2018: Park Operations & Ride Availability

[speedy]

Are you saying you'd prefer the rides to be run during high winds? You do realise a main factor that caused the smiler to stall was the high winds that day?

Your point about the late openings of rides due to less maintenance staff I agree with though, they're constantly advertising to hire more engineers

It wasn't the fact it stalled that's the problem. Roller coasters stall sometimes, the Big One has a habit of it. The fact that the operator overrode a warning rather than checking the course and evacuating is the problem.

 

[Rob]

It wasn't the fact it stalled that's the problem. Roller coasters stall sometimes, the Big One has a habit of it. The fact that the operator overrode a warning rather than checking the course and evacuating is the problem.

Josh was saying that the main reason that The Smiler stalled was because of the wind, which is true. And you would not want it to stall with people riding it!

 

[speedy]

Josh was saying that the main reason that The Smiler stalled was because of the wind, which is true. And you would not want it to stall with people riding it!

Of course, and I'm not familiar with the circumstances here. But if they are being more cautious just because of the Smiler crash that is wrong IMO, yes we don't want it to stall but that's not what makes it unsafe.

 

[Alsty]

Josh was saying that the main reason that The Smiler stalled was because of the wind, which is true. And you would not want it to stall with people riding it!

Yes, can you imagine the headlines! Plus the random quotes from people on it about how they thought they were going to die, etc etc...

Even though a stall was a contributory factor and not a causal one, it's still something that would be a complete PR disaster if it happened again.

 

[Josh]

It wasn't the fact it stalled that's the problem. Roller coasters stall sometimes, the Big One has a habit of it. The fact that the operator overrode a warning rather than checking the course and evacuating is the problem.

Yes I realise that rollercoasters stall occasionally and obviously there are better safeguards in place now incase that happens again, the point is if the ride had a wind alarm before the incident then it wouldn't have been running during the high winds, therefore it wouldn't stall and the whole thing could have been avoided.

The point of my post was more to ask why people are complaining now rides are safer. Yes it may lead to more downtime but at the end of the day I'm sure the park would prefer the odd media article about how a ride was stopped for 5 minutes rather than another major incident.

 

[speedy]

Yes I realise that rollercoasters stall occasionally and obviously there are better safeguards in place now incase that happens again, the point is if the ride had a wind alarm before the incident then it wouldn't have been running during the high winds, therefore it wouldn't stall and the whole thing could have been avoided.

The point of my post was more to ask why people are complaining now rides are safer. Yes it may lead to more downtime but at the end of the day I'm sure the park would prefer the odd media article about how a ride was stopped for 5 minutes rather than another major incident.

I totally understand, all I was saying is that ultimately the Smiler incident was down to operator error. I had no problem with the safety of roller coasters beforehand. The park has already had a campaign to teach the public more on roller coaster safety. That's what we need, not more downtime. If a ride is down, it's broken in the public's eyes and unreliability gives the impression that it's unsafe

 

[Josh]

I totally understand, all I was saying is that ultimately the Smiler incident was down to operator error. I had no problem with the safety of roller coasters beforehand. The park has already had a campaign to teach the public more on roller coaster safety. That's what we need, not more downtime. If a ride is down, it's broken in the public's eyes and unreliability gives the impression that it's unsafe

My original post wasn't about technical downtime being more common, that I completely agree with.
It was about not running the rides during high winds, surely the rides are safer now that wind alarms are in place, even if it does cause more downtime? Guests seem to also be made aware that it's due to the weather, not the fault of the ride, so this shouldn't give people the impression that the ride is broken.

 

[imanautie]

My original post wasn't about technical downtime being more common, that I completely agree with.
It was about not running the rides during high winds, surely the rides are safer now that wind alarms are in place, even if it does cause more downtime? Guests seem to also be made aware that it's due to the weather, not the fault of the ride, so this shouldn't give people the impression that the ride is broken.

"whst, there's no wind. This crappy ride can't even handle small wind, it must be dangerous!" Will be said at some point

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk

 

[RoyJess]

Are you saying you'd prefer the rides to be run during high winds? You do realise a main factor that caused the smiler to stall was the high winds that day?

No, not at all. We all certainly know that the wind was a contributing factor in the Smiler stalling and should not operate in high winds, but the rest of the rides? They have been running for years without any problems in the wind.

It seems like the weather has been a contributing factor with ride down time this last few seasons, it's too windy, too rainy, too hot, too icy.....

The point that I was trying to make, that there was no one reason for all the recent problems, the budget cuts is what this has been named is probably the underlying problem of this years guest dissatisfaction, but there are also many other factors that can also be taken into consideration.

 

[spinba11]

Why does Oblivion and enterprise close when the smiler closes due to high winds?

 

[Steve74]

Why does Oblivion and enterprise close when the smiler closes due to high winds?

Don't know about Enterprise but I'd imagine for Oblivion it is because it would be unsafe for staff and guests to evacuate from the top in high winds.

It's a bit like when there was snow and the Wicker Man didn't open on opening weekend; probably not anything mechanical more likely that it was too dangerous for staff and guests to use the wooden walkways covered in snow and ice in the event of an emergency.

 

[Croftybaby]

Just close all the rides and you'll get 100% Safety record. Unless someone trips on the crazy paving heading to the Box Office to complain.

Is it only The Smiler and Spinball that has these wind detectors? Can't See any of the others stalling in high winds.

Trip Advisor reviews are a good indication of the public's feeling about the place right now. Shocking.

 

[speedy]

My original post wasn't about technical downtime being more common, that I completely agree with.
It was about not running the rides during high winds, surely the rides are safer now that wind alarms are in place, even if it does cause more downtime? Guests seem to also be made aware that it's due to the weather, not the fault of the ride, so this shouldn't give people the impression that the ride is broken.

The roller coasters are safest if nobody is on them. I see your point but I think we'll have to agree to disagree since I've never had a problem with the safety of roller coasters so would rather they run them efficiently and safely, not overly cautious. A single train stalling shouldn't cause a change in operations IMO.

 

[Benzin]

The roller coasters are safest if nobody is on them. I see your point but I think we'll have to agree to disagree since I've never had a problem with the safety of roller coasters so would rather they run them efficiently and safely, not overly cautious. A single train stalling shouldn't cause a change in operations IMO.

It didn't...

A second train being dispatched due to poor actions from the ride operator resulting in a crash should...

 

[Steve74]

It didn't...

A second train being dispatched due to poor actions from the ride operator resulting in a crash should...

It wasn't the ride op at fault, it was the engineer who overrode the system and sent the second train wasn't it? I thought the ride op was cleared of all blame?

 

[Rob]

The roller coasters are safest if nobody is on them. I see your point but I think we'll have to agree to disagree since I've never had a problem with the safety of roller coasters so would rather they run them efficiently and safely, not overly cautious. A single train stalling shouldn't cause a change in operations IMO.

It had stalled previously on multiple occasions. Alton Towers do no answer to you when it comes to enforcement of H&S, they answer to the HSE, and I am pretty sure the HSE mentioned something to do with the wind (and lack of knowing about wind speed) in their report.

 

[speedy]

It had stalled previously on multiple occasions. Alton Towers do no answer to you when it comes to enforcement of H&S, they answer to the HSE, and I am pretty sure the HSE mentioned something to do with the wind (and lack of knowing about wind speed) in their report.

Originally somebody asked, would you prefer to see the rides ran in high winds? I would prefer they operated them how they always have (with regard to wind) as long as procedures have been tightened to prevent a train being sent out with another in the same section.

But that's just my opinion, of course what any of us enthusiasts want and what the HSE wants are two different things. What I always want to see is more transparency with downtime, to keep guests updated.

I feel I'm being a bit argumentative here and we could go round in circles, so I wanted to clear that up.

 

[Alsty]

It wasn't the ride op at fault, it was the engineer who overrode the system and sent the second train wasn't it? I thought the ride op was cleared of all blame?

For those who haven't seen it, the report is here, but yes the block section was incorrectly reset due to inadequate processes and oversight of the technical services department.

 

[Benzin]

Being transparent is as much an issue though:

"The ride should re-open in 15 minutes"

*15 minutes later*

"Nope it's still closed"

*guest complains because host has given incorrect information, ruined their family's day out and demands a refund etc.*


In terms of transparency regarding the nature of a break-down, that's asking for even further trouble, especially given the distinct lack of wanting to listen to 'experts' these days... Plus then someone can post on Twitter saying "RESTRAINTS FAILING AT ALTON TOWERS!!!" and suddenly there's a massive media storm...

Though saying that the ride hosts are normally the last people to know any details about breakdowns, as it's kept between the operator/team leader/engineer mainly...

 

[RoyJess]

I've personally have no problems with rides breakdowns, it's part and parcel of theme parks. I've been visiting theme parks since 1997 and rides need to be safe as they can be before they operate them. I think where I have issues, is more on ride opening times and the lack of put through. If they got the ride times and put through sorted out, then the ride breakdowns stoppage wouldn't be such a problem as you will still have time get on everything once the ride has re opened. At the moment, it is difficult to get around everything whilst everything is operational, let alone when there's ride down time.

The park isn't at capacity and it can't handle the guest number nowadays,