. I trust Universal’s data, but this sounds a bit too small to me. I grant you that many international tourists probably wouldn’t drive, but we Brits are predominantly a nation of drivers!
Click to expand...
I have just had a shimmy through the booklet

They are proposing to expand the Wixams station once it is built as well as create a new station on the other side nearer the A421. Plus there is some protests about the East-West rail line (going between Oxford and Cambridge), but that has been going on for a few years already
 
Matt N said:
One interesting detail I noticed in there is that they think that 35-40% of guests will travel to the resort by train.

I can’t help but think that this sounds a little bit optimistic. Perhaps my view is skewed by living a good 2-3 miles from a relatively infrequently used railway station, and by many existing parks in the UK not being overly close to railway stations, but I’d imagine that most would probably drive to a major park, no?

Universal thinks that 10% of guests would drive and a further 25% of guests would be driven by these drivers, equating to around 35% of guests travelling to the park by car overall. I trust Universal’s data, but this sounds a bit too small to me. I grant you that many international tourists probably wouldn’t drive, but we Brits are predominantly a nation of drivers!
Click to expand...

Thorpe apparently has quite a large share of visitors doing so via public transport, I cannot find the numbers however. Chessington have also recently been promoting the fact they're walkable from Chessington South station too.

I think BPB's share is huge too.
 
Tonkso said:
Thorpe apparently has quite a large share of visitors doing so via public transport, I cannot find the numbers however. Chessington have also recently been promoting the fact they're walkable from Chessington South station too.

I think BPB's share is huge too.
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Even Alton Towers see a lot come in via train, utilising either the Uttoxeter or Hanley bus connections... Probably nowhere near 40% though!
 
Matt N said:
One interesting detail I noticed in there is that they think that 35-40% of guests will travel to the resort by train.

I can’t help but think that this sounds a little bit optimistic. Perhaps my view is skewed by living a good 2-3 miles from a relatively infrequently used railway station, and by many existing parks in the UK not being overly close to railway stations, but I’d imagine that most would probably drive to a major park, no?

Universal thinks that 10% of guests would drive and a further 25% of guests would be driven by these drivers, equating to around 35% of guests travelling to the park by car overall. I trust Universal’s data, but this sounds a bit too small to me. I grant you that many international tourists probably wouldn’t drive, but we Brits are predominantly a nation of drivers!
Click to expand...
They'll probably have some anti-car policies in place to drive people to use public transport. Huge parking costs, discounts with a train ticket, that sort of thing.

Traffic and congestion are one of the common factors between nearly all ride applications in this country. At the slightest hint of construction works the nimbys are out complaining about the extra cars and the noise and the roadworks etc., so it makes sense that Universal would try to hammer home the message that they don't want people to drive in at all.
 
I'd 100% use public transport to visit parks if I could but Towers is in the middle of nowhere, and going to the 3 southern Merlin parks requires going up to London and back down vs a short stint on the M25. Since I don't drive (nor plan to), this actively discourages me from visiting parks unless I can tag along with someone willing to give me a lift. On the other hand, getting to Universal by train wouldn't take me much longer than it takes to get to Thorpe, despite the new park being much further away. I 100% believe the park will hit the expectations for train travel, and if anything I think they could surpass it.
 
As much as I really want this to happen the more I read and look into to this i’m just thinking there is just no chance this is happening.

I really hope I am wrong but there are just so many hoops and hurdles for Universal to jump through here it will be a miracle if they pull this off.
 
Everyone's looking at train travel from an individual perspective, and it's absolutely what I would use since i don't drive. Yeah, Thorpe gets a lot coming in on the train, but looks at that demographic: mostly teenagers who can't get there any other way. When you have to buy tickets for a family of four, it makes little economic sense not to drive, not to mention the faff. I take trains in the UK all the time, and families make up a very small percentage of passengers.
 
Do we know the rough size of the proposed initial park layout (ride area) from these latest plans?

Would be good to have an understanding and be able to compare now we know how much space the other aspects would take up.
 
Swat said:
Do we know the rough size of the proposed initial park layout (ride area) from these latest plans?

Would be good to have an understanding and be able to compare now we know how much space the other aspects would take up.
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Those plans I posted yesterday show the theme park area. In terms of measurements, I haven’t seen anybody do that yet.
 
On the public transport discussion, there is also one piece of the puzzle that I feel would make public transport a far more feasible option for a greater amount of the country. That is if Universal were to provide some sort of connection from Milton Keynes Central train station, which is relatively close. Now that might not sound very important, but it does open up quite a large opportunity because Milton Keynes Central lies along the West Coast Main Line. This would open up a direct train route to the park from the West Midlands, the North West of England and all the way up into Scotland. It would also connect the park directly to a massive interchange hub in Birmingham New Street, which would make the train journey easier for many more people (myself included!).

If I were local (sadly, I’m not even close to being local…), I’d be really interested to hear about whether Universal have considered connecting to Milton Keynes Central in some way to further reduce the strain on the road.
 
Swat said:
Do we know the rough size of the proposed initial park layout (ride area) from these latest plans?
Click to expand...
So 😅 I gave it a go, I used this site (see here) to work out a rough area.

1712400116250.png2.PNG

I tried to get close but its no where near perfect and the area came to 450000m²

I did the same thing to Islands of Adventure, again very rough.
1.PNG

That came to 370000 m², so while not exact by any means its a very decent space for a park.
 
I've had a go, to see if we can measure any other parts... Obviously a VERY rough guide, using Google Earth.

Screenshot 2024-04-06 153549.jpg

Screenshot 2024-04-06 153714.jpg

Main Park

For the first park (Pink / Salmon) I get similar results... 479,000m² vs IOA's 370,000m²

City Walk

But the other bits I was interested in... The area marked retail and dining as well as hotel, (yellow,) I get to 125,000m²

To put that into perspective, City Walk Orlando is only 42,000m² (Obviously there is room here for a hotel or two!)

Screenshot 2024-04-06 154245.jpg

Expansion / Potential Second Gate

The large area to the North, (Blue) marked 'mixed use' which I can only assume means it's expansion space, to be decided... is 541,000m² Plenty of room for a second gate, and a few hotels.
 
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I'm a little dubious of their train travel predictions. Maybe they'll need an off-site park and ride to help if they don't provide enough onsite parking.

This could be either linked via buses to the transport hub or on the east west rail, build a car park next to Millbrook or Ridgmont stations.
 
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Lee said:
I'm a little dubious of their train travel predictions. Maybe they'll need an off-site park and ride to help if they don't provide enough onsite parking.

This could be either linked via buses to the transport hub or on the east west rail, build a car park next to Millbrook or Ridgmont.
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Just as an FYI, there is a park and ride system for Bedford Town center already. Just off the A6, near Kempston a d the retail park. So that could be extended to be used for a universal park and ride at a push

Sent from my SM-S901B using Tapatalk
 
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