coasterverse

Falling at the first hurdle already. On the passholder group, somebody mentioned that they're visiting on the 15th April and wish to ride Ghost Train, to which Thorpe responded with "We don't want to make you disappointed but it's very unlikely to be open on this date, but just another reason to come back 😉", so whilst March 23rd isn't entirely out of the question, the fact that mid-April seems to not even be on the cards at the minute, I'd say that March 23rd is very, very unlikely. A bit of an obvious observation regarding the least popular ride at Thorpe, considering Ghost Train in its current (or should I say, previous) iteration was exactly that and the confirmation that the ride system will remain the same, I think it leaves little to be desired. Considering the lineup of thrill attractions at the park, I don't think anybody would ever see a ghost train as a highlight attraction. It's certainly a welcome member of the Thorpe Park lineup, but seriously doubt anybody (or at least, a very small number of people) visiting the park, regardless of how well received the attraction will be on opening, will say that Ghost Train would be even on their top 5 attractions at the park. The Network Rail sponsorship, again not very likely. The park have already confirmed that the attraciton is a unique IP, and although it wouldn't be Network Rail's intelectual property (I very much doubt they'd want to be seen as promoting an attraction in which a train goes wrong... which will most likely be a key storytelling element on this attraction!), a theme park attraction sponsored by a transport company is an interesting prediction, and one that if does come true would certainly be a left-field decision for sure! One thing I do agree on, however, is that this very likely won't be an attraction that'll be around for very long - although I think your estimates of 2025/26 are a little bold. I think we'll see it around for another 5 years at least before it's pencilled as a location for, probably, a new coaster or at the very least gutted inside for another completely new, from the ground up, dark ride.

Yeah they did mention that some good references are Beeston and Kettering stations (although looking them up shows nothing quite on the scale of Thorpe Junction... but I get what they're trying to say I guess 😂)

😪

I don't actually... hate it? I mean, I'm still not a fan of the clear misalignment of the victorian and modern theme (as seen in the '1871' on the side of the building still visabily present), but judging that they're able to get it fairly close to that concept art, I think it could actually look pretty good. Just need to remember to ignore the rest of the victorian building 😂 Very interesting indeed. Either way, I can't wait to get inside and see what's been cooking up - good or bad.

Especially when they said this idea has been in development for over a year!!

I've also noticed something that frightens me a little (not in the good sense, either...) The popup dolls house for The Curse At Alton Manor had lots of glow in the dark/UV paint on the inside - and judging from the promotional video, those runes on the outside of the building have a very similar vibe. I get that it's just a promotional video and may not actually have any influence of what's going on inside of the building, but it would be VERY typical Merlin for them to utilise the same sort of style in both dark attractions opening this year. I absolutely despise UV paint in scare attractions - I think it looks tacky and horrific. I really hope they're not going down this route for Ghost Train where they're utilising either glow in the dark or UV paint to reveal some crap storyline in the old train crash room or something, but it's really something I can see them doing. Just imagine it. You're all stood around in the room, thinking you're safe - all of a sudden, the lights go out and UV/glow in the dark paint is revealed on the walls revealing that you have actually fallen into the ghost's trap... a monster of some sort appears as a scare, you're all ushered quickly back onto the train. Sounds exactly like something Merlin would do, but bloody hell that would be so cliché. I really hope it remains as an awful scenario I made up in my head and not turned into reality.

I really hope so. I also understand wanting some level of secrecy with the plans for the ride, but we have literally zero knowledge of what the new storyline is going to be inside that building, other than that it is set in a modern-ish train station between 1970 and 1990. We've had press releases and information about what there is to expect for The Curse at Alton Manor... but absolutely nothing for Ghost Train. This alone worries me massively.

Not really, no. The common theme with DBGT was that they had lots of fantastic ideas, but fell short on all of them. They should've done something like: "There are rumours that when you enter this room, you will see a victorian train, and legend has it that it has powers to transport you to another dimension... but here's the twist! How is this possible... WHEN IT IS SUSPENDED BY CHAINS!?" *dun dun duuuuuuuuun, thunder clap, lights go out* or some other cliché like that. But no, they just gave you some crap backstory about SubCore, told you to memorise a code, the door opens to the carriage room and you're quickly ushered into the train. They never gave you enough time to stand there and take it all in - they sure as hell never made any effort to mention it to you. So, unless there was a holdup of some sort, most people wouldn't even notice. The same thing with the whole tube train interior - nobody ever mentioned why this was a thing. It's cool, don't get me wrong, but what was the point? I think it would've been better if it was literally just a victorian steamtrain, interior and all. But, alas, it does go to show just how... interesting... the attraction was when you reflect back on it and the main highlight was an effect that none of the actors so much as even mentioned once. Oh, and the demon finale was good too even with the generic coughing man in white t-shirt' getup - although it was much better with the demon costume. (I'm sorry to keep bringing the damn demon costume up, I'm still mad about it)

I would be willing to bet everything I own that this will be the case, unfortunately. Literally the best thing it had going for it. Just when you thought the bar for the attraction couldn't be set any lower, right?!

The victorian theme is totally gone... an odd decision when the facade to the showbuilding is literally just that. They can paint the queueline section whatever colours they like, but still doesn't change the fact that the actual building itself is quite clearly giving 'abandoned victorian train station' vibes.

What on earth was wrong with the old colour scheme?!

Discovered ElevenLabs' AI text to speech tool today, where you can upload audio files of anybody talking and it converts it into text to speech. After a little while thinking about who I could upload, for some reason my brain went to Piers Morgan (the bloke talks a lot, didn't think it wouldn't be hard to grab a short audio clip of him! 😂). I also managed to clone Derren Brown's voice and wondered what the Ghost Train preshow audio would sound like if I used text to speech for it. It was actually pretty good! And then I decided to see what it would sound like if Piers Morgan was the face of the attraction instead... take a look for yourself hahahaha ahh boo ahh boo

At this rate I wouldn't be at all surprised if they just name the coaster '236'

wow what a surprise it’s a mack

It’d be pretty damn impressive if they managed to make it worse 😂 I don’t know why, but I’ve got a real good feeling about this. I think with all the investment Merlin are doing at the minute (Jumunji, Nemesis, Sub-Terra, Curse at Alton Manor, Exodus, all the general wear & tear improvements to the Swarm queue line, and now Ghost Train), Merlin are clearly looking to seriously improve all their parks which until now has been severely lacking. The way I see it is, Merlin have missed the mark twice now with both 2016 and 2017 iterations of Ghost Train, now they’ll be knuckling down to ensure it’s done right. The lack of IP attached too means they have complete freedom and not held back by any third parties. I think we might, finally, be seeing a good few dark rides in the UK. Words cannot describe my excitement for the UK theme park industry this season and beyond.

I'd imagine this is just Thorpe Park themselves being scared of releasing anything that I guess is technically Derren's intelectual property (although, I very much doubt he would care at all as he clearly washed his hands with it fairly quickly after opening). I would really, really like the full HD footage of the VR sections though - if not for anything else but archival sake. Putting my annoyance about the demon costume aside (although I'll never forgive Thorpe for that), is it weird that the video is slightly... nostalgic? Weird considering it's the newest massive investment for the park and that it's already closing a mere 6 years after debut. It's bittersweet for an attraction that never really fulfilled its full potential, but I'm optimistic it's for the best and that the new attraction this year will vastly surpass it (although it doesn't exactly have massive shoes to fill).

Nice to know they could dig the demon costume out for Silkstone but not for the general public

Incredible 👏 I bet the view on SAW is going to be insane too. I can't wait!

I really don’t know how to feel about it… on one hand - having a café at the park is a really good shout and I’m all for another food outlet for a wider array of food choice (especially if it allows MAP discount!), but on the other hand I think the vibe of the café really ruins the aesthetic. It’s too modern. Nothing about the café screams “Ghost Train” to me. The Ghost Train Shop was at least well themed to look like a dark, dingy shop - it fitted the aesthetic! The exterior of the building is an abandoned train depot, walk though the doors of the Last Call Café aaaaaand… it’s a bright, vibrant café.

Turns out my question has already been answered! Over a year's planning is a substantial amount of planning for an attraction to be honest when you think that the ride system and exterior building are already in place anyway, so it's just the storyline and new interior you have to actually plan! I really do have faith in this new attraction... don't let me down, Thorpe!

I'd like to think that they going to really take this one seriously to try to make a success out of it after a lacklustre launch period in 2016/17. On one hand I am concerned that there has been absolutely zero official pre-warning about this retheme unlike Duel which makes me question the amount of pre-planning that's gone into this attraction... but on the other hand, like I said, I am hopeful that the park (and probably the execs in Merlin) have finally accepted the technical financial failure that was DBGT and are going to do everything in their power to turn it around. I guess they were probably limited on things that they could've done with the attraction with Derren's brand associated with it as they didn't want to stray too far from his original ideas, probably for legal reasons. No longer having his IP associated with the attraction might hopefully let them spread their wings a bit more and make something totally brand new. Wonder what's gonna happen with the pre-show room... I actually really liked the pepper's ghost effect. That was really well done.

I’d probably say the potential for this to be re-rideable is probably going to be less than the original. At least the original had various different VR scenarios you could experience, but how do they make a predominantly actor-led attraction re-rideable? Will be interesting to see! Perhaps they could bring the fake shop back but have various different endings. Maybe different characters, sometimes bypassing it completely, not sure. I’m sure there’s SOMETHING they could do to it to make it less predictable.

Officially confirmed to be a Merlin Magic Making project and not Thorpe doing it themselves! This project just gets more and more exciting…

(Moving the discussion from the 2023 Thorpe Park topic into a place slightly more relevant) Actually, speaking of the costume it might not be as expensive as I originally thought... If you remember back to the 2021 20 Years of Fear Thorpe Park teaser trailers they put out (see below for a reminder), they pretty much already have a costume that basically exactly resembles the ghostly figure on the Ghost Train promotional material. The hooded figure, long gross fingernails... they literally already own a costume that almost fully resembles the figure on the promo material. They could easily just repurpose this costume for the fake shop ending. (Man I hope they keep the fake shop ending) Here's another gander at the new Ghost Train branding for reference:

As Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon has been rethemed, I thought it'd be a good idea to start a new thread on the new iteration just to make things easier for archival sake. Discuss away!