Ryan Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 They used the exit ramp as a Fastrack queue this afternoon which was quite annoying as 2 trains of fastrack users went ahead of me when I was stood at the front of the row I was queuing for. It also meant they had a swarm of people clogging up the exit path from right near the steps going down. Hope this doesn't become a regular thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 They used the exit ramp as a Fastrack queue this afternoon which was quite annoying as 2 trains of fastrack users went ahead of me when I was stood at the front of the row I was queuing for. It also meant they had a swarm of people clogging up the exit path from right near the steps going down. Hope this doesn't become a regular thing! It was probably just due to lack of staff maybe? They didn't have enough for someone to be in the queue? Ryan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 I had been meaning to comment on something for ages now. One thing I absoloutely can't stand is when they block off the back row for fastrack/exit passes! This not only reduces the throughput for the main queue drastically, but also means that you can only get (IMO) the best seats if you pay more. Very poor indeed! pognoi and paige 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 I had been meaning to comment on something for ages now. One thing I absoloutely can't stand is when they block off the back row for fastrack/exit passes! This not only reduces the throughput for the main queue drastically, but also means that you can only get (IMO) the best seats if you pay more. Very poor indeed! The vast majority of the time the back row will be closed of for Disabled riders who must ride on the back row (think this is the same for Stealth too?) 9 times out of 10 the normal fastrack queue will be open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olistjj Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 I've noticed before that the back row is used for fastrack when they are using the exit queue, really grinds my gears. pognoi and Coaster 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 Does anyone know the actual percentage of the throughput of a ride which goes towards the main queue. More and more I visit the more and more I fastracks I think they sell. I would like to think that they only allocate a maximum of 10% to fastracks but something tells me its a lot more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 That's appalling! I highly disagree with the concept of slowing the main queue for the fastrack queue, I would say it's the thing I hate most about merlin! Rant over. Thing is any fastrack no matter how it's run will slow down the main queue - reserve n ride is back soon I do think it will be intresting how that can change things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 Thing is any fastrack no matter how it's run will slow down the main queue - reserve n ride is back soon I do think it will be intresting how that can change things.Yes, but there's a difference between it lowering it by 50pph (what it should be) and 50% per hour. Altitude, paige and Cal 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkadder312 Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 I wished they just bring back that Single Rider Queue. I loved it on Saw The Ride opening year. MattyMoo and Coaster 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I wished they just bring back that Single Rider Queue. I loved it on Saw The Ride opening year. I agree. Although I didn't go to Thorpe when they had single riders, at Alton Towers they work really well. It's not affecting the main queue either. I think single riders work really well on rows of 4, instead of 2. I understand they couldn't really have it on Inferno anymore because they don't have space for the queue but if there is an unused que, like on Saw the ride, why not use it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I agree. Although I didn't go to Thorpe when they had single riders, at Alton Towers they work really well. It's not affecting the main queue either. I think single riders work really well on rows of 4, instead of 2. I understand they couldn't really have it on Inferno anymore because they don't have space for the queue but if there is an unused que, like on Saw the ride, why not use it? The problem with Single Rider at thorpe is most of the queues were never designed for it, on rides like Colossus / Inferno single riders slowed down dispatches more than anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Yeah, SRQ needs a dedicated queue for it to have a chance of being effective. You then also need it to be in a sensible place to works well with batching procedures. That's why it caused faff on Stealth. The only ride SRQ actually worked well on I thought was Saw, as by using the Fastrack queue, it did kinda work.As for Fastrack, someone asked the park via email about this a couple of years ago: http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/9845-park-operations/page-3#entry143624The response for those too lazy to click a link: Our Fastrack units have high tech systems in place that take into account the current queue time of each ride, its operational capacity and the number of tickets that have already been sold. There is no specified restriction on the total amount of tickets that can be sold per hour or per ride but are sold to represent a percentage of the overall waiting time for that ride. Here at THORPE PARK we do our best to allocate a certain proportion of tickets per time slot in order to reduce the queuing time for those who have purchased tickets. In light of the information provided above, if the queue times increase, then ultimately so does the number of allocated tickets for those wishing to purchase Fastrack. As previously mentioned Fastrack does not guarantee you access straight on to the ride but acts as an optional service to reduce your wait and I am advised that they are suggested to amount to a third of the queuing time compared to that of the main queue. These figures are constantly monitored and adapted when necessary. Whether this is still the system they use now I don't know. It's worth saying (so we don't go into a time machine and have the same argument as we did then), this is not saying that Fastrack is unlimited. What's being said here is that there's no upper bound to the the number of tickets sold; the number available is proportional to the time of the queue. There's no 'target' if you will that says 'We want to sell x number of Fastrack tickets today'. It is still possible for tickets to sell out though, since if the queue for a ride is consistently the same, then they can reach this maximum number. Given the suggestion that a Fastrack queue is meant to be a third of the waiting time of the ordinary queue, this is where problems to the system could come in, due to the simple fact the queue times change so, so much. It's not too hard to imagine a situation whereby one Fastrack ticket is sold when the main queue is 90mins. another sold when the main queue is 60mins and they both visit the ride at the same time. Then how should that be handled? It's a difficult one... I still don't really know how I feel about this system. It tries to take into account the fluidity of the queues, yet that's also a big flaw in it. I think one thing which needs to happen with Fastrack is that time slots need to be as strict as possible; this can minimise the number of people in the Fastrack queue at any one time, and hopefully control it better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 There are so many ways to solve this fastrack problem. Low numbers of tickets, higher pricing. People will still buy the tickets and queues won't get so ridiculous for either side. It's the way a lot of American parks apply the system and works a lot better then this gamble that the UK parks have become. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Clearly a lack of batcher I'm guessing, and filling up an entire train of Fastrackers was bound to happen if the queue at the exit was reaching down to the exit stairs, due to H&S... Seen it happen with Vampire a few times when the exit queue (prior to the random new entry in Trail of the Kings), blocked up the exit... So really, it was either down to over-selling (meaning the large number of people queuing), or perhaps even a bunch of exit passes had been given out at some point... Mix that in with some poor operations (opening gates when filling train with Fastrackers? That's poor) and voila, bad times for all involved... And understaffed of course, otherwise why would Fastrackers be using the exit anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Dunno why Thorpe don't try what Towers did and build some new queues for Single Rider... Though with the design of some of the queues (let's say, Colossus), it's rather impratical for the park to do such a thing... And Mark9 is quite right, Fastrack can be solved by lowering numbers and increasing price... Or even better would be to improve park-wide operations to ensure that it doesn't directly affect the normal queue as badly as it does currently... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerfuffle Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 ...or if all else fails, just rename it to SlowTrack! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I've never quite understood why Thorpe sell fastrack at the entrance of a ride if the queue time exceeds 90 minutes. This happened when I went back in April, the queue time for Inferno was advertised as 90 minutes, and, as my friend had never been to Thorpe before and she wanted to ride it, we bought fastrack. We were let pretty much straight though up the stairs when we got to the fastrack entrance which shocked me a bit; yeah okay that's pretty much what you're paying for but the fact we got let straight into the queue seriously made me question how 'fair' the normal:fastrack riders ratio really is... I saw multiple times fastrackers being let straight in both before and after I went on Inferno and I know from my own experience in October that, on Inferno atleast, when fastrack is sold on the entrance 1) more fastrack is sold, obviously, and 2) way more fastrackers were being let in than what I would imagine they normally would. On that occassion I spent over 2 hours queuing for Inferno (although someone was sick on it and the park was busier due to FN) yet the normal queue hardly moved, whilst I saw a constant flow of fastrackers going up the stairs. I'd say that when Inferno's queue gets 'big' and they start to sell fastrack at the entrance atleast 2-3 rows are fastrackers alone per ride. I understand that, usually, those who buy fastrack are either those who have never been, or hardly go to Thorpe (in the case of my friend), or, are tourists, but I don't agree with the fact that they try to sell fastrack at the entrance, they literally stopped us and asked if we wanted to purchase fastrack as it'll take 'a third of the normal queuing time' yet we got on in 20 minutes front row, I personally find it rather ridiculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 One problem with the system they use is that if it is based of wait time then they over allocate tickets as the estimated queue times are always too short. Not sure if they over estimate on purpose to encourage sales or its that every ride they work it out wrong. paige 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Does anyone know how Thorpe actually estimate their queue times? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I've never quite understood why Thorpe sell fastrack at the entrance of a ride if the queue time exceeds 90 minutes. This happened when I went back in April, the queue time for Inferno was advertised as 90 minutes, and, as my friend had never been to Thorpe before and she wanted to ride it, we bought fastrack. We were let pretty much straight though up the stairs when we got to the fastrack entrance which shocked me a bit; yeah okay that's pretty much what you're paying for but the fact we got let straight into the queue seriously made me question how 'fair' the normal:fastrack riders ratio really is... I saw multiple times fastrackers being let straight in both before and after I went on Inferno and I know from my own experience in October that, on Inferno atleast, when fastrack is sold on the entrance 1) more fastrack is sold, obviously, and 2) way more fastrackers were being let in than what I would imagine they normally would. On that occassion I spent over 2 hours queuing for Inferno (although someone was sick on it and the park was busier due to FN) yet the normal queue hardly moved, whilst I saw a constant flow of fastrackers going up the stairs. I'd say that when Inferno's queue gets 'big' and they start to sell fastrack at the entrance atleast 2-3 rows are fastrackers alone per ride. I understand that, usually, those who buy fastrack are either those who have never been, or hardly go to Thorpe (in the case of my friend), or, are tourists, but I don't agree with the fact that they try to sell fastrack at the entrance, they literally stopped us and asked if we wanted to purchase fastrack as it'll take 'a third of the normal queuing time' yet we got on in 20 minutes front row, I personally find it rather ridiculous. I'd imagine that the tickets they're selling outside of rides are coming out of the overall allocation anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Does anyone know how Thorpe actually estimate their queue times? yes they pick a number at random and type it in as the queue time. TPJames, Kerfuffle, Coaster and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I'd imagine that the tickets they're selling outside of rides are coming out of the overall allocation anyway? Even on a day as busy as FN? I can't see them having that much spare on a day like that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 No they do not. They have data recorded and know the average queue time from points in the queue depending on if the rides on 1/ 2 trains etc. of course this isn't an exact science and depends on many many things (not just fastrack) paige 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 I can understand that Fast tracks need to get straight on, if you are paying for fast track and have to queue I can see that dissapointing and understand why people complain. What I don't understand is why they don't seem to have a limit on the amount of Fast tracks sold for a certain time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerfuffle Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Does anyone know how Thorpe actually estimate their queue times? Don't mean to kill Project LC's joke, but this is how it's really done: Firstly, on a ride like Colossus, loading time often takes around 2 minutes and (as all of you know) it's 28 people per train, so that's about 840 people an hour on Colossus (Divide 60 minutes by 2 and that gives you the total loading time in an hour, times that by the 28 riders for the total riders per hour), meaning if you're stood behind 840 people or more while queueing for Colossus, prepare for an hour's wait for a 60 second long experience!... ...now the question is...how to make an estimate for the number of TPM members fast asleep at their computer screens after reading this! paige 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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