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General Queue Times Discussion

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Out of interest, what would we guess are the current highest and lowest throughput rides on park, when COVID procedures are taken into account? I’ve made a few ballpark guesses for each ride that I timed on my last visit to the park (Rita, Thirteen, Nemesis, Oblivion, Wicker Man, Spinball), and some that I timed on previous visits (for instance, I timed Smiler on my July 2020 visit).

I don’t know if you’d agree, but my personal guesses are:
  • Rita: 713pph timed on the basis of a full train with 20 riders. Full trains being loaded for the most part, so my final estimate is 713pph.
  • Thirteen: 957pph timed on the basis of a full train with 20 riders. However, trains were only being dispatched with around 6 riders last time I rode, so my final estimate is 287pph.
  • Wicker Man: 1059pph timed on the basis of a full train with 24 riders. However, a couple of rows were left out on every train, maybe 4 per train at a maximum. Therefore, going with the worst case scenario of 16 riders per train, my final guess is 706pph.
  • Oblivion: 1156pph timed on the basis of a full train of 16 riders. There are only maybe 4 seats left empty at maximum on Oblivion, so taking a worst case scenario of 12 riders per train, my final guess is 867pph.
  • Nemesis: 899pph timed on the basis of a full train of 32 riders. The ride is being fully loaded, so my final guess is 899pph. (Note: I did this reading when the airgates were broken, so the true throughput of Nemesis is probably higher)
  • Spinball Whizzer: 642pph timed on the basis of full cars of 4 riders. The ride is being loaded with one group within each car, and taking into account that a group can be between 2 and 4 people (single riders are banned at the moment), I’ll use the average of 2 and 4, which is 3 people per car. As such, my guess for Spinball is 482pph.
  • The Smiler: 494pph timed on the basis of a full train of 16 riders. The ride is being fully loaded at present, so my final guess is 494pph. (Note: This was right back in July 2020, not long after the park opened, so the reading is probably a fair bit higher now)
Do these seem like accurate ballpark guesses to you?
 
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Matt N said:
Out of interest, what would we guess are the current highest and lowest throughput rides on park, when COVID procedures are taken into account? I’ve made a few ballpark guesses for each ride that I timed on my last visit to the park (Rita, Thirteen, Nemesis, Oblivion, Wicker Man, Spinball), and some that I timed on previous visits (for instance, I timed Smiler on my July 2020 visit).

I don’t know if you’d agree, but my personal guesses are:
  • Rita: 713pph timed on the basis of a full train with 20 riders. Full trains being loaded for the most part, so my final estimate is 713pph.
  • Thirteen: 957pph timed on the basis of a full train with 20 riders. However, trains were only being dispatched with around 6 riders last time I rode, so my final estimate is 287pph.
  • Wicker Man: 1059pph timed on the basis of a full train with 24 riders. However, a couple of rows were left out on every train, maybe 4 per train at a maximum. Therefore, going with the worst case scenario of 16 riders per train, my final guess is 706pph.
  • Oblivion: 1156pph timed on the basis of a full train of 16 riders. There are only maybe 4 seats left empty at maximum on Oblivion, so taking a worst case scenario of 12 riders per train, my final guess is 867pph.
  • Nemesis: 899pph timed on the basis of a full train of 32 riders. The ride is being fully loaded, so my final guess is 899pph. (Note: I did this reading when the airgates were broken, so the true throughput of Nemesis is probably higher)
  • Spinball Whizzer: 642pph timed on the basis of full cars of 4 riders. The ride is being loaded with one group within each car, and taking into account that a group can be between 2 and 4 people (single riders are banned at the moment), I’ll use the average of 2 and 4, which is 3 people per car. As such, my guess for Spinball is 482pph.
  • The Smiler: 494pph timed on the basis of a full train of 16 riders. The ride is being fullt loaded at present, so my final guess is 494pph. (Note: This was right back in July 2020, not long after the park opened, so the reading is probably a fair bit higher now)
Do these seem like accurate ballpark guesses to you?
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Smiler and th13teen will definitely be higher. Wicker man is filled every other row so only 10-12 rows will be filled each time not 16, meaning wicker man will be lower. If I had to put a number on each at a complete guess I'd probably say:
Nemesis 900
Oblivion 850
Rita 750
Smiler 700
Galactica 700
Wicker man 600
Th13teen 450
 
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Ethan said:
Smiler and th13teen will definitely be higher. Wicker man is filled every other row so only 10-12 rows will be filled each time not 16, meaning wicker man will be lower
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I should clarify that with WM, I was referring to there being 16 riders per train at minimum, which equates to about 8 rows filled. WM at full capacity has 24 riders per train, or 12 rows filled. I noticed that only 3-4 rows were ever empty on WM when I was last there, as a group often fills more than one row, and they were only leaving a row between each group.

I don’t know about Smiler, as I haven’t done it since July 2020, but Thirteen was only loading 6 riders per train last time I did it, as a row was left between groups and the dummies were filling the back few rows.
 
Matt N said:
I should clarify that with WM, I was referring to there being 16 riders per train at minimum, which equates to about 8 rows filled. WM at full capacity has 24 riders per train, or 12 rows filled. I noticed that only 3-4 rows were ever empty on WM when I was last there, as a group often fills more than one row, and they were only leaving a row between each group.

I don’t know about Smiler, as I haven’t done it since July 2020, but Thirteen was only loading 6 riders per train last time I did it, as a row was left between groups and the dummies were filling the back few rows.
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Oops my bad sorry I made a mistake I was thinking wicker man had 20 rows but that's Rita and th13teen
 
Thirteen and Rita have 10 rows, 20 passengers max.

Though the 4-across coasters are loading every row it's still only 1 group per row. As with Spinball, every group of 2 result in 2 empty seats. Using an average of 3 per row would probably give a more accurate figure for Nemesis, Galactica and Smiler.
 
Ethan said:
Oops my bad sorry I made a mistake I was thinking wicker man had 20 rows but that's Rita and th13teen
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Rita and Thirteen each have 10 rows, with 2 riders per row. This makes for 20 riders per train.

I think you’re getting rows and riders mixed up. An easy mistake to make, in fairness!

Thanks for the pointer @John; with that in mind, my amended figure for Nemesis comes out at 674pph and my amended figure for Smiler comes out at 371pph. Nemesis was done when the airgates were broken, however, so is likely higher; I’ll try and get an amended reading for Nemesis next time I’m there, as well as possibly one for Galactica and a new one for Smiler.
 
Does any one know the situation with Galactica? It constantly seems to have queues of 90 mins during the day, even in these busy times that seems long.

Therefore I assume it is not running at full capacity, is it down to one station / 2 crafts? Even then it seems a very long queue. If it is down to one station, why? Is this penny pinching from the park to save staffing costs? Or is there a technical problem with the 3rd craft / 2nd station?
 
yeah i dont think they'e ran g on 3 crafts in a good while or even at all this year, which is why i think when the ride is closed is because they would be left with just 1 craft if a second one needs work done. Last year from the entrance sign it only took 40 minutes to do the full queue on 3 crafts so is weird!
 
Loui Richards said:
yeah i dont think they'e ran g on 3 crafts in a good while or even at all this year, which is why i think when the ride is closed is because they would be left with just 1 craft if a second one needs work done. Last year from the entrance sign it only took 40 minutes to do the full queue on 3 crafts so is weird!
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Galactica was 100% on 3 crafts on 28 May, I watched one dispatch, one being loaded and the other pull in behind.
 
Loui Richards said:
yeah i dont think they'e ran g on 3 crafts in a good while or even at all this year, which is why i think when the ride is closed is because they would be left with just 1 craft if a second one needs work done. Last year from the entrance sign it only took 40 minutes to do the full queue on 3 crafts so is weird!
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Generally speaking it has been three trains weekends, two trains weekdays all season.

There have been a few technical issues which have reduced that capacity on occasion, however.
 
AT86 said:
Does any one know the situation with Galactica? It constantly seems to have queues of 90 mins during the day, even in these busy times that seems long.
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Did it today. It was on 2 trains 1 Station. Advertised 70, I waited 93. Moves very slowly with 2 trains indeed
 
Sounds like they need to get it up to 2 stations 3 crafts every day of the week. Generally Alton Towers are good at running at full capacity so perhaps there are other issues behind the scenes which are stopping this. But from a guest point of view it’s not really good enough to be running rides with reduced capacity when you have 90 min queues.
 
AT86 said:
Sounds like they need to get it up to 2 stations 3 crafts every day of the week. Generally Alton Towers are good at running at full capacity so perhaps there are other issues behind the scenes which are stopping this. But from a guest point of view it’s not really good enough to be running rides with reduced capacity when you have 90 min queues.
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Totally agree. There must be a reason why it's on 2 craft and not 3. If it was on 3 today it would've easily knocked off maybe 30 mins of our queue
 
Danscott22 said:
I feel like Galactica is just generally on 3 crafts on Fridays anyway, as it was on 28 May on my visit. I feel like it must be 2 crafts Monday-Thursday and 3 crafts Friday-Sunday.
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Would like to know their logic behind operating it on 2 crafts on a busy day like yesterday.
 
Ethan said:
Would like to know their logic behind operating it on 2 crafts on a busy day like yesterday.
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I agree it should be on 3 crafts all the time now as there's not likely to be a "quiet" day now until a midweek non-Oktoberfest September day.
 
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