Great video Jen! I'm excited for this new theme park and glad the people care about the local community and opening 2 more stations so they're not just closing 2 for nothing
From what I've seen with the consultations, they do want to work closely with the locals. Time will tell if it's just words to get through planning or not!
Kempston Hardwick? I’m sure I went to university with him. Think he went on to be something in The City. I heard he got in trouble for some financial shenanigans. 😂
I was at the public consultation a couple of weeks ago and it looks like the public is behind them and I love the joke about it being impossible to get to Alton towers by train
Nice to see past Jen interrupting you. Brilliant video Jen and didn't knew that there plans to close Stewartby and Kempston Hardwick Stations, lucky I have been to Stewartby but would love to go again in daylight.
Fascinating! Going north along the MML, seeing the old brickworks chimneys next to the Marston Vale Line used to let me know Bedford was near - so Universal will be my sign in future. Thank you for that \m/
Universal Studios Great Britain will also have a knock-on effect for the other theme parks in the UK: Alton Towers Chessington World of Adventures Thorpe Park LEGOLand Windsor The Dungeons
I can sacrifice kempston Hardwick for a new massive universal resort with two parks, multiple hotels and TONS of new themed rides and rollercoasters. (This is where my rollercoaster enthusiasm overtakes my railway enthusiasm sadly)
Wow, a line you're doing that I've already completed. I did all the stops on the 230s. But only 003 and 004, as I haven't seen 005 yet. When I did Bedford St Johns, I walked up the steps to the bridge, then down to the roundabout, then walked back to the station via the accessible route and the car park, which took 3x as long and wasn't signposted vs the non-accessible route. I really need to get out and do new stations again. I've only done, what, 3 this year so far? I'd love to know your total so far, out of the ~2580 total. Mine is 735 at the moment. I think the 222s are a lot better than the 220/221s. Newer, less rumbly, more space. My only issue is that the bike/luggage area at one end isn't always unlocked, so when travelling with my bike, I often had issues.
Jen covering two of my favourite things in one video: trains and theme parks! We’ve also seen you go to Blackpool; maybe one day you’ll have a whole playlist of these, visiting the other major ones like Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and Chessington?
It's pleasantly surprising how much thought seems to have been given to visiting this new park by public transport (though I will say that both the Kempston replacement station and Wixams were both already planned before the park), something that more developers should learn from. Bedford St Johns is also planned to be replaced as part of EWR, with the new station closer to the hospital.
Brilliant video Jen, that new theme park sounds interesting, I hope those new stations serving it will be good. Lol Bedford St Johns doesn't sound like a very exciting station at all.
With Kempston Hardwick station there is going to be a new railway station at Wixams and I think it might cause the closure of Kempton Hardwick station. Once the new Wixams railway station is built and opened. But I don’t think it will but both Kempston Hardwick and Wixams are quite close to each other.
A new theme park? Very exciting! If only Alton towers had a station - what’s that? It did… thanks, 1960s…ah, progress!!! 😂 Very slick segue into the advert!
Still not sure what I think about the plans to build a huge theme park in a field in the middle of nowhere. Lets hope they at least will pay towards the new stations,
to be fair, the site is on the outskirts of Bedford with a number of other large towns relatively close by (Luton, Milton Keynes, Northampton) to say nothing of its proximity to London
It really isn’t in the middle of nowhere! - it’s between Bedford and Milton Keynes, with Northampton and Luton all within 30 mins away and only 50 miles north of central London and 70 from Birmingham
I commute past Millbrook every day and I'm just not sure how I feel about the prospect of the theme park. It's such a peaceful area, with the Forest Centre being so close. I just hate change!
Nice to see a video on some of my local stations. Still not got the train on the Marston Vale due to the Vivarail situation so I must go down there some time.
It's actually good there building a station serving the theme park - that's if it does happen, instead of getting on a very long bus journey that only comes once or twice a day.
The locals are majority behind Universal UK The local council are behind it The govt are behind it Land has been purchased, they have acquired a local building firm and brought them under the Universal brand, 2 lots of public consultations have happened and is a 99% certain that it will be happening compared with London Resort where a mysterious bit of wildlife was found in the last stage and after over 15 years of saying it was going to happen, didn't. The Universal UK site has greater support from everyone around the area and in other places than The London Resort. If Merlin were not worried, they wouldn't be putting so much investment in to the parks they are doing if this wasn't going to happen. Project: Sparkle and Hyperia at Thorpe Park Nemesis Reborn and a new flat ride in Forbidden Valley starting construction now at Alton Towers New developments in the planning at Chessington Even though the new CEO of Merlin has said there will be a pause in any new major developments for the next 12 months (Project Horizon at Alton Towers paused even though SMDC gave planning permission in 2022/2023), these kinda big improvements/investments wouldn't be happening on the scale they are happening if they (Merlin) were not confident that Universal UK wasn't going to happen.
OK not as maddening as I was prepared for it to be. Looks like the area could support a theme park without killing what is around it. As long as the transportation infrastructure stays smart and useful, I guess bring it on. Looks like it is close enough to London to pull in the international touristic crowd
It is quite common to have a passing loop at a station. On a double track, you sometimes have a platform bay to get the stationary train out of the way of the through traffic. Bedford St Johns on the other hand is a short section of single track in a line that is otherwise double throughout. I suppose it saved money only having a single face on the platform but is this station unique?
I thought it was Hyde North that you really didn't like? I used to commute from there and I'd totally agree with you. Yes, they're both pretty bad but at least Central is 100m from a decent pub.
I am sorry but in this time with food prices going through the roof building on good farmland when it should be turned into food production is mad , yes use the brickworks site but using land that could be used for food production is mad
So when the theme park is completed, the Black Cat roundabout road works will just be finished (supposed to be 2027 but I doubt it) and then totally unable to handle the massive increase in road traffic in the area. Which will mean grid lock and another 10 year wait for more roadworks to improve Black Cat again. Which will be botched just like last time and this time too by cost cutting central Government.
