{"id":529856,"date":"2026-04-14T06:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529856\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:35:11","slug":"trains-to-universals-bedford-resort-within-first-few-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529856\/","title":{"rendered":"Trains to Universal&#8217;s Bedford resort within &#8216;first few years&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Universal has said it wants to open its first European theme park and resort on land at Kempston Hardwick, south of Bedford, in 2031.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">More than eight million visitors are expected to head to the attraction in its first year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to EWR, Universal initially plans to run shuttle buses from Milton Keynes to the theme park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But the rail company said by &#8220;fast-tracking&#8221; an upgrade of the existing rail line between Bletchley and Bedford \u2013 known as the Marston Vale Line \u2013 EWR trains could &#8220;serve the park within its first few years&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The nine current Marston Vale stations will be closed with four new replacement stations built at Woburn Sands, Ridgmont, Lidlington and Stewartby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Stewartby station will serve Universal, with four trains an hour running between there and Oxford &#8220;by the early 2030s&#8221;, EWR said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal has said it wants to open its first European theme park and resort on land at Kempston&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-529856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}