Villagers taken for a ride by visitors to Towers

“Something has to be done. The roads round there are impassable to locals during the towers season. I feel so sorry for the people who have lived in Alton and Farley all their lives and seen the quality of life go down so much. And how idiotic the visitors drive! The number of accidents that happen in the vicinity, annually, is symptomatic of the issues. Country lanes through villages aren't meant for nose to tail coaches and cars full of impatient kids who've never seen a cow in a field before or a tree outside of a city park.”

“Alton Towers will inevitably continue to expand and attract more visitors.
The provision of local jobs will also mean that people will always accept some local disruption but there will have to come a time when other transport options will have to be considered, like it or not.
A mix of all the suggestions made on here is likely and why not?
A bypass, rail link, some local road improvements are all possible.
Dont forget that even now, not all visitors arrive by car, many come by coach and I would be really surprised if none even now, come by train and make their way from Stoke.
So come on, stop putting obstacles in the way, it could all come together as one solution, and Alton Towers should stump up a proportion of the funding.
Anythings possible given a will to do it.”

“Has anyone considered the amount Alton Towers must be adding to the county's income with the business rate it must be paying not to mention the amount they must also be paying in taxes and the number of jobs it provides. The reason, we are told, that these taxes are paid is to provide services like transport .People really must start looking at both sides of an argument a bit more.”

“The railway station or network really isn't suitable for supporting the amount of people who would be forced to use it if parking was banned for non hotel guests.

The station is tiny and, whilst in its glory days had 3 platforms, only has 1 usable platform. The whole thing would need to be reconstructed along with a bus station too. I highly doubt this would get through planning in the location it is.

Peak days, 25000 people would need to park their cars and get on a train to travel to the park. Even with a double track line and multiple trains, this would take hours.

Plus, where exactly do you propose they build the huge car park needed to cater for the 25000 people planning on using the park and ride? No one would want that on their doorstep.

The return of the railway to Alton Station would never be more than something for local people to use and to be a tourist line. It will never be a suitable replacement for cars getting to the park and will never be able to support a park and ride system.

A bypass would be the cheapest and easiest way of getting people around Alton. I can't imagine what a dead end little village it will become though. Think of all the passing trade shops, B&Bs, pubs and hotels get from the traffic passing through. I highly doubt they will last once a bypass is built.”

“People ask who will pay for this? Well, when you take into account the millions that Alton have made since introducing the parking charge many years back, I think Alton already have the money to pay for this project, and if they continue to charge £6 per car to park in a Park and Ride and transport them to the park then they will still continue to have the funds to run such a service.

As for people still driving to the park in their comfy cars - if Alton made the car parks for Hotel Guests only, otherwise a £30 charge applies per day for parking, i'm sure 90% of visitors to the theme park would opt for the Park and Ride scheme.

I agree however that the only sticking point here is how to transport the large volumes of guests safely from the railway station to the park entrance......”

“@Boombox1

Using the gatehouse would not be suitable as an entrance. For starters, it would mean visitors having to cross a very busy road on a blind corner to get from the station to the gatehouse. Accident waiting to happen and would cause chaos to install a pedestrian crossing. Secondly, the pathway behind the gatehouse is totally unsuitable to public access and is still a 1-2 mile up hill walk.

Shuttle busses from the station to the entrance would also be unsuitable. There is nowhere at the bottom of the valley for busses to park up or even turn around. There would have to be extensive work carried out to make it possible and no doubt the locals would object to this too.

In reality, the trainline returning is a nice idea but just not suitable as a replacement for cars. Imagine trying to get to Alton Towers from somewhere like Sheffield... Simple journey by car.. by train? Well... from Sheffield you would get a train to Manchester, then change to a train to Stoke On Trent. It's already taken 2 hours by this point and cost £25 per person. So a family of 4 would be around £80. You would then have to change to the Alton Towers train which, lets say for arguments sake, would be a minimum of £6 per person (current parking rate) and would likely take an additional 30-45mins. So this family of 4 would be looking at a £100+ journey taking around 3 hours.. and then they would have to walk 2 miles up hill at the other end to even get into the park where they will be fleeced for £40 per person to get in! We havent even thought about getting home yet!...

Still sound like a good idea?”

“Great article but it's a case of never the twain shall meet:

Locals don't appreciate the traffic coming through their villages, etc, but in the same way, they would be up-in-arms if proposals were put into place to build a direct access road into Alton Towers from the A52.

The current roads are awful and narrow in places but, in the same way, objections would be raised for widening, changes being made, Alton Towers holding locals to ransom in 'forcing our roads to be changed for their profits', etc, etc - we can see the Sentinel headlines and the photos of the couple who are constantly battling the noise being featured.

Is there really any answer to any of this as no side will ever agree?”

“@deluded366

"Who is going to pay for this new railway line, rolling stock and then transportation to get people from the station up to the entrance of Alton Towers? It's a 1-2 mile up hill walk along a windy narrow road with no pavement... Merlin can't afford to build and run a railway line.. Neither can the council (and I'm not sure they should be rusted with it either...). CVR hasn't the money to build quickly enough or run it successfully either. "

As gary has already pointed out, MCR are in the process of doing this reconstruction of the line. The 1 -2 mile walk you mention along a windy narrow road? What about using the old gatehouse opposite the original Alton station? Shuttle busses?

In business, you make things attractive and give an alternative to what is there already.”

“The concept of an idylic moorland village within the surrounding area of a theme park such as that at Alton Towers has become a forlorn dream. None of the proposed solutions will restore life as it was before the advent of the capitalist takeover.”

“The whole idea of reopening the railway sounds great in theory, but doesn't really work in reality.

Whilst having a line from Stoke station might work for the local community, there are plenty of people that come from much further afield. Stoke station isn't really all that accessable. Parking is terrible in that area, and expensive too. You could relay the railway line from the other direction, coming from Rocester/Uttoxeter and have a large park & ride service from that way but JCB stuck a few massive factories on the old line and it's not really feasable to route around them. I always did wonder why people are always so up in arms about Alton Towers building a new roller coaster which is hidden from view, but JCB seem to be able to slap a huge factory just about anywhere they fancy...

Besides.. Why would people pay extra for a park and ride service when they can drive to the park, in their comfortable cars, and pay to park on the door step instead? Running a rail service isn't cheap.. and its not something Merlin or the council would offer for free... Which brings me to another question..

Who is going to pay for this new railway line, rolling stock and then transportation to get people from the station up to the entrance of Alton Towers? It's a 1-2 mile up hill walk along a windy narrow road with no pavement... Merlin can't afford to build and run a railway line.. Neither can the council (and I'm not sure they should be rusted with it either...). CVR hasn't the money to build quickly enough or run it successfully either. There would be no profit in running it anyway so why would anyone involved want to run it?

The most obvious thing in my eyes would be to build a relief road from the T-junction in Denstone, along the route of the old railway line, which would join the current road where Alton Station is, totally bypassing Alton and not disrupting any farmers fields or knocking down any houses. IIRC, this has been suggested before but the locals were up in arms about loosing the railway line for dog walking.

Can't win really.”