[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

[owenstreet7]

I believe last time it valleyed, it operated from the press night of Fright Night (3 October) to around the closure period (14-16 October) on one train which was about 10 days.

I understand a huge factor was that it was Fright Night (the park's busiest time of year) so the park didn't want Hyperia down for an extended period so had it on one train to offer minimal disruption (instead of closing the ride for testing for a period of time).

For the first time it valleyed, it tested for about 2 hours before opening on the advertised Golden Day (23 June) on 2 trains. It operated on one train for one day beforehand.

I believe it depends on whether the park are happy to close Hyperia for testing at some point (which might be possible before the Easter Bank Holiday weekend).

Sorry to double post however to answer @Bowser question

I'm seeing on social media that Hyperia is back on 2 trains now.

 

[Smiley]

How long was it on 1 train last time? What's the likelihood of it going to 2 over Easter? Bowser Jr was 1.305m on the measuring stick today

Remember we all shrink as the day progresses - had this issue at Disney once where we were allowed on the ride in the morning, then had to protest to ride in the afternoon. Ended up buying some "lift sneakers" that raised my son by 1cm to avoid when 1.4m. Not sure I risked his life more than riding Collossus

 

[Bowser]

Just to say this episode is now available on iPlayer if you don’t want to wait for the BBC Two broadcast - John Burton et al feature:

The Secret Genius of Modern Life - Series 3: 3. Rollercoaster

Hanna uncovers the wild origins of the modern-day rollercoaster and gets the inside story on the UK’s newest, tallest and fastest coaster – Thorpe Park's Hyperia.

www.bbc.co.uk

This was absolutely brilliant. I could watch her do a whole series on theme park things.

Also interesting to learn that Hyperia's throughput on 2 trains is only 800pph. With that, Mandril and Speedway, will Merlin ever build a high throughput coaster again?

 

[owenstreet7]

This was absolutely brilliant. I could watch her do a whole series on theme park things.

Also interesting to learn that Hyperia's throughput on 2 trains is only 800pph. With that, Mandril and Speedway, will Merlin ever build a high throughput coaster again?

I've heard that it is in the region of 1000-1050pph. I believe as is with Toxicator that they're stating lower hourly throughput numbers (or targets) because the operations at Merlin Parks can't seem to keep up with the theoretical throughputs.

It may be based on what the coaster is actually achieving over the theoretical throughput.

With whether they will build a high throughput coaster again, I'm sceptical at the moment as it seems to be part of their strategy to sell fast tracks which may or may not be influcing decisions on capacity on their rollercoaster projects.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I've heard that it is in the region of 1000-1050pph. I believe as is with Toxicator that they're stating lower hourly throughput numbers (or targets) because the operations at Merlin Parks can't seem to keep up with the theoretical throughputs.

It may be based on what the coaster is actually achieving over the theoretical throughput.

With whether they will build a high throughput coaster again, I'm sceptical at the moment as it seems to be part of their strategy to sell fast tracks which may or may not be influcing decisions on capacity on their rollercoaster projects.

I've clocked it at around 920pph, but only on re-opening day and never since.

On Wednesday I got an average of 78 seconds between dispatches, over 5 readings in the afternoon. Assuming every seat is filled, about 920 pph.

 

[Alix]

Having watched the Prof Hannah Fry documentary, I think a key take away is, don't wear a partly buttoned blouse on Hyperia as it will result in a wardrobe malfunction.

Oh and something about circles being more dangerous than tear drops...

 

[Smiley]

Also interesting to learn that Hyperia's throughput on 2 trains is only 800pph.

I remember reading about Disney imagineering. They almost always separate unload/load stations so that the ride is " ready just for you". It also maximises throughput, but requires more staff (hence why Merlin probably don't do it). Yet Stealth, Saw, X etc do a good job at it.

No idea why they didn't do it for Hyperion, other than for the same reason they didn't build the second half of the coaster

 

[AT86]

I remember reading about Disney imagineering. They almost always separate unload/load stations so that the ride is " ready just for you". It also maximises throughput, but requires more staff (hence why Merlin probably don't do it). Yet Stealth, Saw, X etc do a good job at it.

No idea why they didn't do it for Hyperion, other than for the same reason they didn't build the second half of the coaster

Seperate off and onload only seems to come into play (at Merlin/Tussauds parks at least) when the on load and off load is the same side (Saw, Stealth, Rita) - because otherwise you can’t open the air gates for the next batch of guests until the current ones have cleared, which slows everything down.

X was a seperate case because they originally wanted the empty train parked in the station before guests saw it so they didn’t know it was going to go backwards.

 

[Skyscraper]

X was a seperate case because they originally wanted the empty train parked in the station before guests saw it so they didn’t know it was going to go backwards.

Surprised they didn't think to add full-height doors as the air gates then, that would work.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Seperate off and onload only seems to come into play (at Merlin/Tussauds parks at least) when the on load and off load is the same side (Saw, Stealth, Rita) - because otherwise you can’t open the air gates for the next batch of guests until the current ones have cleared, which slows everything down.

X was a seperate case because they originally wanted the empty train parked in the station before guests saw it so they didn’t know it was going to go backwards.

Whenever I ride Th13teen, this always strikes me as a missed opportunity. It would add much more to the "If you go down to the woods today, you better not go alone" schtick, to have empty trains returning to the station.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Surprised they didn't think to add full-height doors as the air gates then, that would work.

Lets see... two fake lifts, with a two leaf door each side..... they did, didn't they?

 

[AltonLover123]

Whenever I ride Th13teen, this always strikes me as a missed opportunity. It would add much more to the "If you go down to the woods today, you better not go alone" schtick, to have empty trains returning to the station.

Same for Oblivion.

 

[Funcone]

I remember reading about Disney imagineering. They almost always separate unload/load stations so that the ride is " ready just for you". It also maximises throughput, but requires more staff (hence why Merlin probably don't do it). Yet Stealth, Saw, X etc do a good job at it.

No idea why they didn't do it for Hyperion, other than for the same reason they didn't build the second half of the coaster

I think you're right, it's down to cost. There's the cost of building a separate offload and the cost of extra staff. The other thing is (and I haven't ridden Hyperia so I'm not sure how much this applies to it), on a lot of coasters a separate offload wouldn't add much to the throughput unless you had a third train. Stealth and Rita work partly because the time between a train leaving the station and reaching the end of the ride is very short. But for most coasters, without a third train any improvement in throughput would be minimal. A third train is quite a big expense to buy, but also the trains are quite expensive to maintain, in terms of having a lot of parts that need regular inspections and testing, and parts with shorter design lives that are more likely to need replacing.

 

[flyingguitar]

I think you're right, it's down to cost. There's the cost of building a separate offload and the cost of extra staff. The other thing is (and I haven't ridden Hyperia so I'm not sure how much this applies to it), on a lot of coasters a separate offload wouldn't add much to the throughput unless you had a third train. Stealth and Rita work partly because the time between a train leaving the station and reaching the end of the ride is very short. But for most coasters, without a third train any improvement in throughput would be minimal. A third train is quite a big expense to buy, but also the trains are quite expensive to maintain, in terms of having a lot of parts that need regular inspections and testing, and parts with shorter design lives that are more likely to need replacing.

it is partially down to cost, they could install an unload but what would the advantage be? the dispatches are limited by the length of the ride, if you got quicker you would just stack on the lift hill the only advantage may be more consistent quick dispatches but that is it.
in terms of capacity with a good crew you gain nothing, and can sometimes loose capacity due to issues such as where the baggage is located (saw), time between moving from unload to load, if running less trains it can dramatically hit capacity (see rita, can't load/unload simultaniously when on 1 train)

 

[Poisson]

You can get good throughput with 1 station by good ride design. Olympia Looping has a possible throughput of 2880pph and can regularly clear 2500pph. Hyperia has neither good design or good ops.

 

[sillyrooster]

Are we back to two trains yet?