• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

Danscott22 said:
I just think ride availability is becoming farcical now - it seems to be one issue after another, in fact I don’t think there’s one day this season where every ride has operated at the same time. Even when Hex was open for its 10 minutes earlier this month Wicker Man was closed for re track work. Not great for them at all.
Click to expand...
I don’t think the park can help it, to some extent; we’re in a tough situation with supply chains due to Brexit (which will add complications to the arrival of things like spare parts), and widespread staff shortages in travel and hospitality could be causing issues with things like inspecting and maintaining rides as often as you usually would.
 
Matt N said:
I don’t think the park can help it, to some extent; we’re in a tough situation with supply chains due to Brexit (which will add complications to the arrival of things like spare parts), and widespread staff shortages in travel and hospitality could be causing issues with things like inspecting and maintaining rides as often as you usually would.
Click to expand...
I don’t think that can justify the amount of downtime and rides being closed all day - especially when they are advertised to be open. Guests aren’t going to say “well they’ve not had enough time” etc, Thorpe and chessington don’t seem to be having the same issues. If I visited and 5 rides were closed, I wouldn’t exactly be happy
 
There have always been breakdowns and longer related issues, every season, for decades.
Now they get noticed more because of ridetimes and social media grumbles.
Air had issues for ages, as did thirteen, smiler and wickerman.
The flats have always had issues, in the past they claimed power supply outages, submission was closed more often than open.
 
At one point today, the Smiler was also down for a good 20 mins but wasn't showing as closed on the app so I wouldn't take a mobile app as gospel. That said, the Extreme was also closed at the time, Oblivion was down until around half 3 I think it was and of course Enterprise remains in bits so nothing was open in X Sector at all.

Although it was a very disappointing start to the day and the park are clearly having a lot of issues, a 6pm close was reasonable, the likes of Thirteen, Rita and Wickerman were never down for long and when Oblivion finally opened, a lot of people flocked to X Sector clearing out the queues of the other coasters that had been under pressure all day. Everything was operated rather well actually and I was very impressed with the urgency and purpose from of all the staff. Compared to Chessington 2 days ago it was like night and day.
 
Is Nemesis having issues with a train at the moment? It’s currently on one train, averaging about 500-600pph.

It’s also apparently leaking oil from the train that is running… I’m stood in the queue, and it’s currently stopped.
EDIT: Never mind, the 2nd train is being added…
 
Sorry that I’m a bit late to the party on this, but I got some throughput readings for every coaster at the park on my recent visit last Sunday & Monday. My readings were as follows:
  • Galactica: 1,039pph (7th August 2022, 3 trains/2 stations, average of 9)
  • Galactica (Station 1 alone): 534pph (8th August 2022, average of 2) Note: Both stations were open, but this was just me deciding to time the throughput of one station on its own for fun.
  • Nemesis: 531pph (7th August 2022, 1 train, average of 5), 1,164pph (7th August 2022, 2 trains, average of 3), 1,172pph (8th August 2022, 2 trains, average of 7)
  • Oblivion: 1,056pph (7th August 2022, 6 shuttles/1 station, average of 8)
  • Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure: 218pph (7th August 2022, 1 train, average of 2) Note: I did not ride this, I just got a very good vantage point from Spinball’s queue line and thought I might as well time it!
  • Rita: 654pph (8th August 2022, 2 trains, average of 5)
  • Runaway Mine Train: 597pph (8th August 2022, 1 train, average of 4)
  • Spinball Whizzer: 623pph (7th August 2022, 6 cars, average of 10) Note: The constantly moving loading system was not in operation, so 3 cars were stacked stationary in the station at once.
  • The Smiler: 736pph (8th August 2022, 3 trains, baggage hold open, average of 5)
  • Thirteen: 884pph (7th August 2022, 3 trains, baggage hold open, average of 10), 939pph (8th August 2022, 3 trains, baggage hold open, average of 3)
  • Wicker Man: 1,015pph (7th August 2022, 3 trains, average of 10), 978pph (8th August 2022, 3 trains, average of 10)
 
rob666 said:
I was worried there Matt...for a few days I thought you had left the stopwatch app alone.
Click to expand...
Sorry Rob… do you not like me doing timings?

I must admit, timing is a slight guilty pleasure of mine, particularly now I have grown a substantial interest in throughputs/operations!
 
Matt N said:
Sorry Rob… do you not like me doing timings?

I must admit, timing is a slight guilty pleasure of mine, particularly now I have grown a substantial interest in throughputs/operations!
Click to expand...
nah i love it

Question, how come we’ve barely seen the smiler on 4 trains this year, for many years we’ve seen the smiler be on 4 trains basically every peak day and this year, we’ve had quite a few 2 train operational days, thank god the baggage hold has returned is all i can say
 
Loui Richards said:
Question, how come we’ve barely seen the smiler on 4 trains this year, for many years we’ve seen the smiler be on 4 trains basically every peak day and this year, we’ve had quite a few 2 train operational days, thank god the baggage hold has returned is all i can say
Click to expand...
I was wondering this. Even on my recent visit where the ride was on a 100 minute queue, it only ran 3 trains. The baggage hold returning has sped up dispatches a lot, and as such, I noticed that there is now a fair amount of idle time where the station is completely empty between when the 3rd train leaves and when the 1st train arrives (maybe 20 seconds or so… when the 3rd train left the station, it took a good few seconds for the first to even come round the corner into the brake run).

As such, the ride has attained little higher than 700pph on all of my 2022 visits, and it was even only attaining around 650pph on one timing.

I wonder if they’re having an issue with the 4th train at present? With the baggage hold having returned, they’re now being very rapid in checking and sending the trains; at the point when the flow of trains was constant, the dispatch interval was quick enough for there to be a throughput of over 900pph (the interval was barely over a minute)!
 
The Smiler was running 4 trains on my visit in May, but I got the last ride on it before they closed it and took one off of the circuit. I wonder if that is a regular thing that occurs.
 
I’ve noticed it’s train 1 that i never seen to see in picture that people post on their day at the park….maybe extended maintenance was needed on it. just really weird as in 2019 it was running 4 trains on every but 1 visit
 
Loui Richards said:
I’ve noticed it’s train 1 that i never seen to see in picture that people post on their day at the park….maybe extended maintenance was needed on it. just really weird as in 2019 it was running 4 trains on every but 1 visit
Click to expand...
New manager of operations on the park now do remember. Maybe that has something to do with it
 
Got one off my sister for my eighteenth.
Got smashed to bits on a horrible looping wheel flat out of my waistcoat pocket within a year or two.
When I did get access to a fancy "time and motion" analogue stopwatch at work I became a real pain in the arse.
Hence another reason for not owning a smartphone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top