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2019: General Discussion

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John said:
I don't think they have any more shuttles available for use at the moment, though I can't see why there'd be any issue running 2 stations with 4 shuttles.
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I would suggest it comes down to staffing costs / budget. As soon as you run both stations on Oblivion you need two more staff on the platform - so an extra £16.42 per hour to run the second station.

Staff costs are way the biggest operating cost for any park. Cutting back on staff here and there all adds up over the season. Back in the early 2000's the big coasters all had staff on the ride entrances to enforce height restrictions / assist guests. All the big rides generally had a bay-loader in the station too. In most cases both have gone & height restrictions are enforced in the station (slowing down throughput) and guests are often left to bayload themselves (reducing throughput).

When Virtual Queue [the precursor to FastTrack] was first introduced on Nemesis it required six members of staff to operate (as Towers were still experimenting with it). Six became five pretty fast, now it's down to 1 poor person on the merge point and that's it. Ticket sales are all taken care of in the Box Office that is always understaffed too - some of the queues in there can be silly (& this is when Towers are trying to up-sell & extract more money off you!)
 
Kraken27 said:
I would suggest it comes down to staffing costs / budget. As soon as you run both stations on Oblivion you need two more staff on the platform - so an extra £16.42 per hour to run the second station.

Staff costs are way the biggest operating cost for any park. Cutting back on staff here and there all adds up over the season. Back in the early 2000's the big coasters all had staff on the ride entrances to enforce height restrictions / assist guests. All the big rides generally had a bay-loader in the station too. In most cases both have gone & height restrictions are enforced in the station (slowing down throughput) and guests are often left to bayload themselves (reducing throughput).

When Virtual Queue [the precursor to FastTrack] was first introduced on Nemesis it required six members of staff to operate (as Towers were still experimenting with it). Six became five pretty fast, now it's down to 1 poor person on the merge point and that's it. Ticket sales are all taken care of in the Box Office that is always understaffed too - some of the queues in there can be silly (& this is when Towers are trying to up-sell & extract more money off you!)
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I think what John is saying is the current one station operation is because tech services have only got 4 shuttles through winter maintenance, but it isn’t clear why the ride can’t run on 2 stations with 4 shuttles.
 
Dave said:
I think what John is saying is the current one station operation is because tech services have only got 4 shuttles through winter maintenance, but it isn’t clear why the ride can’t run on 2 stations with 4 shuttles.
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Gotcha! (Although I bet Towers are in no hurry to get it running on both stations).

It's got to be something to do with the block system on the track. SheiKra at Busch gardens is the same - if they run it on single station mode only the front station loads & the other trains stack outside the station in transfer / the brakes. This is really annoying when you're stacked outside in one of those Florida style "passing showers" [torrential downpour].

Clearly when in single station mode, all of the station is treated as a single block, so can only be occupied by one train at a time. I do agree that [in theory] it should be a relatively simple code change on the PLC to always treat the station as two blocks at all times. It's also worth nothing that whilst Oblivion has 7 shuttles, the maximum they can run is 6. Back in 1998 much of the unreliability was caused by trying to get all 7 running.
 
Kraken27 said:
Gotcha! (Although I bet Towers are in no hurry to get it running on both stations).

It's got to be something to do with the block system on the track. SheiKra at Busch gardens is the same - if they run it on single station mode only the front station loads & the other trains stack outside the station in transfer / the brakes. This is really annoying when you're stacked outside in one of those Florida style "passing showers" [torrential downpour].

Clearly when in single station mode, all of the station is treated as a single block, so can only be occupied by one train at a time. I do agree that [in theory] it should be a relatively simple code change on the PLC to always treat the station as two blocks at all times. It's also worth nothing that whilst Oblivion has 7 shuttles, the maximum they can run is 6. Back in 1998 much of the unreliability was caused by trying to get all 7 running.
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Making the change should be simple, certifying it won't be!

Sent from my Swift 2 Plus using Tapatalk
 
Worst thing I’ve found with Oblivion this season is the cost cutting of the very few staff they do have!

Every visit I’ve done it’s only had 3 staff (compared to the usual 4 on one station). One operator, one who ends up checking both rows, deals with disabled guests and locks the exit gate. Then the final staff member who batches you, and then has to push past everyone to press the dispatch button on the platform.

Every time I’ve been on it I’ve found the ride is ready and waiting to go for ages, and the op and host is just waiting for the batcher to get back to the platform to press the button.

The way it’s ran at the moment you might as well just put 2 shuttles on. Or maybe employee one extra staff member to just batch like it used to be.

Maybe that staff member they aren’t paying to operate enterprise at the moment?
 
djtruefitt said:
Worst thing I’ve found with Oblivion this season is the cost cutting of the very few staff they do have!

Every visit I’ve done it’s only had 3 staff (compared to the usual 4 on one station). One operator, one who ends up checking both rows, deals with disabled guests and locks the exit gate. Then the final staff member who batches you, and then has to push past everyone to press the dispatch button on the platform.

Every time I’ve been on it I’ve found the ride is ready and waiting to go for ages, and the op and host is just waiting for the batcher to get back to the platform to press the button.

The way it’s ran at the moment you might as well just put 2 shuttles on. Or maybe employee one extra staff member to just batch like it used to be.

Maybe that staff member they aren’t paying to operate enterprise at the moment?
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That’s odd as Towers are normally scared to work outside the Operating instructions since 2015 yet this seems to be way out of those.
 
Not the first time I've seen Merlin bending operational procedures in favour of cutting costs. I'm not entirely sure either they realise it really throws staff morale to the wind, and is likely to further recruitment issues or see a rise in staff sickness when they simply can't be bothered doing so much work on minimum wage.
 
It’s interesting because you are relying on one staff member checking it all, whilst the other one rushes to just press dispatch, having not actually watched any of the ride or checking of the restraints.

Sure it’s a bit naff for the staff to as they are rushing around and that’s when mistakes happen, would have thought after the Smiler crash they would want to not have mistakes again, when that extra staff member only costs about £7 an hour to pay, it is truly cost cutting at the worse.
 
Their own greed will be their downfall. Towers is in a state. Chessington is doing pants. Legoland having loads of issues despite its popularity and Thorpe again not getting good numbers.

Are any of their main parks actually performing to an acceptable standard?
 
Danny said:
As long as the shareholders are happy, who cares what the guests think....
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Yep, from my observations crowds are strong this year at towers, perhaps even stronger than last year so no encouragement for merlin to change their behaviour. As for lego/Chessington I can't say haven't been yet this season but it's sounding fairly dire
 
djtruefitt said:
It’s interesting because you are relying on one staff member checking it all, whilst the other one rushes to just press dispatch, having not actually watched any of the ride or checking of the restraints.

Sure it’s a bit naff for the staff to as they are rushing around and that’s when mistakes happen, would have thought after the Smiler crash they would want to not have mistakes again, when that extra staff member only costs about £7 an hour to pay, it is truly cost cutting at the worse.
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This is what I don’t get as they are so H&S focused they bring in stupid rules that add no safety benefit, yet the dispatch button is basically a “I confirm all safety checks are complete and you can start the ride” confirmation being pressed by someone who has not completed any safety checks.

Just seems out of character for Towers post Smiler crash.
 
All the parks are having so many issues this year and it seems to be likely as a result of Merlin restructuring and squeezing/limiting staff numbers.

Chessington opened with four closed rides (two of which may still be closed) amongst the usual issues and run-down areas.

Legoland has seen a considerable increase of breakdowns and downtime on their attractions (likely related to staff shortage and not enough-organisation).

Whilst Thorpe is trying a bit in some areas, it’s still struggling amongst the usual Thorpe issues. Some areas look a little nicer but the rest looks rundown.

I haven’t been to Towers this year yet but from what I have heard, similar problems have arisen and given that it’s our main park this is disappointing to see.

I’m not going to say they are gleaming with roses, the smaller U.K. parks at least seem to be trying to put some effort this year. Whether that be Eggpress at Pleasure Wood Hills or Oakwood’s new attraction, amongst their attempt to be more informative with their guests. Paultons is a different league altogether.
 
I don't find ride operations, Oblvion aside, a massive issue this season. Although it must be said that it's sad that "better than last season" seems to be the new bench mark.

It's the fact that the park is still so hollowed out, even after a recovery in guest numbers. It appears that Towers have possibly spent any extra OPEX they had on operating the rides they had left better.

The Rapids, CCL and Duel are in a brand damaging state. From Towers Street onwards you can clearly see the evidence of closed food outlets. Walking into FV, the first thing you are greeted with is a SBNO attraction, followed by nature taking the Nemesis pit back, an up sell game where a ride used to be and a weirdly themed VR coaster with it's USP removed. Just when you thought DF couldn't get any worse, the closed arcade adds to the misery and new Dungeon area looks awful. Oblivion queue line indoor sections are seriously bad as well.
 
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