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Single Rider Queues

Benjsh

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Steel Vengeance
Has a single rider queue been confirmed / spotted on WM yet?
 
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I believe SRQs are largely on their way out at ATR. Unsure on Wicker Man, though.
Shame, I use SRQs a lot, especially on Th13teeen and The Smiler.

Free alternative to fastrack mustn't sound too good to Merlin.

On another note, I can't believe we're only 2 weeks away from riding a wooden coaster at Alton Towers!
 
No not when you get ignored by the batcher on the Smiler and see people walking up the stair who entered the regular queue at the same time you did SRQ
 
The cost of the staff member managing the srq.
On most rides there is no extra staff member for the SRQ. The way Wicker Man is set up there wouldn't have to be an extra staff member either.

Actually, I can't name one ride where there was/is a staff member dedicated to SRQ.
 
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At least they're doing something right. Good riddance to SRQ as queuelines on all attractions were starting to get a bit ridiculous with 47 different lines to choose from. There was a time I was convinced they were going to start splitting off queues based on age groups and gender.

One queue for all would suit me just fine.
 
At least they're doing something right. Good riddance to SRQ as queuelines on all attractions were starting to get a bit ridiculous with 47 different lines to choose from. There was a time I was convinced they were going to start splitting off queues based on age groups and gender.

One queue for all would suit me just fine.
But not people who need rap.

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In fact, I hear on the grapevine that Single Rider lines do not even exist at Alton anymore.

That is most dissapointing if true. Longer queues for everybody as the full capacity potential of rides is not being achieved.

The only reason for this would be reduced fastrack sales, The Smiler, Th13teen and Oblivion require no extra staff for their SRQs.

It was great having a walk on Smiler whilst the main queue was an hour. Now people will have to pay extra for that :(
 
That is most dissapointing if true. Longer queues for everybody as the full capacity potential of rides is not being achieved.

The only reason for this would be reduced fastrack sales, The Smiler, Th13teen and Oblivion require no extra staff for their SRQs.

It was great having a walk on Smiler whilst the main queue was an hour. Now people will have to pay extra for that :(
That's going to go down well for red wristbanders :(

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
 
That is most dissapointing if true. Longer queues for everybody as the full capacity potential of rides is not being achieved.

The only reason for this would be reduced fastrack sales, The Smiler, Th13teen and Oblivion require no extra staff for their SRQs.

It was great having a walk on Smiler whilst the main queue was an hour. Now people will have to pay extra for that :(

SRQs don't always improve throughput. Staff may faff about too much trying to get people into an empty seat that it holds up dispatches. It isn't always the case, as it's very dependent on staff, but it can happen. It may also be seen as an unneeded distraction for staff - more queue lines to deal with, meaning less time to focus on safety.

To say it's because of reduced Fastrack sales is naive and ignorant. People use SRQ because they don't mind sitting away from their friends, or are riding by themselves; a reduced queue time is a bonus. Fastrack is there to guarantee a significantly reduced queue time. The group of people who didn't buy Fastrack because of SRQs existence is small to non-existent.

As for Wicker Man, having an SRQ is presumably impractical. The pre show is (I believe, I've avoided spoilers so I don't know) a room where some sort of show happens, more like Hex's than Smiler's. If an SRQ existed, you would have to batch single riders into a separate section, then rebatch into another queue in the station area, like Symbolica at Efteling does, which consumes more space, or give people their row numbers at the pre show, which is impractical unless the pre show and air gates are aligned (which I assume they're not). Alternatively you could face single riders skip the pre show, but that's a bit rubbish really.

It would have been nice to see an SRQ, but it just doesn't seem to fit with Wicker Man.
 
Mate, the whole point of SRQs is to reduce your waiting time!

Going wildly off topic here I know but a few years ago the park scrapped SRQs on rides where it was slowing throughput (Rita, Nemesis) and kept it on rides where it does not negatively affect throughput in any way (Smiler, Oblivion, Th13teen, Spinball). These are also rides where no extra SRQ staff are required. There is absolutely no practical reason to get ride of these SRQs, the only reason is to encourage fastrack sales.
 
SRQ is advertised as a way of going on rides if you don't mind riding alone, which could potentially reduce your queue time. Signage very clearly states that the SRQ could be as long as, or longer, than the main queue.

As I said, there's plenty of reasons why they might choose to remove SRQs now. Maybe they're no longer as effective, maybe it's seen as a distraction to staff who could be focusing on guest safety more. Maybe feedback of the system is negative from guests and/or staff. There's plenty of reasons why.

And to relate this back to Wicker Man, the way the experience is set up, there is clearly no way an SRQ could effectively work. :)
 
SRQ is advertised as a way of going on rides if you don't mind riding alone, which could potentially reduce your queue time. Signage very clearly states that the SRQ could be as long as, or longer, than the main queue.

Of course they have to say that, they can't guarantee anything. I can't believe I'm actually debating with someone that the point of SRQs is not for someone to try to get on the ride faster than the normal queue.
 
Mate, the whole point of SRQs is to reduce your waiting time!

Going wildly off topic here I know but a few years ago the park scrapped SRQs on rides where it was slowing throughput (Rita, Nemesis) and kept it on rides where it does not negatively affect throughput in any way (Smiler, Oblivion, Th13teen, Spinball). These are also rides where no extra SRQ staff are required. There is absolutely no practical reason to get ride of these SRQs, the only reason is to encourage fastrack sales.

It did not slow throughput on Rita (I worked on it).

The reason SRQ was removed was so that they could cut a merge host, by having Fastrack arrive at the station itself.

I can only assume this is the purpose behind removing it off other rides, too. It saves money - and we know how tight the purse strings are these days when it comes to operations.
 
Indeed, if anything an SRQ on the likes of Smiler and Rita actually improves dispatch times as staff don't have to close restraints on any empty seats.
 
Of course they have to say that, they can't guarantee anything. I can't believe I'm actually debating with someone that the point of SRQs is not for someone to try to get on the ride faster than the normal queue.

I've highlighted the key word you said here. ;) IF you don't mind or plan to ride by yourself, you can TRY and reduce the time you wait. Yes, it's true that you usually get on quicker, but that is merely a handy positive of the system.

If SRQs don't exist, it won't get those people who are happy to ride by themselves to spend an extra £10 to ride by themselves quicker. They'll just join and wait longer.

I can only assume this is the purpose behind removing it off other rides, too. It saves money - and we know how tight the purse strings are these days when it comes to operations.

This makes sense, though off my - albeit vague - memory of the rides which had SRQ in 2017, I can't think of how they can reduce the number of staff on some of them (Smiler and Spinball for example)?
 
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