Universal Great Britain - Speculation & Rumors

[yepthatguy]

A few weeks back I gave a timeline for including the NSIP(planning stuff) seven years total would include all the work that you've spoken about last year and now as well and still only a build time of about 4-4.5 years to be open summer 2030.

I was being very conservative before, I would look at least 20k per day, but on most days of the week, during term time at least how many are staying on site or travelling by train?

Yes that’s correct you did. Initially I thought this might be manageable at local level.

However the scale of what they have “supposedly” proposed to gov, mps and councillors is suggesting this may well now have NSIP written all over it which could be the deciding factor. I genuinely thought they do a smaller park initially even with all that land, and build their own traffic management system and roads on their own land.

I have to stress my last post until the facts are proven or officially announced is technically rumour. I do feel though that with combined research done by many in this thread, it all points to logical outcomes. So this may well be quite accurate.

I’m sure not sure if it’s good or bad.

 

[Altonsky]

Someone I know well who lives fairly locally messaged me last night saying they had been in touch with their local village councillor.

Apparently, the parish councillor has had a number of meetings with Universal last year. So this has been going on for months in secret until a certain YouTube video made the world aware.

Universal have a very clear idea of what they would like to build and quoted 20,000+ construction workers would be required, as well as 8,000 locals to work there and keep it running. They think it will take 7 years to build, and there would be an additional 10 year period after where further investment would be introduced as well as reinvestment of what is there.

They have said they are not making a decision until Autumn (Fall) this year and ARE looking at other sites in the UK and Europe.

This is because aside from the planned East West Rail upgrade, the Wixams Train Station being built AND the A421 upgrade at the Black Cat junction, Universal are in major talks directly with the UK government regarding M1 - A1 infrastructure, which to me sounds like it’s about the A421 again, as that connects both.

….

Now I’m not sure on the numbers quoted and a few other bits, I really wouldn’t know. But if I think about it, to hit 5m annual visitors, that’s like 14,000 people every day getting in and out of the area. The volume increase in traffic in the A421 as a % I wouldn’t know.

The current A421 is a dual carriageway, and this upgrade at the Black Cat is on the junction and beyond. They are not adding extra lanes near the Universal land or anywhere along that stretch, so if just one single car breaks down on the A421 bringing it down to one lane, with all the extra theme park traffic, it’d be absolute curtains for the surrounding road network and town. I believe when this happens now it is a massive issue.

So sadly I’m starting to think that the entire A421 will need an extra lane at a minimum, which basically makes it a motorway. So now we might need a dual carriageway / motorway conversion just for this to happen, which is why Universal are talking direct to the Gov, I guess potentially to see if the UK gov are game for this or not. With Universals leverage being thousands of jobs, tax contributions, and billions in investment in the UK for the future.

Other than points I’ve reference previously in posts with links, I don’t have anything solid to link to, so this is essentially passed on information and my own opinion.

20,000 construction workers is a lot and will obviously require government intervention and imo some form of easier immigration access for construction workers.

We already have a couple of high profile construction projects taking place with Hinkley Point currently under construction with 10,000 workers and Sizewell will be starting soon with a similar amount.

This along with a shortage of workers when it comes to house building.

I don’t think we have enough domestic workers to fill these gaps whilst doing everything else.

But Comcast have a good relationship with the British government, probably the closest with any European country so I assume these conversations will have taken place.

Honestly I hope this happens here, if this doesn’t it never will.

Hopefully the government are giving tax breaks and are willing to invest in local infrastructure. If they’re willing to spend billions and asking the government to jump the government need to be asking how high.

Luckily the governments tax relationship with Comcast is already very good with Sky being here and the tax breaks that get given out in regards to film production within the UK, the relationship already exists so I’m hoping Comcast will give it the green light.

Also if they’re looking at other places within the UK/Europe there’s no evidence they’ve purchased land anywhere else is there? Is this something they’re actually doing now or was this done before they purchased the land here and they’re saying this to push things through at government level?

 

[tommyhawkins]

Yes that’s correct you did. Initially I thought this might be manageable at local level.

However the scale of what they have “supposedly” proposed to gov, mps and councillors is suggesting this may well now have NSIP written all over it which could be the deciding factor. I genuinely thought they do a smaller park initially even with all that land, and build their own traffic management system and roads on their own land.

I have to stress my last post until the facts are proven or officially announced is technically rumour. I do feel though that with combined research done by many in this thread, it all points to logical outcomes. So this may well be quite accurate.

I’m sure not sure if it’s good or bad.

I have been talking about NSIP for reason, the website was the first step of that. If you know your Epic Universe history you will know the a large degree of Quid Pro Quo will happen with government agencies on all levels. I wouldn't worry too much about the roads. They have a plan for that. If the construction worker number is accurate, with our generally much less extreme heat and easier to work with Clay they might not need four years, and as I've pointed to in the thread we're looking at a 240acre site not all the purchased land

 

[LukiLu]

They think it will take 7 years to build, and there would be an additional 10 year period after where further investment would be introduced as well as reinvestment of what is there.

We don't even have final confirmation of the resort happening at all, but it sounds quite like we might have not one, but two Universal Parks in the UK by 2040.

 

[tommyhawkins]

We don't even have final confirmation of the resort happening at all, but it sounds quite like we might have not one, but two Universal Parks in the UK by 2040.

One and a half is more realistic

 

[DanM]

@Alicia could we be getting a video update on theme park stop?

I would love to hear your take on the information provided!

 

[LukiLu]

One and a half is more realistic

Merlin will be super pissed if they do that.

Well, at least there's hope for Spongebob and Shrek/Puss in Boots then.

 

[Alicia]

@Alicia could we be getting a video update on theme park stop?

I would love to hear your take on the information provided!

Maybe next month. Despite all the news publicly available, technically not much has changed since my first video—just now that everyone is aware of it.

 

[DanM]

20,000 construction workers is a lot and will obviously require government intervention and imo some form of easier immigration access for construction workers.

We already have a couple of high profile construction projects taking place with Hinkley Point currently under construction with 10,000 workers and Sizewell will be starting soon with a similar amount.

This along with a shortage of workers when it comes to house building.

I don’t think we have enough domestic workers to fill these gaps whilst doing everything else.

But Comcast have a good relationship with the British government, probably the closest with any European country so I assume these conversations will have taken place.

Honestly I hope this happens here, if this doesn’t it never will.

Hopefully the government are giving tax breaks and are willing to invest in local infrastructure. If they’re willing to spend billions and asking the government to jump the government need to be asking how high.

Luckily the governments tax relationship with Comcast is already very good with Sky being here and the tax breaks that get given out in regards to film production within the UK, the relationship already exists so I’m hoping Comcast will give it the green light.

Also if they’re looking at other places within the UK/Europe there’s no evidence they’ve purchased land anywhere else is there? Is this something they’re actually doing now or was this done before they purchased the land here and they’re saying this to push things through at government level?

Outside of a new park there were rumours that universal was exploring the repurchase of portaVentura in spain. I guess that could be an option. But even then they could still purchase both IMO and not significantly eat into each others’ market.

 

[Altonsky]

Outside of a new park there were rumours that universal was exploring the repurchase of portaVentura in spain. I guess that could be an option. But even then they could still purchase both IMO and not significantly eat into each others’ market.

But what Alicia posted yesterday it kinda sounds like that’s not going to happen.

They’re focusing on current investments and projects then there’ll be a dip in spending for a short period. That’s at least 2/3 years, so is PA going to still be up for sale in 2/3 years because it doesn’t sound like they have any intentions of purchasing it or investing in it atm.

 

[yepthatguy]

I have been talking about NSIP for reason, the website was the first step of that. If you know your Epic Universe history you will know the a large degree of Quid Pro Quo will happen with government agencies on all levels. I wouldn't worry too much about the roads. They have a plan for that. If the construction worker number is accurate, with our generally much less extreme heat and easier to work with Clay they might not need four years, and as I've pointed to in the thread we're looking at a 240acre site not all the purchased land

It’s going to need to be a spectacular traffic solution .

I initially didn’t think it’d be as much of an issue, but when you speak to people who live locally, they know it’s the equivalent of hosting a sporting event for say 15,000 people every day, just off a vital carriageway link.

I think if more information comes out it will be interesting to see what they propose to handle motor traffic. It is of course just my opinion, I think people arriving in vehicles rather than train is the biggest issue here to resolve.

If Universal can well and truly do this, we can get back to arguing over IP.

Also if they’re looking at other places within the UK/Europe there’s no evidence they’ve purchased land anywhere else is there? Is this something they’re actually doing now or was this done before they purchased the land here and they’re saying this to push things through at government level?

I agree. I genuinely don’t believe they are looking at other UK sites for this, so suspect it was a way of saying they’ll crack on elsewhere if the idea is not entertained in Bedford as a form of leverage maybe?

Before all the information came out I might have believed it, but I can’t honestly think where?

Especially now that such a detailed criteria for this to be viable has become evident. This thread alone is a treasure trove of great contributions by many that cover pretty much all of it. It’s been a joy to read.

 

[bedfordmassive]

I think the traffic conversation is overstated.

I live in Bedford and the A421 really isn't bad at all - I used to commute out eastwards past the Black Cat roundabout and then up towards Peterborough or towards Cambridge. The only really bad bottleneck is between St Neots and Cambridge which easily added 20-30 mins during rush hour.

The new stretch of road between Black Cat and Claxton Gibbet will mean that the Black Cat roundabout that handles A1/A421 junction becomes a flyover and also the St Neots-Cambridge bottleneck goes away. Accessing the park from East will then be pretty easy (allowing for A1 traffic to the South - North towards Huntingdon was always clear).

M1/A421 junction at MK is a little more unpredictable, could be improved, but usually quiet outside of rush hour.

Weekends/hols are no problem at all. I get to MK in 20 mins and St Neots in 15, never really hit any traffic accessing M1 or A1.

I've lived in quite a few places round the UK, and have to say Bedford and surrounds are about the best traffic wise. There will be extra traffic for the park, but at least we're starting from a pretty good traffic situation which could be further mitigated with some development.

 

[Alicia]

I thought part of the charm for this location would be ease of access from rail? Not everyone would be arriving by car, no?

 

[DanM]

I thought part of the charm for this location would be ease of access from rail? Not everyone would be arriving by car, no?

Yeah that was my thought too. Universal would also be able to control the proportion of people driving to a large degree by not building that big of a car park. If there’s little available parking near the park then most people will elect to get the train.

 

[bedfordmassive]

Yeah - train connections are great especially if they get a move on with East West Rail

 

[LukiLu]

Yeah that was my thought too. Universal would also be able to control the proportion of people driving to a large degree by not building that big of a car park. If there’s little available parking near the park then most people will elect to get the train.

There's no way I can see them turning down what would be paying customers by intentionally restricting parking capacity, even more so given how profitable parking fees are for parks.

I guess a combination good rail links and high parking fees could lead to maybe like 30% of folks arriving by train? Just a random guess.

 

[DanM]

There's no way I can see them turning down what would be paying customers by intentionally restricting parking capacity, even more so given how profitable parking fees are for parks.

I guess a combination good rail links and high parking fees could lead to maybe like 30% of folks arriving by train? Just a random guess.

A fair point but if they’re interested in expanding the land at a later date then park space will create much more revenue than a car park. Perhaps planning may mandate a smaller car park in that sense anyway. I don’t really understand commercial planning though I’ve only ever gone through the residential planning process (which was painful enough).

 

[Ludus]

I thought part of the charm for this location would be ease of access from rail? Not everyone would be arriving by car, no?

Correct but the railway will still need as much major investment as the roads. I think the only way this will work is if they use the London mainline and not the local line to the east of the site or even both lines for greater national access.

 

[bedfordmassive]

Correct but the railway will still need as much major investment as the roads. I think the only way this will work is if they use the London mainline and not the local line to the east of the site or even both lines for greater national access.

All the improvements are independently planned already. Wixams station will be the one on the London mainline and looks like it is moving forwards, and EWR is moving ahead with consultation on station improvements. The Bedford-Oxford part is pretty much locked in (Oxford to MK pretty much complete, MK Bedford next), still some noise over Bedford-Cambridge Section but preferred route published.

In short - necessary rail improvements happening anyway

For those interested:
Wixams station which will be v close to the site on the London line
East West Rail which will have a station by the probably front gate

 

[Mad Dog]

Europeans seem to be much more amenable to rail transportation than Americans are. I'd guess rail will be a significant transportation factor for the new park, if built.