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Which major coaster will be the next to go?

Which major coaster will be the next to go?

  • Total voters
    174
I’ve voted Rita, but I don’t think it will be particularly soon. The Project Horizon site, David Williams zone, X Sector flats and Skyride are bigger priorities imho and could keep the park busy for a good few years.
 
Another vote for Rita. I'm sure it's been said, but I reckon it'll go when they have a more modern launch coaster elsewhere in the park to replace it. It's a solid thrill coaster as it is, but that plot of land could house something so much more modern and hopefully world-class.
 
There is a hell of a lot of force applied on the bottom, and in a very awkward place for access if any track needed to come out. It all depends on how well it was designed, and has been maintained.

If B&M were talking about withdrawing technical support from Nemesis after 28 years (which they were), then it seems conceivable the same could happen to Oblivion after 32 years. I am not convinced you would rebuild Oblivion either. The whole could be utilised maybe, but there is a massive opportunity to improve it, as opposed to what there was with Nemesis.
 
Thirteen is quite important to the park"s capacity as it is a 1.2m attraction. I think they will want to keep that up and running for as long as possible until they have more big rides with a lower height restriction. It is also a high capacity ride when it is running well.

Rita would make sense given that the ride type is quite unreliable and Intamin seem to be gradually withdrawing support for the model. But then the location is possible quite awkward to redevelop (how would you divert the queue for Thirteen during demolition/construction?) and I am not sure how easy it will be for them to get planning permission to replace it with something big.

Galactica would probably be the easiest option to redevelop the land but I get the feeling that they want to keep running that for as long as physically possible.
 
Jb85 said:
@Donkey where RITA is wouldn’t required planning - but you make a good point about access to Thirteen, one I hadn’t thought of
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I think it would be out of the question for Alton Towers to have two coasters out of action for a whole season. The impact on queues around the park would be horrendous. I guess demolition can happen over a closed season and they can sort out the access for Thirteen at the same time.
 
Donkey said:
I think it would be out of the question for Alton Towers to have two coasters out of action for a whole season. The impact on queues around the park would be horrendous. I guess demolition can happen over a closed season and they can sort out the access for Thirteen at the same time.
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I would take a season with two coasters removed as long as Thirteen is a permanent removal alongside Rita
 
Rita for sure. Always been one of the weaker offerings, and much more up to late launch models available now. Interesting point about Oblivion though-although iconic, I can't see towers paying to re-track two coasters. With the locations for Enterprise and Submission now vacant too, this gives more flexibility for different layouts.
 
Tom said:
There is a hell of a lot of force applied on the bottom, and in a very awkward place for access if any track needed to come out. It all depends on how well it was designed, and has been maintained.

If B&M were talking about withdrawing technical support from Nemesis after 28 years (which they were), then it seems conceivable the same could happen to Oblivion after 32 years. I am not convinced you would rebuild Oblivion either. The whole could be utilised maybe, but there is a massive opportunity to improve it, as opposed to what there was with Nemesis.
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First off, if ya want to continue this conversation we should head to the Oblivion thread!

Anyways, I think when Oblivion does come to the end of its service life, they'll remove the old Oblivion but replace it with a new dive-coaster type. Maybe keep the track as it was, who knows. But I wouldn't surprise if they changed it to spice it up in the future.
 
EarthlyKnight27 said:
Anyways, I think when Oblivion does come to the end of its service life, they'll remove the old Oblivion but replace it with a new dive-coaster type. Maybe keep the track as it was, who knows
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I have thought, if they were to retrack oblivion, it would make sense to get some of the new floorless cars (assuming its possible for the station to be modified and the clearances are fine) as I think it could improve the experience, but also be a good usp for new marketing, I don't think there are any floorless coasters in the uk (the type that are above the rail, not inverts/wing etc) moving from floored trains to floorless has been done before with SheiKra at busch gardens.

over all I can't see many of the coasters leaving, I would personally like rita, not because I dislike the ride, I quite like it (the gut puch launch is good and on a good day it can have some impressive air time and posetive G's round the corners) the reason is because I feel like it dosn't fit in to the dark forest, as currently the launch and machine room splits dark forest in 2 with the ride enterances at one half of the land and food at the other, and the only way to get between the 2 is an underpass.
 
Realistically it will be rita, once the hydraulic launch is unsaveable.

Although I don't think they are in any rush to close any of the big 7, until they've past their shelf life. The GP love rita, so it wouldn't make sense to get rid of it soon if they don't have a noteworthy (taron-esque) coaster lined up in their budget.

With the postponement of horizon, and all the TLC needed in other parts of the park, I'm gonna say if rita closes, it'll be around 2027 at the earliest. If Horizon opens in 2026, and they want a new coaster for say, 2030 (optimistic lol), then rita would probably operate until the end of the 2028 season.

That being said, I'd much prefer galactica to leave, I appreciate that it is a great feat of engineering but the ride itself isn't the best at anything at the park. Want an intense ride experience? Smiler, rita, nemesis, oblivion. Want a more relaxing family friendly ride? Th13teen and wickerman. Want to be suspended under the track? Nemesis.

Of course it is beloved as it is the only (proper) flying coaster in the country, but I think its had its day and its large footprint could be used for a much better attraction, considering how compact rita's footprint is in comparison.
 
Well, like most people here, I believe Rita will be the next on the 'chopping block' as it were.
Mostly due to most launch coasters slowly coming to an end of their service lives, as well as the expense associated with these launch coasters and the general maintenance nightmare of keeping Rita operational. Plus, as others here have stated, Rita could be replaced with another coaster which might be a launch type coaster or something else, who knows?
 
The woodland setting of Dark forest is perfect for a fast low to the ground terrain coaster with one or multiple launches. Rita has always seemed out of place in that area. I think Dark forest as a whole needs a major revamp and replacing Rita would be a good start.
 
I'd be sad to see Rita go, but it really doesn't offer for me much apart from the initial launch. I've mentioned it in another thread before but in recent times have always found it to be more uncomfortable than even The Smiler.

Galactica offers something unique to the park. If they could invest some money in to the original theme concept, and maybe change the layout of the track slightly to make it more appealing to a younger audience, it could become quite popular again.
It's only issue is it's reliability. I've been to Towers three times this year, and each time it has had downtime for most of the day.
 
LoomJ said:
I'd be sad to see Rita go, but it really doesn't offer for me much apart from the initial launch. I've mentioned it in another thread before but in recent times have always found it to be more uncomfortable than even The Smiler.

Galactica offers something unique to the park. If they could invest some money in to the original theme concept, and maybe change the layout of the track slightly to make it more appealing to a younger audience, it could become quite popular again.
It's only issue is it's reliability. I've been to Towers three times this year, and each time it has had downtime for most of the day.
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Airs layout is fine for what it’s designed to do. The simulation of flight.

As soon as it needs to do more - ie a war with Nemesis theme, then it’s lost.

Airs issue is not the layout per se, it’ll be computer systems that will be the major issue and what cause downtime currently.

Then you have the ‘theme’ - or lack of.

All in all, £6m would sort the lot - replacement systems and trains potentially- and a theme.

Question is - £6m vs £15m for a new ride……
 
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