• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

The Smiler: What does the future hold?

What is the difference between saying it's a tragedy or it ruined someone's life. Also, this isn't the same as hydro. No one died on the smiler. Also, hydro is a completely different ride altogether. No matter what happens to the ride (rename/Rebrand/destruction/nothing) media will have a story and it will make Alton towers/merlin/theme parks in general look bad.they want people to feel traumatised by the fact that we were on that ride or we went to that park or we have been to a theme park. It is pointless trying to deny that the media control what we think and if they want people to be scared of Alton towers, they will make people scared. It all means more interest and more views for them.

[Sorry, had a whole day of "that ride isn't safe. It should be shut down. Those peoples lives are ruined" so I have a reason for being angry after spending hours explaining safety features. Again sorry]

Same as Hydro in the respect that it's a 'major' incident. Rebranding that didn't help Oakwood in anyway so if The Smiler was rebranded that wouldn't help Towers in any way either.
 
At the end of the day they'll never be able to sweep this under the rug, rebranding or not.
They should just open it as it was, they have nothing to hide, they've been very open and caring through the whole scenario
Totally agree. There will always be news articles available online and people will always remember (although it's funny how nobody seems to remember the accidents that have happened elsewhere that have resulted in fatalities but never mind). I'm not overly keen on parts of The Smiler theme myself however, I don't see that rebranding the ride will make things any better. Those who want to ride it will and those who don't want to won't, regardless of what the ride is called/themed around.
 
Is it not possible that AT might just tone the theme down a bit, but then be very open and honest when they reopen it.
"Yes this ride did crash, people were seriously injured, we are very sorry, we have supported those guests by.... We have identified that ..... Caused the crash and we have done.... to prevent anything like that happening again. The HSE has accepted our modifications and agree that the Smiler is safe to operate"
I do believe that transparency, openness and honesty is the best solution. Also, what can the media spin into blunt truth and fact?
By doing that the media then can not start speculating and twisting.
 
The only thing the media can really pick on when it reopens are breakdowns. Apart from that there's not a lot of they can 'spin'.

I'm with the side that The Smiler's theme just needs toning down/some adjustments, rather than a full rebrand. Judging social media there's a lot of people asking when it will reopen, so I doubt the incident has scared the masses off and personally I doubt the ride will lose any interest when it reopens. It's still a good solid coaster that provides a fun thrill.
 
i'm not to sure if this is relevant, but as Saw has been closed do you think this crash has affected other euro-fighters? Especially the new one, serpent, which is due to open this year in Morocco. sorry if this shoul go on another thread im new to this :/
 
i'm not to sure if this is relevant, but as Saw has been closed do you think this crash has affected other euro-fighters? Especially the new one, serpent, which is due to open this year in Morocco. sorry if this shoul go on another thread im new to this :/
No other Eurofighter has closed because of the incident on The Smiler. The other two in the UK have remained operational the entire time.
 
This is my first post here but I have followed the forum for a long time.

I think that they should keep the theme the same as it is as even if they change it everyone knows it is the same ride and regardless of the theme the media are still going to pick up on every single issue it has (which we all know are plentiful) and would then tarnish the new theme so it would be a huge waste of money. Also I love the smilers current theme.

The only thing I would change would be preventing stalling. I'm no expert but as I see it there are 3 ways you could do this
1. Add heaters to heat the wheels in the morning and before adding new trains.
2. Do some work on the trim break (or even remove it) so it doesn't slow down the trains enough
3. A track re profile (highly unlikely knowing merlin but would fix the problem)
Feel free to correct me if I am wrong
 
I was under the impression the stall was caused by gusty winds on that day combined with the light empty vehicle, not really much you can do about wind.
 
I was under the impression the stall was caused by gusty winds on that day combined with the light empty vehicle, not really much you can do about wind.


But if the car was running faster then surely the winds wouldn't cause the stall. Like nemisis it runs fast enough that it doesn't stall even in strong winds. And if the track was reprofiled then it wouldn't run slow enough. Also they will probably add a procedure that they never send out an empty car.
Although I don't know how much heating the wheels would help this it if the trim breaks were activated so it's all just guess work.
 
Only way to stop the wind is to put a big yellow and green tent over it...:)
or stop eating broccoli :rolleyes:
Ok, I know that was a joke, but that would be a bad idea. Surely if people can't see the ride, they would say it's not safe... can already see the mirror headline...

But the ride would be good though.
 
Ok, I know that was a joke, but that would be a bad idea. Surely if people can't see the ride, they would say it's not safe... can already see the mirror headline...

But the ride would be good though.
The black hole tent was green and yellow... ;) [/context]
 
towers30.1_zpsfvnhufoq.png
 
It was originally Yellow and green. then it was changed to dark blue. and the support structure was always silver
 
Top