Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

[spinba11]

They've already said it will not be open during both Scarefest and Fireworks. Now unless you're praying for the dead November weekdays, you really need to be turning your attention to the announcement of next season's opening date in March (or possibly February half-term I guess).

That's the first I've heard that it's not opening for fireworks, I can't see them opening it for the week in between.

 

[Resonate]

I've just had a tweet confirming it is closed for scarefest.

 

[Balb0wa]

From a few minutes ago

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Maybe they had a deadline to meet for it to be open for Scarefest and decided its better to not open it at all instead of opening it for just a couple of weeks or something.

 

[Jonathan]

Maybe they had a deadline to meet for it to be open for Scarefest and decided its better to not open it at all instead of opening it for just a couple of weeks or something.

Wouldn't surprise me if that's the case. I'm a bit disappointed that it won't be opening for Scarefest, but I'm not all that surprised either.

 

[Rob]

Hmmm, got to admit it does sound like a Scarefest opening is off the cards which is a pity as it's certainly what they were aiming for. I suppose they want to wait until they are absolutely sure before taking any decisions. I still think that they want it open this season though so would not rule out it opening before Fireworks.

 

[aircanman]

Currently standing down the bottom of the smiler, they have been inspecting the track with the cherry picker, currently parking it up and having a conversation.

 

[aircanman]

 

[ASturge21]

It only says it will not open during scarefest but that means it could open before scarefest.

 

[Sam]

Currently standing down the bottom of the smiler, they have been inspecting the track with the cherry picker, currently parking it up and having a conversation.

IT'S ABOUT TO OPEN!

 

[delta79]

We don't know what steps are left until it can be reopened. They could of looked at what else they needed to do and decided it would not be completed for scarefest.

 

[UserDeleted]

I'm not being an arse but what else have they had to be doing? Surely if they wanted it to be open for scare fest, pull your finger out and get it ready! They are dragging their heels with it now and people are getting bored/impatient. Sort it towers!

 

[phildenholm]

Feel your pain ash but I think we all need to let go and look forward to next season. Perhaps the speeds are still not good enough and the numbers they wrote on sections of track are to do with reprofiling work they have decided is necessary over the closed season. Perhaps they have decided the bad headlines are not worth it. Perhaps they are reading this and just laughing who really knows but here's hoping it's all worth it and next year is towerstastic!

 

[UserDeleted]

If they aren't opening because of a reprofiling I would actually be happy.

 

[Rob]

I'm not being an arse but what else have they had to be doing? Surely if they wanted it to be open for scare fest, pull your finger out and get it ready! They are dragging their heels with it now and people are getting bored/impatient. Sort it towers!

It will not open until they are fully satisfied that it is safe and fully ready to do so. Clearly they do not feel that it is at this stage yet. I'm sure they want it open just as badly as we all do but they have a responsibility to ensure that they've done everything that they can to improve the safety of the ride. I'm sure they know far more about what they are doing with their ride in their theme park than you do.

They will want it open as soon as is ready, that point of 'ready' is not necisserily a fixed point in time.

 

[Rick]

The ride is still under a prohibition according to HSE via RideRater.

 

[Sku]

I think we all agreed several times in this thread that the notice won't be lifted until the ride is ready to reopen, not the other way around. Let's not start that conversational loop again.

 

[Rick]

I think we all agreed several times in this thread that the notice won't be lifted until the ride is ready to reopen, not the other way around. Let's not start that conversational loop again.

I didn't agree that. What sort of crazy methodology is that? That's not how the HSE works.

 

[Sku]

I didn't agree that. What sort of crazy methodology is that? That's not how the HSE works.

The notice will be lifted once the ride is ready to reopen, i.e. all necessary work will be carried out by Alton Towers.

They are not waiting for the notice to be lifted so they can reopen the ride, that doesn't make any sense. As I previously mentioned some pages ago, HSE are not waiting at the site everyday with a clipboard to suddenly deem the ride safe. Alton Towers are working to make changes, and will let HSE know when they are ready to reopen, so that the notice can be lifted.

 

[UserDeleted]

It will not open until they are fully satisfied that it is safe and fully ready to do so. Clearly they do not feel that it is at this stage yet. I'm sure they want it open just as badly as we all do but they have a responsibility to ensure that they've done everything that they can to improve the safety of the ride. I'm sure they know far more about what they are doing with their ride in their theme park than you do.

They will want it open as soon as is ready, that point of 'ready' is not necisserily a fixed point in time.

OhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh

It's not as if they haven't had 4 months to sort it out.

Just for the record... I don't actually care for the smiler. I think the ride is pretty terrible. I just like the theme and the atmosphere it creates. I'd be happy if they just had it testing at scare fest with the effects and music on.