Just before Christmas, Alton Towers revealed their intention to build a new junior coaster in CBeebies Land, which they hope to open in 2026. In a significant departure from their usual comms strategy, the park took to social media on 20th December to make the surprise announcement that they had filed for planning permission for the new ride.
Since then, documents related to ‘Project Sunshine‘ have been uploaded to the Staffordshire Moorlands Planning Portal, confirming rumours that the new coaster is set to be built on the site currently occupied by Postman Pat’s Parcel Post. 
The new coaster looks to be a reasonably tame layout, suggesting it will be a junior coaster aimed at a younger age group than Octonaut’s Rollercoaster Adventure, the other coaster in CBeebies Land. Its high point will sit at a similar height to the station building, before the coaster turns around a short loop of track back into the station. The station will have a joined maintenance building, which seems to suggest the train will be able to be moved into the maintenance building via a switchtrack.
To accommodate the new coaster, the park will completely remove the existing Postman Pat ride along with all the current buildings on the site. The new maintenance building will be built into the backstage area behind Towers Street, and the new coaster’s track will mainly occupy the end of the site where the current ride’s station and queue line are located. The end of the site nearest to the entrance to CBeebies Land, including the current Corner Coffee terrace, will be used for queue lines and associated theming.
Get Set Go Treetop Adventure also passes through the site of Postman Pat’s Parcel Post. Whilst the aerial railway mainly passes over the end of the site which will be home to the new coasters queue, the plans show that this ride is also in the path of the development. Get Set Go’s track does not feature on the plans and the ride is not directly mentioned, but part of its current course seems to clash with the new coaster’s first drop, as well as one of the theming elements.
Postman Pat’s Parcel Post was one of the headline attractions of CBeebies Land when it first opened in 2014, and was a new ride system reusing the path of the former Old Macdonald’s Tractor Ride. The ride system is therefore still relatively young, sparking speculation that it may end up in storage pending a retheme and relocation somewhere either within Alton Towers or one of the other Merlin theme parks.
Whilst Postman Pat is arguably one of the more famous faces on CBeebies, due to his familiarity with multiple generation, the current iteration of the popular IP, Postman Pat’s Parcel Post, is no longer shown on the CBeebies TV channel and the final episode was made in 2017. The character is therefore prime for removal to bring fresh IPs into CBeebies Land.
Since the announcement there has therefore been much speculation that the new coaster could be themed to a more current IP such a Bluey, currently one of the most popular shows on CBeebies. Bluey arrived in CBeebies Land at the start of the 2024 season, but so far the park have yet to make much use of the IP, other than a small-scale show in Big Fun Showtime and accompanying Meet and Greet.
As well as a physical change, the plans also represent a change in strategy from the park, who have announced their intentions to build a new ride before submitting plans to the local council is a break from the norm. The park taking the lead on sharing the story at this early stage is a welcome step forward and hopefully signifies a new strategy of being more open and forthright about their future plans.
As you might expect, the new CBeebies Land coaster has already sparked a lot of conversation and speculation over on the TowersStreet forum, so why not sign up and join in the conversation? You can also follow us on our socials, Facebook, X, TikTok and Instagram, where you can find all the latest from Alton Towers as details of the new coaster emerge.
