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The Swarm opened 10 years ago today! We at TPM have an article looking back at 10 years of The Swarm, right from the initial plans, through construction to the changes since it opened. Whether you believe in Lez Cougan or not, have a look here... https://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/articles/12-03-2022/THE+SWARM%2C+10+Years+On

PLANS HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED. Some highlights: -The ride will feature trains of 20; 10 rows of 2. The trains will have lapbars. *Not too surprising, but nice to know. -No manufacturer is confirmed; this is not of interest for planning permission, but it is acknowledged it is of interest to roller coaster enthusiasts. Equally, the application just mentions ride comparison are done to a 'similar ride in Europe' -The ride will reach a maximum speed of around 130km/h (though this is not definite) -The ride will have a light track colour high up, similar to Stealth *This was mentioned in the consultation period. I haven't found confirmation of *what* the colour is for the high points, or the low points. This is usually contained within there somewhere. -The ride's highest points are: 72m, 50m, 48m and 43m *This puts to bed an initial thought I had that the park might try to go for the world's tallest inversion record. -Lots of trees will be planted around the station building -During construction, the lake will be infilled partially. Originally, the supports were meant to go into the lake, but it looks like they will go into a small part of land within the lake. I guess this is a compromise between having a nice looking lake and ease of maintenance. -The expanded construction area appears to just be for the *full* demolition of Loggers Leap, as opposed to just the bits in the way. So no extended layout. -Construction should start late this year, and the whole process should last 16 months. So Spring 2024 opening Now some more photos: An interesting look at an alternative layout Trees In past applications, we have gotten a look at the design of buildings, etc. But I can't find any of that. Usually we'd even get fencing plans, saying the style, height, material of every fence in an application. Again, doesn't seem to be here. Interesting, in a geeky sorta way. All I can say about the station is it has walls and a metal roof (a roof shouldn't be taken for granted). So there's no clarity on theming, style, colours or anything. Random note: the transfer track is after the station and at the start of the ride, as opposed to at the end of the ride / before the station. Somewhat different.

Official name revealed to be RMC: Really Massive Coaster as a nod - an "easter egg" if you will - as to what people would like to be built. That aside, I agree - would imagine this is going to be theming light, trying to save some £s after the future of theme parks in The Dockyard (TM) didn't quite hit the mark/was an absolute and catastrophic failure and waste of money (delete as appropriate) I jest really mind you - I am every excited that the THORPE PARK RESORT is finally getting something new, and hopefully this will tie in with more tidying up, repainting and improvements that seem to be happening at Chessie & Towers. (That said of course, a moment's silence please for the new Tidal Wave fire effect)

What I love about the Swarm is how it's been so well looked after, with the queueline TVs and the station roof theming looking as good and fresh as the day it was installed 😏 That said - the ride itself is a ruddy beaut, with that flippy over roundy drop (FORD) after the lift hill (LH) never failing to excite, it's fantastic. Smooth as butter and I'm here for it 😍

Can't decide on the theme when they probably haven't decided what IP they want to waste money on (presumably because SwArM wAs A fAiLuRe). Could've had a far more substantial layout too. Which is disappointing. Could still be an Intamin too. Taron's trains are basically the Mack ones.

TPM now has an article up: https://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/14-03-2022/Project+Exodus+Plans+Submitted I'll be updating it over the next day or so. It does give a fairly comprehensive look at everything covered. This is the most interesting thing to me right now. The plans don't reference theming. But what's more, they make very little reference to anything design/style related! The track colour isn't mentioned, aside from the high points being "light in colour". There's no details about the buildings beyond their dimensions. Historically, Thorpe planning applications have also shown what fences would be used in the queues, including material, dimensions, etc. Why this isn't mentioned I'm not sure. Maybe it simply isn't required now? Maybe they plan to submit those details later, if needed? Being 2 years away from opening, there's still plenty of time to finalise these things (even if the park have a solid idea in mind right now). One thing I didn't pick up on, though, was that the position by the lake will be "the main theming feature": That would certainly lend itself to being light on theming, and give us a potential direction of the style of the ride.