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2017/18: SW8 Speculation

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It wasn't really WAG that got the lodges moved it was JCB. They have a lot of power in Staffordshire and they where worried about Towers hitting them with noise complaints from their test facility.
 
Alastair said:
If they can't build it in the valley then we're pretty unlikely to see a wooden coaster. If there was to be one, you feel it would have to have a significant drop (150ft+) purely to make it competitive with the recent competition, and they'd never get that unless it was in the valley.
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And this is where RMC and their inevitable launched coaster comes in. It all makes a lot of sense. RMC's are decent value for money which would please Merlin. Towers would have their worlds first that they can't do without. It would be incredibly unique for the UK market. You would not need lots of height for an exciting coaster.

:)
 
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I think a launched RMC could actually happen, and I hope it does, something unique to the UK, whilst having a gimmick which towers love. It could be a decent addition as long as the layout is decent.
 
When was the last woodie built in the UK? They are perceived as old fashioned and unsafe by the public rightly or wrongly.

The only place that it could go in my opinion if a launch is bridging the gap between FV and MB replacing or integrating with the flume and rapids.
Not a chance of planning getting granted in that valley, none, zip, zero.
 
I really can't see a launched woodie happening, energy costs are still rather high compared to the rest of Europe. I do agree it has a selling point but I just can't see it.

For SW8 I don't know what I want.
 
BigT said:
When was the last woodie built in the UK?
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Megafobia probably which was 1996
BigT said:
They are perceived as old fashioned and unsafe by the public rightly or wrongly.
.
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And this is why they didn't end up building a woodie 10 years ago. it I think that the fact that many new ones are being built in the US now, plus the new one coming at Tayto park shows attitudes are changing again. A woodie would be perfect at a Towers as can have a low height restriction and be a good family coaster.
 
BigT said:
They are perceived as old fashioned and unsafe by the public rightly or wrongly.
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The more I think about it the more I think that it is really very obvious that the public don't think wooden coasters are unsafe. The reason why a woodie has not been built is because, as you said, they are thought to be old fashioned, but whose to say that Merlin even advertise a RMC as a wooden coaster? If it were to have steel supports- such as those on Goliath- then the public wouldn't notice it was a wooden coaster if it's chosen to be not advertised that way.
 
Another thing against a standard woodie - maintenance/upkeep costs. I don't know how this differs with RMC's, I'm guessing it may be less.

:)
 
Wasn't the original plan for the cross-valley woodie designed by Gravity Group? There must be potential for them to be reconsidered.

I'm curious though:

(1) Is it really thought to be possible to actually get permission to build across the valley? It'd be amazing if so but there is surely so much opposition to it (noise, general natural beauty, the gardens are listed (?)). I don't have too much faith in it happening and I imagine that depressingly something fairly compact in Air's carpark would be more likely, à la Raptor, Krake or the Italian Oblivion.

(2) Isn't SW8 going to be in 2018 rather than 2017? Four-year cycles now right?
 
Am I right in thinking that the cross valley woody would not have been be through the gardens? Pretty sure it was further along the valley.

Still can't see it ever happening, mind.
 
Benzin said:
2017, since Smiler was the last major addition in the sense that Merlin like to put on things...
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Thanks - I had it in my head that the Smiler was a 2014 addition.

Despite the coaster perhaps not going through the gardens but further along, I'm inclined to agree with Diogo - getting planning permission for something of this scale with such an amount of tree felling and noise will be a nightmare.
 
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