I've seen this on Swarm too... Selling fast-track when the queue was quite obviously empty. Then, when the member of staff was asked why they were selling fast-track when the queue is quite clearly empty at the merge point (as in, you can SEE it), the staff member simply said "Dunno, targets to hit, innit".
Whether these are determined by Merlin HQ or by Thorpe's local budgeting, it's still simply wrong and quite frankly disgusting. To the point that I'm surprised Trading Standards have not gotten sniff of it yet... I'm sure they'd be very interested... But then you have to question whether Thorpe would then publicly "denounce" the practice but secretly behind the scenes be saying "just don't get caught doing it again".
As for the 1 train operations, this is clearly about money saving. In the times we are in where people (incorrectly) think that we are in a recession, they are looking for value for money. The bottom line here is that if guests don't think they're getting value for money, they simply won't go back... Thorpe's time may be limited (more than they can ever imagine) if they carry on the way they are. This is coupled with the fact that apart from a few selected diamonds in the rough, the staff are just downright rude and aggressive - To the point that as a pass holder I'm reluctant to go, and I technically don't pay to get in... If you pee off your customer base, they will not be your customers any longer. Thorpe need to stop managing their bottom line for the benefit of today and start to manage it for the future - while there is still one.
I'd love to see what an independent Thorpe customer satisfaction survey would reveal. I wonder if Merlin HQ know how people felt about it? It's all good complaining on a forum, but the reality of it is that Thorpe won't care what a group of fan-peeps are saying on a forum when they're just seeing poundsigns and numbers on a spreadsheet (and it appears to work... I mean, why change it if it's working?). Who-ever is the one in charge of operations at Thorpe is either so tied to regulation and requirements from above or clearly has absolutely NO clue what they're doing. Either way, Thorpe is broken and it needs to fixed.. Fast.