[🌎 Universal GB] General Discussion

[Bert2theSpark]

I think this country has been so starved of public investment, that this has become a sticking point in why hospitality (and other) businesses aren’t growing.

Whilst I think it’s right that Universal are getting this investment, and the public funding gives the government significant leverage on how that infrastructure is built (one only has to look at Universal’s consideration of a ‘hyperloop’ in Florida).

Interestingly in the approval process yesterday the government has set the aim of less than 32.9% of visitors must be travelling by car in 2051. If public transport is to be expectation of travelling to theme parks (and other visitor attractions) in UK by public transport then there needs to be a roadmap of how other parks achieve that goal. Pleasure Beach is probably one of the easiest to upgrade with tram and rail connections either side of the park, but parks like Towers would be significantly harder to integrate into public transport if we are to see modal shift occur.

 

[Jb85]

The Park Itself

I can see that being easily possible - wonder what the combined attendance of Merlin parks is

 

[Bowser]

Not that I’m policing the thread and aware there is plenty of crossover but there’s a somewhat neglected dedicated thread for discussing infrastructure and transport that perhaps needs reviving so we can get to the serious business of fantasy building coasters

[🌎 Universal GB] Planning, Transport and Infrastructure

Planning, Transport and Infrastructure Discussion Welcome to the Universal GB Planning, Transport and Infrastructure discussion. With the potential for so many people to be visiting the park, many road, rail and infrastructure upgrades will be required. This is your specific topic to discuss...

towersstreet.com

 

[rob@rar]

The associated annexes which are referenced in the Statutory Instrument are now available on the government's website. I think all of these documents were prepared for the planning application submitted by Universal in June, so there's nothing that we haven't seen before. Scanning through these documents I'm reminded just how much detailed planning has taken place for the site's infrastructure. As a guess, I think Reference Document Appendix 12.3 - Drainage Strategy Ref. 4.12.3.0, Rev. 00, June 2025 shows the outline of the actual theme park as it is located within the core zone (see the first figure in Annex 2 of that report).

 

[xtpower]

I would put that image as a rough approximation of the Theme Park plot, it seems to show the ring-road and I believe that may still change yet.