AltonLover123
TS Member
I’m seeing something akin to Troublesome Trucks in that space.
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[2026] CBeebies Land Junior Coaster
- Thread starter Adthoms
- Start date
I’m seeing something akin to Troublesome Trucks in that space.
Squiggs
TS Team
The planning application has gone up on the Staffordshire Moorlands Planning Portal today. No associated documents yet, but that is normal. The application does confirm what we basically already knew that:
The proposal is for the removal of an existing attraction and to replace it with a new attraction and ancillary buildings (station and maintenance buildings) within the CBeebies Land area of Alton Towers.
I think anyone who was worried about the fate of Spinball can probably now rest at ease. Any fans of the postal service... maybe not so much.
The proposal is for the removal of an existing attraction and to replace it with a new attraction and ancillary buildings (station and maintenance buildings) within the CBeebies Land area of Alton Towers.
I think anyone who was worried about the fate of Spinball can probably now rest at ease. Any fans of the postal service... maybe not so much.
It could, I hope it means multiple train opps (better cap seems like something cbbebies needs) but I could see it being a transformer / power / control etc room
Bert2theSpark
TS Member
That’s interesting, Octonauts and RMT do not have maintenance buildings as they only have one train and so the station can also serve some functions of a maintenance shed. Similarly, Troublesome Trucks and Farmyard Flyer/Chessington’s new clone also do not have maintenance bays (at least as far as I’m aware).
I’m wondering whether the trees and parking spaces behind Postman Pat and Guest Services will help make way for this coaster. With this being some sort of spike and/or launch coaster.
I think this coaster is meant to help bridge the gap between the current CBeebies and the rest of the park, especially with the recent losses of Flávio’s and Blade. CBeebies is predominately aimed at 2-8 years, whereas this coaster might be a ride to appeal to the 9+ years.
A lot of the CBBC programs are being slowly migrated to CBeebies with the closure of the channel, combined with the theme park industry seeing more and more major coasters getting lower height restrictions. See down the road at Drayton Manor with Gold Rush with a 1m height requirement. No doubt that this could be Towers repositioning CBeebies Land to the changes across both the TV and theme park landscape.
Bowser
TS Member
I think this is a lot of wishful thinking. CBeebies is for under 6 predominantly and the current ride selection supports that.
Encouraging older children into that area would be detrimental to its purpose. If they wanted a ride to replace The Blade et al then there are far more suitable places to put one. This is the equivalent of suggesting Paultons should have put Storm Chaser in Peppa Pig World.
Time to lay off the Xmas sherry my friend.
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Certainly would not surprise me if they've got a multi-coaster deal. Would make sense. I could see Towers' one being fairly bigger though, especially given Chessy's plans don't include a "maintenance building" (has a "plant room", which isn't really the same).
Also, I'd expect that they'd want this coaster to be different enough from Octonaughts.
QTXAdsy
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
Even TPWW noted how it was an all new system that is barely 10 years old, young in ride terms and in theory could be moved elsewhere on the park to add a 'new' attraction on the cheap which you can say they did somewhat with GG given how that attraction was from a previous planned Merlin attraction. Maybe gutting out say the Nickelodeon building and perhaps the next door building to knock it all through could help create the space needed for a new ride involving the Postman Pat ride system. Hell, might even be a shout to put inside the Dungeons building if you want a new attraction in there quickly without investing in new hardware which would easily fit in there without needing to knock things through.
Even if Project Horizon is delayed for say 2027 or 2028 lets say, this could help help act as a stop-gap for that area for say a part one of an area retheme should TWODW is going and given how we seem to have 2025 with new look Ripsaw being a part two for the new look Forbidden Valley then who's to say that might be the case but I'm rambling now.
Bert2theSpark
TS Member
I think you’ve got a different impression to what I was thinking about. I was thinking of a ride model similar to below. Whilst a step-up from Octonauts currently, it bridges the gap between Octo and RMT, and would have a 0.9m height restriction similar to everything else in the area currently. It would be interesting if someone could actually map that layout onto the Postman Pat plot.
It does leave Towers down in the non-coaster lineup, usually antique car rides are an easy addition and low maintenance for the scale of ride that they are. Maybe the system will be recycled onto a smaller plot towards the back of the land, with a more relevant IP, at some point.
Bowser
TS Member
Height restriction aside, that seems far more thrilling than the likes of RMT and goes back to my points of being both too much for the target audience and likely to result in the young children’s area being invaded.
I also think you’re not taking into account AT’s recent budgetary habits. What’s more likely in the current climate, AT spending many millions on a brand new launched coaster in CBeebies or buying multiple more basic children’s coasters at a discount across their parks?
The thing to remember is rides in these areas can and will be pretty underwhelming because they completely coast on the IP.
AltonLover123
TS Member
The fact is has a maintence building (wether that be with the use of a transfer track or something more akin to a maintence workshop) implies it at least won’t be a carbon copy of Chessies which is what I was assuming it would be.
Octo doesn’t have one so I’m assuming it’s something more substantial to require the additional equipment. And by substantial that could suggest a two train operation.
Octo doesn’t have one so I’m assuming it’s something more substantial to require the additional equipment. And by substantial that could suggest a two train operation.
flyingguitar
TS Member
this is one of the reasons why I don't think it will be postman pat, I think the in the night garden ride has a large plot (large enough for spinball to fit in) and is based on an old show (last made in 2009) so would probably need a new retheme and it is on a really old ride system (1989), which probably isn't cheap to maintain. we won't know untill they release more info in the planning permission.
It is possible, both have large plots.
looking at queue times.com, it would appear as though the average all time queue time for postman pat is higher than in the night garden
(although I am not sure of the throughput of in the night garden so hard to compare, but given the number of people in each vehicle I would assume it is more than that of postman pats (~300pph) so dosn't represent popularity much)
and down time was slightly higher over the past 7 days for in the night garden, but not significantly and downtime is probably very similar (1.8% vs 1.3%)
Things we know:
- attraction in CBeebies is being removed
- large building for Project Horizon planned to be filled with attraction
Things we believe:
- a space theme is being considered
- Merlin make some awful decisions
So, adding 2+2:
- Postman Pat goes into PH building
- Postal worker theme is given a galactic overhaul leading to an inter-planetary courier theme
- Futurama ride confirmed?
Squiggs
TS Team
I think you might be missing an important consideration with what stays and goes from CBeebies Land.
When the programmes were made is less relevant than when they were last on TV. Whilst Night Garden was made further back, it was last on CBeebies around two hours ago, and is next on TV in less than 24hrs - it is a very popular TV show. Postman Pat on the other hand is available on IPlayer, but not currently on TV, so is in relative limbo and is also relatively old school and hasn't had new episodes since 2017.
Similarly with the ride system, age is less of a consideration than reliability. Those Mack free-flow boat rides were made to last - unless I'm mistaken, neither the Dungeons nor Night Garden are known for reliability issues, so I'd imagine the park would be keen to hold on to ride systems that are working well. I'm not sure about the Postman Pat system - it could easily be 10 years old, but a cheaper system. Merlin are not hugely well known for investing in good quality ride systems they expect to last for decades.
AltonLover123
TS Member
flyingguitar
TS Member
they still show in the night garden, I am a bit shocked You may not be able to guess but I am not an avid watcher of Cbeebies I just thought a show that stopped in 2009 would be much less relevant than the pretty famous postman pat even if it did end in 2017.
I guess the ride system is simpler for in the night garden, so probably less parts, but my argument was not really about reliability, more about part avalibility, as the parts may last for a while, but if they are difficult to get, it makes it more expensive to run (although a ride made by a small manurfacture also probably has a similar problem).
IMO the land available from in the night journey would suit a rollercoaster much better as in the night garden uses up a lot of the space Cbeebies land has (ignoring the tree top, it is probably the largest attraction by land area)