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Heatwave 18th/19th July

Have they said anything about air con indoors as the correctional block certainly doesn't feel like it has any. God knows how warm it'll be in that room on those days
 
Breakdowns are part of the reasoning. But just under normal operations, they’re absolutely unbearable to ride on when it’s hot thanks to them being greenhouses when the sun is that hot. You can probably easily add another ten degrees plus to the outside temperature in the monorail cabins and Skyride gondolas. Even with tinted/screened windows they very quickly become a health hazard in the heat thanks to the lack of airflow. Even the slightest delay, never mind a breakdown could quickly become a real issue for guests.

Actually that’s something I’ve always wondered, what exactly would the evacuation procedure be if say the Skyride broke down over the valley and there was a medical emergency on board?
 
Actually that’s something I’ve always wondered, what exactly would the evacuation procedure be if say the Skyride broke down over the valley and there was a medical emergency on board?
They have staff trained to evacuate the Skyride with ropes and harnesses etc. Not sure it has ever had to happen, and hopefully it will never be required.
 
Actually that’s something I’ve always wondered, what exactly would the evacuation procedure be if say the Skyride broke down over the valley and there was a medical emergency on board?
I see AT86 just beat me to posting the page on the website showing some photos from back in the 90's which were sent to us a few years ago :). Obviously that's with the old gondolas, but the premise is very much the same these days. The procedure is rehearsed incredibly regularly, so people would be evacuated as quickly as possible. There's the backup diesel generator to get things moving even in the event of a power outage, so a manual evacuation would be an incredibly rare event, usually if a gondola gets jammed preventing things from moving.

But in terms of the heatwave, just the gondolas running as normal without breakdowns are far too hot to be comfortable for guests. They're literal greenhouses strapped to a cable, too slow to force any air through and the "windows" that open are useless as they open to a safety vent which lets very little air through.



Compare that to Disney's Skyliner which have far larger vents and run much faster to force airflow into the gondolas.

Skyliner-095-Riviera-1.jpg


Considering Towers is forecast to be hotter than Orlando (albeit less humid) on Monday/Tuesday, it's a very wise choice to close both Skyride and Monorail on those days.
 
Hope everyone stays safe today, I went out at 8am this morning to top up water for birds/squirrels; etc and feed them and it was baking I can't imagine what this afternoon will be like!
 
I imagine ride reliability today will be very poor, judging on the problems they were having yesterday. At least it'll be quiet because I can't imagine many willing to go out today
 
I remember that incident well in 2004. I was on the park that day.

A gondola got well and truly jammed when leaving the cable and entering the FV station on the Skyride coming from the UG land station. That ment the whole loop over the valley was completely jammed.

I seem to recall it happening close to the end of the day too, so people were stuck well into the evening.

I am sure people were evacuated, they most certainly were from the gondola that was jamming the system as they were not sure how much at risk the gondola was of falling if they tried to move the system. If you know the FV side when comin from dark forest, it is quite a sheer drop. But I am sure people were evacuated out of other gondolas over the gardens too.

I think this was the most serious incident on the Skyride period.

I seem to recall the stuck passengers getting quite a generous compensation package, consisting of passes to the park, hotel stays, food vouchures and monetary compensation to name a few things.
 
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