July 10, 201510 yr comment_212799 In fairness, there isn't much that can be done if a train is broken and cannot be used... Big difference between being lazy and being unable to actually use... But then you have to question why it can't be used. I know that theme parks will have problems, but why does it happen so often at Thorpe when compared with other parks? Colossus spent about two months on one train at the start of the season, X has only just started running three trains this year, the list goes on.
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212800 Gotta bear in mind that these modern trains are ridiculously complicated (not like say, Big Dipper's, which are buzz bars), the more complex a device, the more that can go wrong with it... Either simple or complicated fixes... Thorpe's issues go back longer than this year alone mind, but it's been widely publicised about their maintanance budget issues this year, I would assume it's either sheer dumb unlucky times, or just that lack of budget and engineers is causing all the issues...
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212802 I think all the aging rides with not the same level of up keep as the bigger places may have something to do with it as well. Long term maintenance issues and now budget cuts to the engineering team is causing more issues than it otherwise should have. Then of course you have the problem of throughput with the rides in the first place. When a ride is left on 1 train the rest of the park does not have the capacity to deal with it. When Colossus was on 1 train presumably saw got most of those people. A ride which can barely deal with the number of people it normally gets anyway. If the coasters could deal with 1300-1100 people per hour I'm sure queues would be much more bearable. Instead most coasters are in the 1100-900 area. If they all just had 100pph more then that's like a whole new flat ride. So as a result when a ride was stuck on 1 train the park would have queues on the same level as a normal day now.
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212806 I wouldn't put the problem of more trains seemingly breaking at Thorpe than say at Towers down to the maintenance budget or whatever. The trains are all going to be highly maintained to an exceptional level. Even with that, things break. Colossus's trains have always been known for breaking and taking ages to repair (one was out of use a whole FN season a few years back), Swarm's trains had an awful first season with certain rows being unavailable on each train for prolonged amount of times. So I wouldn't say the trains don't receive the attention and care they would at Towers, Merlin are meticulous with safety (and even more so now), the problem will probably just lie in the fact there isn't enough engineers or whatever to fix these broken trains as quickly as they could be at Towers so the effect is much more noticeable. Opening on one train is a mix of maintenance budget and park staffing budget. Some days they don't get enough staff in early enough to have all rides on two trains from the word go (say you could have 2 Stealth members turn up at 11 for the second train to be added) so it's a general park thing the one train at opening issue and has been for a long long time, it's not necessarily acceptable but the argument will go on for years. Plus, they do open on two trains quite a lot during peak seasons, Merlin just need to set better budgets to the parks in general for the park managers to be able to sensibly use the money (think of it as Thorpe open on one train to save money, Towers open areas at 11 to save money, both as bad as each other). Colossus and Inferno and to an extent Stealth being in the 900-1000 area is acceptable, the park was still small back then, larger capacity wasn't needed. Saw is an odd case, the park wanted a higher throughput, Merlin requested for an over 1000pph ride but with what they wanted from the ride as well it just never happened and Swarm can get 1200 easily. A rides throughput is almost irrelevant anyway, yes you should always aim high but it's not a huge issue. If people are willing to queue 2 hours for Saw they will irrespective of if its 1000pph or 500pph. It's like the argument of people will be queueing two hours for the flats when R'nR is in full swing, will they though? Will people CHOOSE to wait 2 hours for Vortex, doesn't matter to the public how many people can get on the ride in an hour, they'll either queue or they won't. IAC hasn't properly gone over 60 minutes yet because people won't wait that long for it, not because it's a slow queue but because they don't think it's worth it. How does Colossus being on one train mean people will ride Saw instead? If they want to ride Colossus they will, they'll make the decision based on a queue time, not one train op. Beginning of the season Colossus would get 2 hours due to its one train op but Saw would be at its normal 60 minutes that it would have had anyway, one train op only noticeably affects the ride one train op is occurring. Swarm was 2 hours one train yesterday, Inferno 50, Colossus 40 and Stealth 45. They'd have been that even if Swarm was on 2 trains because that's how busy the park was. Swarm would have had a 50 minute queue if it had 2 trains, that's all that would have really changed. You can throw as much maths at it as you want but what happens in reality is very different. Anyway, Swarm's fire was working yesterday for the first time in a good while!
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212809 Swarms fire has been working for a long time. Throughput for a ride is irrelevant? If people wait 2 hours for saw because it looks good they get off and its a let down then the person will be quite dissatisfied. If saw had a throughput of 1700pph then the ride would struggle to ever reach a 2 hour queue so only waiting an hour for a let down the customer wouldn't be as disappointed so would be happier and more willing to spend money in shops. If all rides had a higher throughput then all queues would be shorter people would be happier and again people spend more.
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212813 How does Colossus being on one train mean people will ride Saw instead? If they want to ride Colossus they will, they'll make the decision based on a queue time, not one train op. I might have read that wrong but haven't you just answered your own question? If Colossus is on 1 train the queue time with be longer, therefore alot of people might decide to go on Saw instead which will have a shorter queue? That's what I'd do
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212814 Yes and no, I was showing that although a few people might decide against it because of the longer queue, when you look at the comparative queue times when Colossus was on one train against Saw, Saw was no busier than it would usually be, only Colossus had the overly large queue so it's effect on the whole Park and other rides was minimal (obviously people aren't happy and Colossus should have had a much shorter queue but it didn't affect the rest of the park drastically). As with the fire, the times I went in June it wasn't working so I was just commenting that it was as it has clearly been broken or very temperamental.
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212818 Again JoshC is correct... The park do not make up queue times to sell fastrack. The operators update their queue times as soon as there is a noticeable change. I really wish people would get over this. It does not happen. I'd disagree with you there my friend.. I have SEEN staff at the entrance selling fast-track and claiming that there is a 60 minute queue when you can clearly see that there is NO queue, with the ride being a walk on.. In fact, I even made a complaint about it...
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212819 Swarms fire has been working for a long time. Throughput for a ride is irrelevant? If people wait 2 hours for saw because it looks good they get off and its a let down then the person will be quite dissatisfied. If saw had a throughput of 1700pph then the ride would struggle to ever reach a 2 hour queue so only waiting an hour for a let down the customer wouldn't be as disappointed so would be happier and more willing to spend money in shops. If all rides had a higher throughput then all queues would be shorter people would be happier and again people spend more. I'm sure someone will come along shortly to explain what on earth you just posted. Also, if your "Swarms fire has been working for a long time." means less than two days then you'd be right as it wasn't working at all on Wednesday, this week.
July 10, 201510 yr Author comment_212823 I'd disagree with you there my friend.. I have SEEN staff at the entrance selling fast-track and claiming that there is a 60 minute queue when you can clearly see that there is NO queue, with the ride being a walk on.. In fact, I even made a complaint about it... There's a difference between what the staff selling Fastrack claim the queue length is and what the queue board time is though. Queue board times are controlled by different people, and they aim to be as accurate as possible. They won't inflate the queue time to sell Fastracks. The people by the entrance won't aim for accuracy, and will instead aim to sell you Fastrack however they can. It DOES happen, but not with the queue boards - which should always be seen as the first point of call.
July 10, 201510 yr comment_212825 I'd disagree with you there my friend.. I have SEEN staff at the entrance selling fast-track and claiming that there is a 60 minute queue when you can clearly see that there is NO queue, with the ride being a walk on.. In fact, I even made a complaint about it... Yeah, I have also seen this happen and I don't see how people can claim that they don't occasionally bend the truth when people have seen it with their own eyes. Advertising a queue in excess of 60 minutes when there is no queue is not a mistake.
July 11, 201510 yr comment_212836 Ahh Josh, yes, you're correct. I doubt that the Queue board operators would be responsible for the over-inflation... On the day in question, the queue boards were showing what the guys at the entrance were saying. So I suspected on the day that some-one from the ride (who-ever that may have been) has over inflated it and informed the queue board team (if there is such a thing) of the wrong queue to corroborate their story
August 1, 201510 yr comment_213687 1 train today and there's an hours queue never seen the ride have such a long queue (it never gets a queue this time of day)
August 1, 201510 yr comment_213688 1 train today and there's an hours queue never seen the ride have such a long queue (it never gets a queue this time of day) It was having problems all day when I was there on Wednesday on 2 trains, and from looking at Twitter I think it's been on 1 train since.
August 1, 201510 yr Author comment_213690 You've NEVER seen Swarm get an hour queue in the afternoon?
August 1, 201510 yr comment_213692 Wow it was walk on Tuesday (on two trains) during the afternoon. Dispatch was so slow on Swarm and Nemesis though (lack of staff maybe) that they could have run them both on a single train and it not had made any difference to the queue length.
August 5, 201510 yr comment_214000 For those interested, the video from my lift hill walk experience of Swarm is now live. On top of seeing what the experience entails & witnessing the stunning views, there's a live commentary about some of the technical aspects of the park as well,enjoy.
August 24, 201510 yr Author comment_215805 Noticed some grass had been dug up and some temporary fences put around the destroyed fire engine. Anyone know why?
August 25, 201510 yr comment_215926 And it was also common sense to put that the fire engine had been removed rather than 'it'. It's confusing and an easy mistake to make about the fencing. I do wonder why they have removed the fire engine, maybe they're replacing it with something?
August 25, 201510 yr comment_215945 The fire engine common sense really. Not really common sense when the previous post mentioned a fence being put up, no one expected the fire engine to disappear and you put "it" . I don't post on these forums for rude comments like that! Thanks for your response also Whatever.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.