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Finally, after thousands of launches over several years, the one thing I never wanted, I had a rollback today. Within a couple of hours of telling several people that I never wanted one, it happened. The power of the launch failed about half way down the run and we barely rose three quarters up the vertical. Still they could not get me a cuppa..........and after rolling us back to the platform, we were off within fifteen minutes.

Rode yesterday 3 times - rows 4, 6 and 7. Have to say - the operations were impeccable, both loading and getting the trains out, and the queueing system which worked faultlessly. Credit where credit is due there, brilliant stuff. Managed to get on when the queue hit it's lowest point of 60 minutes for our second ride as we just came off the - ever failing it seems - Colossus. FYI, we got to the park at 9am, got into the queue for Hyperia before the SAW photo area and we ended up riding at 10.30 so cannot complain one bit to be honest. First ride itself was pure euphoria, absolutely incredible. That hill just keeps going and going - especially when not at the front! Drop was great and punchy - loved the outer bank towards the motorway but the hangtime stall element is just bonkers. Loved it. 2nd ride of the day definitely seemed faster/more intense, as did the 3rd later on in the day. Such an awesome atmosphere in the area, everyone excited, whooping and clapping on the trains. The Hyperia shows were a nice touch too. Well done all round - I will say they might need to replace some of the plants though as they tend to need water, and some are very brown 😄 Mad that this ride is in the UK to be honest!

In answer to your question re Swarms restraints, yes they have been altered. Before, the vests would lock in place when the train was dispatched. This season they no longer lock in place. Much more comfy and I can actually breathe on the breakrun now 🤣

Unsure if Colossus' new PLC means they can unlock individual restrains. One thing I have noticed though is before they had to lift up every restraint regardless if someone was going to be sitting there or not, with the new PLC they can just leave restraints down. Helps speed up ops on quiet days but obviously won't really have an impact on busy days when throughput matters. Stealths single rider is an interesting one. The park haven't added it as they're worried it'll make the throughput worse and I can kind of see that, every visit I've had this year they haven't batched people into rows and just flood the airgates with guests. It definitely slows things down having to close restrains when no ones sitting there, but would it slow things down more batching people into rows, as well as dealing with the Fasttrack and RAP queue? It all depends if they could keep up. Good throughput on Swarm there @Mattgwise. I've found it to be pretty terrible this year and seen it stacking most of the time, think not having the bag drop really shows things down. Your reading does show though they can still get a good throughput though with the right team. I was thinking though, on peak days (Saturdays and school holidays etc) they should open Swarms bag drop to help with throughputs similar to what Towers do with Smiler and Thirteen? All depends how much it helps with throughputs though only Thorpe will have them stats.

I got some interesting throughput readings and operational insights from my recent visit to Thorpe Park, if anyone’s interested. Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains): 594pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 3) Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 1,067pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 8 ) Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars): 788pph (unknown number of cars, 10th June 2024, average of 8 ) Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains): 782pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 4) Note: There was an instance of guest faff on 1 or 2 of these readings, so a consistent figure may have been above 800pph without this. The dispatch time seemed to be 90s or a bit below when the ride was running smoothly. The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains): 1,063pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 6) In terms of some more general operational insights: Operations on Inferno were awesome. It was very rarely stacking, and stacking for only a short period when it did. It didn't stack on any of my 3 rides, anyway. Great job! Operations on The Swarm were also fantastic. The ride was frequently not stacking or stacking for only a very short period; on all 3 of my rides, it either didn’t stack or only stacked for a matter of around 10 seconds! I think Stealth could really do with a single rider queue or some means of filling empty seats. It seemed to really slow things down when the operators had to push down the restraint of an empty seat, what with how bulky those old Intamin OTSRs are. I noticed that operations on Saw were sometimes slowed down somewhat by holdups at the baggage hold, with the airgates occasionally being empty when a duo of cars turned up ready to load guests. Baggage holds normally improve throughputs substantially, but here, it oddly almost seemed to be taking away from the throughput (?). The pre-loading screens that the park have invested in currently seem a bit redundant, with nothing actually being shown on them. Overall, then, I’d say that operations at Thorpe Park were pretty good. The main weak link was Colossus, which returned a pretty weak figure, but I’ve long come to expect that from Colossus, and it’s understandable given the cramped and bulky nature of the ride vehicles and restraints. Inferno and Swarm had absolutely stellar operations, with little to no stacking being frequent, and Saw was also doing about as well as can be expected from a ride of that nature. I’ll be interested to see how Hyperia compares operationally whenever I eventually get on that!