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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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The 'phone box' at the entrance has been there since the ride opened and it does have the priority passes and the I'm over 1.4m wristbands in it.
 
Anyone confident enough to place bets? Next week? Week after? One after that or next season?

For my money I think if it's not open in September we are looking at start of next season but I feel there is no way they would have done all this work without a restart date being soon. I also think we will see a week of empty cars going round and any issues at all then we are looking at next season with modded cars.
 
I'd say almost certainly this year unless they have major problems while testing it. They wouldn't do work now for next year. If it were planned to open in 2016 this work would have been done over closed season behind closed doors. Instead of in broad daylight during the season where we can watch them making changes.

I can see it opening within the next few weeks, definitely before Scarefest starts.
 
Alton Towers Please Read

look what you are doing to us, we need it open open open and soon
no disrespect to people but we need our baby smiler back :)

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I think its a good thing they are getting some work done during open season, all the geeks start getting excited and word gets out that improvements are being made.
If any of this was carried out when park was shut, no one would be the wiser. It would have been just their word that the upgrades and work had been done.
 
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Hi, my first post here, but I've been lurking and reading the post on here for the past year or two. Today I decided to sign up and join. I'm a regular visitor to the park throughout the years since 1987. Ok back to the topic:

Personally think Alton are trying to get the ride open and safe as soon as possible. I think it will make more sense to get the Smiler open before the scarefest. Not only will this bring in more people, but also will get the ride operating and new safety protocols put in place whilst the park is quiet. It's just doesn't make sense to reopen the ride for a couple of weeks at the end of the season.

I wouldn't be surprise if they suddenly open it without announcement within the next week or two. I presume that the ride might have already been testing whilst the park is closed in the evening.

Time will only tell, fingers cross :)

Roy
 
Ive not noticed any evidence of train testing, the rust marks on the track are still there. When it does start we'll see a clean line appear on the track.
Please be nxt week please be nxt week :)

PS Welcome to @RoyJess
 
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I think it'll need a few runs before the rust starts wearing away anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd already sent a few cars round during park close
 
Well they have the ride testing signs up on the staff road at the back I believe, and this ride is certainly no stranger to having almost all its testing done at night.
 
I think we need to wait for a delivery of another train and maybe the signs going back up outside the entrance. Perhaps the re-introduction of merch into towers trading will be the first sign of re-opening as they need to move the Oblivion merch (if I remember correctly) or could the last two be done over night without guests the previous day suspecting anything (assuming they want to go for a quiet launch). With a potential re-opening day 21st or 28th of September. Thoughts?
 
I think if they were to reopen this season they would keep the merchandise situation as it is for now, with Buy The Smiler being turned into an extension of Towers Trading.
 
Do they really need the other train(s) to open? When it first opened they only used 3 trains and the queues were big but it will be nowhere near as popular now plus the ride ops will probably be quite tentative at first so probably wouldn't won't need more than 3 trains.
Merch won't appear until after it opens opens or on the day it does. Not sure about the signs though.
 
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So no Smiler merch in the main gift shop while the ride is open with the Smiler being the newest ride would be surprising but for easiness plausible. I thought the extra train would be useful to relieve waiting times ( might not be a problem) but if one of the current trains develops a fault then they would be left with 2 for a dual lift hill ride would be daft but with 3 you can have 2 on track and 1 loading.
 
I'm there on the 28th and 29th so hopefully before then! Don't think it would take them long to get the merchandise back in the shops. No clue about staff though, what might have happened to those guys? Split a cross other rides or out of work? If the latter I doubt you can just pull people in off the street. I guess all of this is stuff that can be sorted during extended testing of the ride.
 
They could easily get the merch back in, just think it would be another thing for the media to jump on - 'Towers Makes Money Out Of Tragedy' sort of thing.
 
Agreed but they will move on to moaning g about something else within a few days,im starting to get excited!
 
Id imagine all the employees would be reassigned roles or put on paid leave until the ride re opens and it would probably be a different op to 2nd June for obvious reasons. Imagine if someone at the front of the q before the crash saw the same op on duty on the same could be a pr disaster
 
Just found this article:

http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/4351/Gaat-horrorachtbaan-The-Smiler-weer-open.html

Ran it through the translator:

Beginning horror rollercoaster The Smiler reopen?

Who still dares in roller coaster The Smiler? The rollercoaster, notorious for a dramatic accident in June, will soon be open again. Around the attraction in the English Alton Towers have been spotted in the last days remarkable work.

Employees are busy inspecting track sections, shown in pictures of fansite Towers Street. Moreover, new control panels are installed. Officially still to controls for an investigation into the cause of the crash, which killed sixteen wounded. Fans, however, think that The Smiler this autumn or next spring will get a second life.

As far as known, the accident was caused by human error. Employees would have ignored warnings in the computer system, allowing two carts could crash on top of each other. Two passengers had after a leg amputated.

Earlier associations asked to break down the roller coaster. "Closing the rollercoaster at Alton Towers is the only way to maintain credibility," wrote a columnist.
 
The work being done looks like off season work which would make sense as 3 months is a long time for a ride to be shut and if a reopening isn't planned for this year why do this work in front of the public eye. All points lead towards an opening this season and maybe in a couple weeks with no drastic re-theme maybe just remove some tag lines for a couple of seasons before back up to full theme before crash.
 
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