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[2026] CBeebies Land Junior Coaster

It won't absorb any capacity because they're removing a ride for it
it may, rollercoasters tend to have more capacity compared to rides like postman pats, which only has a cap of 320pph (RMT has a cap of 1062pph if it were to opperate similarly) (no data for octonaughts though)

What if this coaster has been designed long term to replace the octonaughts coaster and bring a coaster into the heart of cbeebies land. Octonaughts always has long queues and seems to struggle with the out of season demands meaning they close it as soon as christmas has arrived leaving the park with no coaster for twixmas. We know they are aiming for 365 day operation which will probably never happen but fixing their christmas and spring half term events would be a good start. Also if this coaster is short but with high capacity I think it will make a lot of parents and kids happy with a short queue (possibly why there is a big shed for an extra train or so they can maintain it over winter)
I would agree this could make sense to essentially move octonaughts more inwards to CBeebies (the queue is not the best, and it feels like it has been squashed in a random spot) and the additional maintenance shed could allow for 2 trains meaning one can be off during its yearly rebuild (as required by most rollercoasters). this new ride looks to have a longer station and maintenance bay so it could have longer trains and so could have a higher capacity compared to octonaughts and looking at maps this new ride is probably comparable ride length to octonaughts (no turn arround but longer station and lift).
on the other hand I would assume the rollercoaster part of CBeebies is quite a popular one so it may make more sense to have 2 rollercoasters to expand the rollercoaster capacity.

Now this is where my theory gets interesting. What if the plan is to replace octonaughts with some 1.2m flat rides creating what used to be something like adventure land with spinball whizzer (its just had a single rider queue added for some reason). If the tree top ride is going as well this could be them shrinking cbeebies land and creating an area for older kids for the winter and spring events. This gives them cbeebies for 2-6, mutiny bay for 5-9 and adventure land for 7-12 possibly. Maybe they could even use the conference venue for ice skating or something aimed at older children to tie into the area. This would also mean they don't need to grit huge parts of the park to open other areas that appeal to older kids reducing operating cost whilst allowing full families to visit.
if they were aiming to replace octonaughts I don't think they would eat into CBeebies to expand adventure land, I think it would make sense to add additional rides to CBeebies land. I think if it was the plan they could probably add some theming or other (bushes / foliage) to hide spinball from inside CBeebies and add some more to it.


also get set go tree top adventure is could be staying, I checked on google maps and comparing it's lay out to the plans (approximatly) it only goes over the queue I have drawn the layout in blue over the plans bellow, if they are keeping it the layout makes more sense.
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On the Maintenance Building, I suspect that the size might suggest that it is designed to be a maintenance building for the whole of CBeebies Land, rather than just the new coaster. It would make sense to increase maintenance capacity for the land. They'd obviously still need to use their larger facilities for big jobs, but a small-scale maintenance facility within CBeebies Land would surely make things more efficient on a day-to-day basis.
looking at the floor plans there is a roller door leading into the track and would appear to be set up very similar to be how a switch track maitanence bay would be set up withe another roller door at the oposite end (a feature of maitanence buildings sometimes they have a bit of track to allow removal of the train, such as in hyperia, spinball, rita and some more) also the enterance (for the rest of the land) is via the staff carpark with a rarther small looking roller door, if this was for the whole land I would expect a larger door and it not to matter if it was inline with the coaster door.
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I feel like this new investment has baffled us all

To be fair it’s genuinely a pickle, the maintenance shed makes no sense unless there is a way to run two trains AND have the ride make two circuits.

Unless you do a lot of shuttling between the lift hill and the end like an elaborate rock n tug.
 
To be fair it’s genuinely a pickle, the maintenance shed makes no sense unless there is a way to run two trains AND have the ride make two circuits.

Unless you do a lot of shuttling between the lift hill and the end like an elaborate rock n tug.
If there’s two trains, the lift hill would also have to double up as a holding block in order to transfer trains on and off the track, as it looks like there’s no block brakes meaning that the station block would serve as the same block section as the free-coasting track.
 
If there’s two trains, the lift hill would also have to double up as a holding block in order to transfer trains on and off the track, as it looks like there’s no block brakes meaning that the station block would serve as the same block section as the free-coasting track.
I think It would probably have brakes before that turn in to the station it is a steep turn and normally there are brakes before a switch track (if it has one)
 
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I do agree that this wouldn’t have been high on my Alton priority list. I guess having another kiddie coaster is not a bad thing, but it seems like an odd choice when Octonauts already exists and there are other lineup gaps like flat rides that could be filled with similar money.

Is there a possibility that this investment was the result of some sort of multi-ride deal with the manufacturer of Chessington’s upcoming kiddie coaster? If this was the case, the investment could have resulted from Merlin corporate saying to Alton Towers “We’re giving you an XYZ kiddie coaster. Find somewhere to put it” rather than it being a case of Alton deducing that CBeebies Land needs another coaster.
 
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I do agree that this wouldn’t have even high on my Alton priority list. I guess having another kiddie coaster is not a bad thing, but it seems like an odd choice when Octonauts already exists and there are other lineup gaps like flat rides that could be filled with similar money.

Is there a possibility that this investment was the result of some sort of multi-ride deal with the manufacturer of Chessington’s upcoming kiddie coaster? If this was the case, the investment could have resulted from Merlin corporate saying to Alton Towers “We’re giving you an XYZ kiddie coaster. Find somewhere to put it” rather than it being a case of Alton deducing that CBeebies Land needs another coaster.

I think this is exactly what has happened to be honest. And seems to be a pattern now with new attractions
 
We are all looking at this from a grown up thoosie perspective.
Alton only had one kiddie coaster in a large kiddie area.
They have doubled up, to aid capacity, and to give the little uns a choice... get that addiction in early.
While true, I think what is really needed is the step up fro Octonauts to keep them addicted, so do the tiny coaster, then the small one, then the medium one (RMT) then the slightly bigger ones (Wickerman & Thirteen) etc. It is something between Octonauts and RMT that is missing and it doesn't look like this will provide it. Also is the loss of a current functional ride.
 
We are all looking at this from a grown up thoosie perspective.
Alton only had one kiddie coaster in a large kiddie area.
They have doubled up, to aid capacity, and to give the little uns a choice... get that addiction in early.

I can assure you that it makes no more sense from a parents perspective either.

My eldest is almost 5, she loves the Octonauts coaster and *used* to love RMT until suddenly this year we had to tell her she's not allowed on again until she grows another 10cm. Thing is, as much as she loves thrill rides, her and her baby sis (1 year old) are joined at the hip and want to go on rides together, hence things like Postman Pat being ideal for the whole family.

If we wanted coaster after coaster we'd go to Thorpe. AT and Cbeebies in particular fills that gap of family rides for everyone to enjoy and I think that removing PP is a poor choice where there are other candidates for the chop within the area. If it's moderately more thrilling than Octonauts (even though the plans don't seem to support this) then my eldest will love it no doubt, but won't be able to take her sis on. If it's a kiddie coaster with no height restrictions then they can ride together, but surely it then wouldn't offer much more than PP did.

Who knows. Bizarre choice from AT, and certainly smacks of "put this somewhere" - once again Towers plays second fiddle.
 
I wonder whether this investment is partly a reaction to the lack of anything 'new' in this area since 2022. By 2026, it will have been four years since CBeebies Land had something 'new' (the largest gap in this area's history). A new ride and IP will no doubt boost the popularity of this area once again, albeit at the cost of one or two attractions closing/being removed. Given that we're seeing a trend-setting of a new ride in place of a closed one, removing Postman Pat makes sense regarding how we're seeing Alton Towers approach new investments.

This investment won't get much praise here simply because most of us are not the target market.
 
I can understand why they have gone with another rollercoaster, octonaughts probably has really bad capacity and currently its average maximum varies from 40-60 mins compared to nemesis, smiler etc this isn't too long but considering they are children there is probably people turning away from octonaghts ride due to the queue time it wouldn't surprise me if this seccond rollercoaster was to increase the capacity of rollercoasters for children (the only option to them is octonaughts, which has a 60 min queue)

there was also the idea that they could be replacing octonaughts which could make sence, it probably isn't easy to access or send a train to repair, and to me it dosn't really feel like it fits in much as seen with other parks they could be trying to improve the theming level of the land (and thus be able to charge some more for it in theory)

I think it makes most sense looking at it from a capacity point of view as a coaster will typically have more capacity compared to PP and thus increase the cap of a land which is struggling with long queues. but I do understand that this is a ride that has a height requirement compared to one that dosn't, comparing to disney world 70% of the rides in magic kingdom work for under 31 inches, so depending on the manurfacture depends on what impact to capacity it will make
 
I'm half thinking IP is the main factor in this investment.

I'm wondering if they'll scrap the Postman Pat system completely, put it in storage or relocate it elsewhere.

In terms of family rollercoasters, an easy win would be updating the RMT restraints so it can have a 0.9m or 1m height requirement again.
 
I'm half thinking IP is the main factor in this investment.

I'm wondering if they'll scrap the Postman Pat system completely, put it in storage or relocate it elsewhere.

In terms of family rollercoasters, an easy win would be updating the RMT restraints so it can have a 0.9m or 1m height requirement again.

And on the subject of IP, everyone is busy talking about the incoming IP but there's always the possibility that Cbeebies are opting not to renew their rights to Postman Pat, which could be a reason behind the change.
 
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