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General Queue Times Discussion

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Danscott22 said:
The queue at the turnaround leading into the second Wicker Man pass through was 25 minutes the other day, a few switchbacks from the main entrance.
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I’d say that’s roughly in line with what I experienced; the queue seemed to move every few seconds, and I was honestly staggered that the ride’s throughput wasn’t considerably higher than the 1,048pph I logged!

That queue was honestly the fastest moving queue I waited in all day (surprisingly given that WM isn’t the park’s highest throughput coaster; I’d have expected Nemesis at least to feel faster).

So that does raise the question; is throughput necessarily everything in terms of determining how quickly a queue moves? Or do other factors play into it as well? I’m only asking because I’m confused as to how Wicker Man can feel like Alton Towers’ fastest moving queue even though it hasn’t got the park’s highest throughput.
 
Matt N said:
I’d say that’s roughly in line with what I experienced; the queue seemed to move every few seconds, and I was honestly staggered that the ride’s throughput wasn’t considerably higher than the 1,048pph I logged!

That queue was honestly the fastest moving queue I waited in all day (surprisingly given that WM isn’t the park’s highest throughput coaster; I’d have expected Nemesis at least to feel faster).

So that does raise the question; is throughput necessarily everything in terms of determining how quickly a queue moves? Or do other factors play into it as well? I’m only asking because I’m confused as to how Wicker Man can feel like Alton Towers’ fastest moving queue even though it hasn’t got the park’s highest throughput.
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Well you've got to take into account the main queue isn't that long for wicker man. If you queued round all the extended, that would likely take longer than the main part
 
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Matt N said:
So that does raise the question; is throughput necessarily everything in terms of determining how quickly a queue moves?
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Simply put, no. Another major factor would be the physical width of a queue. For instance, PMBO at Blackpool has a pretty poor throughput, especially when on 1 train, but the queue seems to move enough in places considering a good chunk of it is only wide enough to allow a single-file line. :)
 
Burbs said:
Simply put, no. Another major factor would be the physical width of a queue. For instance, PMBO at Blackpool has a pretty poor throughput, especially when on 1 train, but the queue seems to move enough in places considering a good chunk of it is only wide enough to allow a single-file line. :)
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Nemesis is similar as well, a lot of the queue is single file, so if they're not using the extension queue then you know you won't have to wait too long
 
I’ll admit throughput and its relationship with how quickly the queue moves does confuse me a bit.

On one hand, you have Wicker Man, which doesn’t have a ridiculously high throughput (high, at ~1,050pph, but not ridiculously so) and seems to hardly stop moving.

On the other hand, you have rides like Valhalla at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which allegedly gets 2,000pph, but was without question among the slowest moving queues I’ve ever waited in. Admittedly, I could just have ridden Valhalla on a bad day, but I was honestly staggered that it attains a throughput even 25% of that figure based on how slowly the queue moved when I waited in it in 2019; I didn’t time the dispatches, but it felt like it was easily the slowest queue of the day.
 
Matt N said:
On the other hand, you have rides like Valhalla at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which allegedly gets 2,000pph, but was without question among the slowest moving queues I’ve ever waited in. Admittedly, I could just have ridden Valhalla on a bad day, but I was honestly staggered that it attains a throughput even 25% of that figure based on how slowly the queue moved when I waited in it in 2019; I didn’t time the dispatches, but it felt like it was easily the slowest queue of the day.
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Yes, because there wouldn't be a cat in hell's chance of it ever achieving that when running the amount of boats it does.
 
Valhalla gets, at best, around a third of the theoretical throughput. From POVs the ride duration is around 7 minutes, so each boat goes round 8-9 times per hour. That gives an hourly capacity of around 70 x the number of boats in service: 6 boats = 420, 8 = 560, 10 = 700. Take off another chunk of that capacity for speedy pass and you're left with a very slow queue.

Wicker Man seems to run absolutely flat out most of the time, so even though the headline capacity isn't anything special the queue moves fairly well. Fastrack and RAP ratios seem to be quite strictly enforced by the merge hosts too, which also helps.
 
I’ll admit I’m always surprised that Wicker Man’s theoretical throughput was ever estimated at only 952pph; based on most people’s timings & predictions, my own included, the ride often seems to beat that figure. I don’t know if you’d concur @John, but in spite of theoretical ride capacities often being done presuming quite favourable circumstances, Wicker Man’s seems to be quite a conservative estimate on GCI’s part.

I myself have timed Wicker Man on two separate occasions; in April, I came out with 1,059pph, and yesterday, I came out with 1,048pph. I don’t know if I just strike Wicker Man on particularly good days, though; does it routinely exceed 1,000pph?
 
Only AT will know what it's actually getting - all we see is snapshots of a few trains at a time, which is likely to give a higher figure than you'd get by counting the number of trains sent across a full hour.

1050ish is likely to be pretty close to the absolute maximum capacity that would be achieved if every train was sent at the earliest possible time.
 
Galactica's been on "queue at capacity" all day. :p

Screenshot_20210701-152457.png
 
6 of the big 7 coasters are currently closed, with The Smiler being the only one in operation. I was thinking a thunderstorm might be in the area but surely that would be closed as well.

EDIT: With the amount of rides now closed, I'm going to assume there is a thunderstorm hovering around, or occurring.
 
I know this isn’t related to queue times per se, but throughputs seem to be a common topic that come up in this thread, so I thought I’d share some of my personal readings and the “load factor” values for each of Alton Towers’ roller coasters (the percentage of the theoretical throughput being attained). I should point out that I am missing Galactica & Octonauts, and that Nemesis also had broken airgates on the day I did it on, so take that one with a pinch of salt.

So, my estimates for the coasters at Alton Towers I’ve timed are as follows:
  • Nemesis: Theoretical throughput 1,400pph, actual throughput 899pph, load factor of 64%. As I say, however, this was when the airgates were broken back in April, so I need a new reading for Nemesis.
  • Oblivion (High): I’ve got multiple estimates for this, so I’ll do High and Low. Theoretical throughput 1,900pph, actual throughput 1,156pph, load factor of 61%.
  • Oblivion (Low): Theoretical throughput 1,900pph, actual throughput 891pph, load factor of 47%.
  • Rita: Theoretical throughput 1,150pph, actual throughput 713pph, load factor of 62%.
  • Runaway Mine Train: Theoretical throughput 1,061pph, actual throughput 613pph, load factor of 58%.
  • Smiler: Theoretical throughput 1,000pph (Gerst says 1,200, but that’s based on 5 trains running with an unload station, so I’ll go with TS’ listing of 1,000), actual throughput 765pph, load factor of 77%.
  • Spinball Whizzer: Theoretical throughput 950pph, actual throughput 642pph, load factor of 68%.
  • Thirteen: Theoretical throughput 1,100pph, actual throughput 957pph, load factor of 87%.
  • Wicker Man: Theoretical throughput of 952pph, actual throughput 1,048pph, load factor of 110%.
What are you guys’ thoughts on my data? Do you think I have it right, or do you think I’ve got it completely wrong?
 
spinba11 said:
Smiler doesn't need an unload ststion, it needs it's bag room back then unloading and loading people dont mix.
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Technically it already has one, as the block brake before the load point is fully within the building and the platform extends the whole way. It's just not configured as an unload point.
 
If trains were able to unload on the bit where trains are often stacking (where it says “You Belong To The Smiler” on the wall), the ride could probably consistently attain over 1,000pph. Saw operates a similar system, and that seems to have a fair throughput.
 
Well if it had a separate offload platform it would have to have a bag store, which would bring throughput back to what it used to be anyway. The limiting factor at the moment is waiting for people to put bags away before taking their seats.
 
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