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Throughputs... a positive picture (mostly)!

Ride staff overstating queue times has been going on since long before fastrack, especially towards the end of the day when the length of the queue determines when they can leave. Generally it's just that times are not updated frequently enough.

Merlin have imposed a lot of H&S inspired operational bottlenecks on rides but if AT are running a ride on low capacity it's either:
a) due to low staffing
b) due to a technical problem
c) due to full capacity not being required
 
There is categorically no ploy at ATR to reduce throughputs to increase FT sales.

Just for the avoidance of any doubt.

:)

Thanks for that, it's nice to know. I've been to chessington where the ride is saying 1 hour wait yet its 5 to the front of the que they hold the line ages and let you through yet its empty inside
 
Hi all, new to the forum. Just thought I’d say that I was there this Sunday and although it was really busy I still got in at least 1 ride on everything (except galactica as I just dont like it). Wickerman ride operation was the best i’ve ever seen it. Running 3 trains and they just banged them out every 90 seconds or so at a consistent pace. Queue said 60 mins on entering, we were getting off it 45 mins later! Nemesis was its usual throughput beast and smiler was running 4 trains when I was there first thing. Was on and off in 15 mins for that too. Only downside was Rita running 1 train. Took 30 mins to get on from under the track! Still a great effort by them overall tho :)
 
Quite funny on Nemesis Inferno hearing ride ops on a mic counting down from 10 as people scramble to get in their seats.
 
Nemesis Inferno.

They countdown.

But it still gets *way* less than Nemesis.

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Quite funny on Nemesis Inferno hearing ride ops on a mic counting down from 10 as people scramble to get in their seats.

Gotta love inferno ops. A personal favourite is when the guy went “hellloooo and welcome to paultons Park peppa pig ride”

Sorry...back on topic
I really think AT have been on fire with wickerman this season like someone already mentioned. We queued on Sunday from where last year would’ve been an hour, around 35 mins (with a breakdown)
 
Are you really going to try and claim inferno as an immersive themed environment?

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Haha no not at all! There just have to be better ways to improve throughput other than ride ops shouting over the mic every time the air gates get opened.

I’m sure the original designers had a more atmospheric idea in mind when incorporating bespoke music and dispatch audio. It’s a shame standards have fallen over the years.
 
Towards the end of the day today they were spitting trains out on smiler quite fast (nowhere near the speed when it first opened). It got to the stage the the train behind the station had only just stopped when the gates at the end of the platform started to open, given the lack of bag hold that’s impressive.
 
I think that the answer is not luggage stores, but in-line lockers like Arthur at Europa Park. You use your ticket to deposit your items in a locker whilst in the queue line. When you come off the ride you retrieve your baggage from the other side of the locker. If they could implement a system like that on every ride, people would know what to do and it would free time up at the station. What I loved, was people who didn't use the lockers were sent back - loosing their queue space.

That said, baggage systems like Icon work really well - so that's an option. I'm sure wicker Man could have a carry onboard policy - which would speed boarding up.

Rita will never be quick. The size of the platforms, and the boarding faff just is what it is.

Alton Towers is a great park. I think we loose sight of this because we go quite a bit. I think we are lucky in the UK to have 3 good, very different parks all close together (AT, TP and BPB). And operations at them all are, actually, not bad!
 
I think that the answer is not luggage stores, but in-line lockers like Arthur at Europa Park. You use your ticket to deposit your items in a locker whilst in the queue line. When you come off the ride you retrieve your baggage from the other side of the locker. If they could implement a system like that on every ride, people would know what to do and it would free time up at the station. What I loved, was people who didn't use the lockers were sent back - loosing their queue space.
Good idea in theory, but it only works on Arthur because the exit to the ride is geographically right next to the start of the queue. This would be impossible to implement on pre-existing rides, such as Nemesis, where the entrance to the queue is nowhere near the station.
 
Good idea in theory, but it only works on Arthur because the exit to the ride is geographically right next to the start of the queue. This would be impossible to implement on pre-existing rides, such as Nemesis, where the entrance to the queue is nowhere near the station.

You are right, but they could still do something similar - maybe just not in the queue line.

I think, for the future, these things should really be thought through a bit more - there really should be no need to take any baggage or loose items into the stations.

I did notice, and maybe it's cultural, but on silver star the person on the far side of the train took responsibility (in the majority of times I rode) to collect bags and put them on the shelves. That's German organisation for you though!
 
Can they not just adopt a style like Yukon Striker but simpler that you have overhead cages when you enter the loading gates. With some sort of moving mechanism that goes to the opposite side so when it comes to the gates opening you’re stuff is already stored?

Edit - now I remember not everyone can reach a certain height
 
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