Single rider at Thorpe Park

[Cal]

I've only ever used single rider queues at Alton Towers and I think they're great! I never went to Thorpe park at the time when they were using the single rider ques for some of the rides. Every time I've seen or asked why they got rid of it they've always said people misused it. I just saw this on Facebook replying to someone.

 

 

 

We used to operate single rider queues but no longer do so due to abuse of the system which slowed down the queue for everyone.

How were people misusing the system? The system is for people who are willing to ride alone, I don't see how it can be misused? 

 

Also how did this lead to slowing down the queue for everyone else? 

[Benin]

Is that an actual quote from Thorpe? Not particularly a great choice of words...

 

In theory, single rider shouldn't be slowing a queue down if run properly, so I'm not sure on that excuse either... The only 'abuse' there is of a single rider queue is that you can do a lot of rides in a minimal amount of time (I remember the days of doing 10 rides on Inferno in a row)... It might slow the dispatch down due to faffy people but would that have caused a direct issue with the actual queuetime?

 

Probably had lots of groups have rage because they couldn't ride together or something, and in Thorpe's case a lot of the queues were poorly placed (ESPECIALLY Inferno's), so some H&S issues there...

[Coaster]

There is no way to 'abuse' a single rider queue so that is rubbish.  The only way is idiots expecting to ride together despite it being a Single Rider Queue, which I don't take as a valid excuse as the staff should simply tell them to leave, and get security to eject them from the park if they refuse to leave.

[Project LC]

The way it was abused was mainly on saw where groups of people would use the single rider queue and jump under the fence and join the main queue. So they were just cutting a 2 hour queue. The real reason was that on off peak days they had to employ an extra person which they don't really need.

[Cal]

Is that an actual quote from Thorpe? Not particularly a great choice of words...

 

It was indeed what Thorpe said themselves, yes. 

 

 

The way it was abused was mainly on saw where groups of people would use the single rider queue and jump under the fence and join the main queue. So they were just cutting a 2 hour queue. The real reason was that on off peak days they had to employ an extra person which they don't really need.

 

They don't need to employ an extra staff for single riders, the batcher sorts them out.

 

Where was the single rider queue for Saw? Is it just the current Fast track one? If it is then people can still do the exact same, go under the chain. 

[Project LC]

Saws fastrack has a gate which merges it with the main queue, however for single riders the gate switched to force people up the single rider queue, but the second they made it up the first flight of stairs they just ducked under the railing. Back when the single rider queues were in use Thorpe wasn't so busy and didn't always have enough staff to have someone allocate people to bays and then add single riders. So they removed them to save money.

[Cal]

Saws fastrack has a gate which merges it with the main queue, however for single riders the gate switched to force people up the single rider queue, but the second they made it up the first flight of stairs they just ducked under the railing. 

 

The thing is though that shouldn't of affected all of the other rides, they could of just stopped it on Saw. Also, this could of been resolved by making it so people couldn't go under it, or even simply put netting there.

[Project LC]

They would have stopped it for more than one reason. However the saw queue jumping was a constant one.

[Mark9]

They would have stopped it for more than one reason. However the saw queue jumping was a constant one.

 

In my own experience as an ex ride operator, single riders can be the most un safety conscious of the lot. On rides like Inferno, Colossus and Fury where the Single rider queue was up the exit, they had an almost cavalier attitude to the rides day to day running. I should know, I was one of the Inferno single rider crew and some of the peoples attitudes towards the ride staff was disgusting. Openly rude, telling the staff how to do their jobs and telling off normal members of the public who decided to join the SRQ.

 

That being said, it shouldn't have been removed from Stealth where it was actually part of the batching design. It all went wrong for rides like Samurai and Vortex where fastrack became more wide spread as I believed it worked well on the flat rides.

[Cal]

That being said, it shouldn't have been removed from Stealth where it was actually part of the batching design. It all went wrong for rides like Samurai and Vortex where fastrack became more wide spread as I believed it worked well on the flat rides.

 

I could imagine it working quite well on them, especially on Samurai you always see spare seats.

[Marc]

In my own experience as an ex ride operator, single riders can be the most un safety conscious of the lot. On rides like Inferno, Colossus and Fury where the Single rider queue was up the exit, they had an almost cavalier attitude to the rides day to day running. I should know, I was one of the Inferno single rider crew and some of the peoples attitudes towards the ride staff was disgusting. Openly rude, telling the staff how to do their jobs and telling off normal members of the public who decided to join the SRQ.

 

I expect when the park refer to it being abused, this is the kind of stuff they mean.

 

I agree it worked well on Stealth as that queue was designed with it in mind, but even then it works better now that they dont have disabled guests queueing at the exit.

[Benin]

In my own experience as an ex ride operator, single riders can be the most un safety conscious of the lot. On rides like Inferno, Colossus and Fury where the Single rider queue was up the exit, they had an almost cavalier attitude to the rides day to day running. I should know, I was one of the Inferno single rider crew and some of the peoples attitudes towards the ride staff was disgusting. Openly rude, telling the staff how to do their jobs and telling off normal members of the public who decided to join the SRQ.

 

Just goes to show that some enthusiasts will always think they know better than park employees simply because they're enthusiasts...

 

Interesting to see that Saw's single rider (which was always a temporary measure as Fastrack wasn't being operated just after it opened), seems to have been the root cause of Thorpe's dislike of SRQs... Of course, they could've solved it by not having short fences in the middle of the queue, but I guess that would've costed money to fix...

 

I think it does occur at Towers though mind, given the layout of bag holds on Smiler and Thirteen... Unless the batcher is being decent and not just letting everyone through at once...

[planenut]

It is difficult on some rights to arrange for single rider access.

The staff are under some pressure to fill rides so it is a helpful filler for the empty odd seats.

They did get larger groups who were together, forming up in that queue, supposedly prepared to split to occupy single seats, and then they would be the stroppy ones who did not want to separate from their mates, for thirty seconds.

Not having SRQ reduces some aggravation for the operators but doesn't help them when managers moan that they have empty seats.

[pognoi]

Exactly.

The only form of abuse I have witnessed is groups of people going into single rider queues and getting seated together, or causing a fuss. (On the smiler last year a couple were infront of me and kicked up a fuss about not riding together so in the next train they got seats next to eachother when there was a pair waiting in the normal queue... tutt tutt.)

Single riders would be great to get back, and maybe even do an alton towers and merge some of the fast track queues with single rider queues. It'll also be good because then if the fasttrack and single rider queues are merged/close together they'll still only need one attendant to op the system.

[Coaster]

Exactly.

The only form of abuse I have witnessed is groups of people going into single rider queues and getting seated together, or causing a fuss. (On the smiler last year a couple were infront of me and kicked up a fuss about not riding together so in the next train they got seats next to eachother when there was a pair waiting in the normal queue... tutt tutt.)

Why?!  It's called Single Rider for a reason!  Should have been told to go away.

[pognoi]

Exactly. Everyone was hot and bothered and I sure hope the couple in the proper queue got something for their patience

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[Coaster]

Exactly. Everyone was hot and bothered and I sure hope the couple in the proper queue got something for their patience

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If I had been in the proper queue I would have asked the staff why they did that!

If they don't enforce the rules then how can they expect the public to take notice of them?

[JoshC.]

I personally felt that Single Rider never really worked with Stealth.  Too much faffing about and by the time staff realised there was a spare seat, it took so long for them to get a single rider, let them drop off their bag and then get to their seat that it would just hold up the ride a little bit.

 

If you're going to have a SRQ on a ride, the queue lines needs to be incorporated; it's too difficult to shove it in with a Fastrack queue, exit queue or disabled queue.  In saying that, I thought SRQ worked well on Saw, and I rarely found it possible that you'd be able to jump in the main queue from the SRQ as staff would always be watching to ensure you didn't do that.  

 

I just don't think SRQ will ever really work at Thorpe.  Just not enough space for it to work in my opinion.  It's a shame really, but I just can't see it ever working.

[Fred]

Single Riders don't really work at Towers either - it's just the people who are using them (or more likely abusing them) who think they're a great idea.

 

They slow down throughputs insanely, Single Riders are literally the worst complainers in the world and out of anyone are most likely to be threatening.

 

Thorpe didn't even have proper SR queues so that would've made things even worse - literally they're not worth the extra money, time and aggro just to fill a measley few seats.

 

Thorpe could do better with their wording (they're awful at wording things.. read everything they write on Twitter and you'll see), but I completely stand by them on this one. Particularly when some moron was arguing with them on Twitter about it the other week.

[Project LC]

well I gave up on respecting Thorpe's media when they said they got good feedback on reserve and ride. Funny they say SRQ was abused when they have just created a system which is the easiest thing to abuse in all of history.

[planenut]

They slow down throughputs insanely, Single Riders are literally the worst complainers in the world and out of anyone are most likely to be threatening.

 

Thorpe didn't even have proper SR queues so that would've made things even worse - literally they're not worth the extra money, time and aggro just to fill a measley few seats.

 

 

A sweeping statement; if used properly in batching, prior to loading then the load will be full, not if used to hold a train to try and fill a single empty seat.

 

As previously said, some rides cannot accommodate SRQ's, and on some rides, it doesn't actually exist until one is at the platform, and I'm not citing any rides at Thorpe.

[Cal]

Single Riders don't really work at Towers either - it's just the people who are using them (or more likely abusing them) who think they're a great idea.

 

They slow down throughputs insanely, Single Riders are literally the worst complainers in the world and out of anyone are most likely to be threatening.

 

 

On the majority of rides like Oblivion, The Smiler, Thirteen and Air throughput are not being decreased, nor are they having to pay more money for staff. On all of these rides there are batchers anyway, who batch both the normal queue and the single rider queue. Only on rides like Nemesis they slow down throughputs sometimes, and most of the time from my experience I'd say it doesn't.

[Fred]

Not a sweeping statement, speaking purely from experience.

 

The Smiler is the closest to perfection that they have for Single Riders, yet they still have people going up Singles steps to then run down and join the main queue. Aggro, which is not needed. Then if there's no empty seats they become *very* aggressive with the loading host.

 

ThorpeAddict - The throughputs are being decreased through having to manage the system correctly. The Smiler when run efficiently doesn't have time to let singles through and then start loading main queue through without running out of main queueline in the station. Air only runs to one station and requires more staff to run it efficiently. Oblivion runs awfully as guests queue jump.

 

Nemesis it decreases *massively*. Massively. The 10-20 seconds extra it takes to load a single rider every single train adds up over the hour (when you can dispatch 50 trains on Nemesis). That's without any complications such as needing to put bags away, going to the wrong row, making the main queue confused, trying to get their mates to join them etc.

 

Talking from experience.

[Cal]

ThorpeAddict - The throughputs are being decreased through having to manage the system correctly. The Smiler when run efficiently doesn't have time to let singles through and then start loading main queue through without running out of main queueline in the station. Air only runs to one station and requires more staff to run it efficiently. Oblivion runs awfully as guests queue jump.

 

Nemesis it decreases *massively*. Massively. The 10-20 seconds extra it takes to load a single rider every single train adds up over the hour (when you can dispatch 50 trains on Nemesis). That's without any complications such as needing to put bags away, going to the wrong row, making the main queue confused, trying to get their mates to join them etc.

 

Talking from experience.

 

Fair enough then, I'm only talking from my experience here where the single rider queues seems to run well when I'm there. On Nemesis in between the time when the train got dispatched and came back in the staff looking at the bays and then noted what rows they need to run single riders to. As soon as the air gates opened, they let the single riders on and the single riders seemed to be quicker to get in there seats than guests from the normal queue line as they had to go to the other side of the platform to put there bags on. This therefore is not slowing down the throughput at all. 

[Fred]

On those occasions it won't affect throughput, but that'll be extremely rare. For every 10 good trains, you'll have about 12 slow trains. Also depends purely on staff, and you won't always get amazing staff (or enough staff to run it). Nemesis is another one where you have a host *purely* for single riders.

[planenut]

From my experience, which is on the customer side, if batched properly, it works, if not anticipated, but assessed once the ride is loaded then it will delay.

Not sure where is meant that "guests jump queues on Oblivion single riders line"? I thought it ran up to the top and one had to wait, there was a chain across the entrance?