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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

Danscott22 said:
People shouldn't really defend poor operations, but are quite happy to defend 4pm closes. I'm not going there again, but my point stands. I agree though, Galactica shouldn't be running 1 craft on these 4pm closes, because that is just creating queues when time is already limited. I see your point. It surely doesn't cost any extra staff to have it running 2 on the same side.
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Not in terms of ride ops perhaps but it could’ve just been that there was a lack of engineers today to sign off another craft. After the general ride availability issues of last year (which on many days was diabolical), at least nearly all attractions have opened every day so far this year apart from Enterprise and Hex which clearly have serious technical issues.

It wasn’t uncommon last year to see three headline coasters out of action at a time for several hours.

We really are clutching at straws when moaning about a 20 minute advertised wait whilst every other major ride is walk on.
 
Pawkins said:
Probably a stupid question, is there a reason Nemesis barely ever gets a queue, even on peak/busy days? Is it just a throughput monster, or is it more the age of the attraction?
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It gets a high throughput; by my reckoning, its throughput is around 20-25% higher than Towers’ next highest throughput coaster (probably either Wicker Man or Thirteen, at a bit above 1,000pph, while Nemesis is 1,250pph).

However, I also suspect that it’s not as popular as some of the newer rides. Not unpopular by any means, but I do think Smiler & Wicker Man are a bit more popular, for sure.
 
Matt N said:
It gets a high throughput; by my reckoning, its throughput is around 20-25% higher than Towers’ next highest throughput coaster (probably either Wicker Man or Thirteen, at a bit above 1,000pph, while Nemesis is 1,250pph).

However, I also suspect that it’s not as popular as some of the newer rides. Not unpopular by any means, but I do think Smiler & Wicker Man are a bit more popular, for sure.
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How ironic that the two rides you mention happen to be near the park entrance, so naturally get bigger crowds at the start and end of the day... 😉
 
Skyscraper said:
How ironic that the two rides you mention happen to be near the park entrance, so naturally get bigger crowds at the start and end of the day... 😉
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Yes, but they maintain their crowds throughout the day; it’s not just at the start of the day and the end that these rides have long queues.

Also, Oblivion is near the park entrance too, and that doesn’t get anywhere near the same queue length, in spite of having a lower throughput than Wicker Man and a throughput not tons higher than Smiler. Spinball Whizzer is also the nearest of them all, and has a lower throughput than both, and that never seems to have a queue the same length as Smiler & WM.

I think their relative newness probably helps, but a lot of people do seem to prioritise those two rides over the others; I’d feel fairly comfortable assuming that they’re the two most popular attractions at present.
 
Skyscraper said:
How ironic that the two rides you mention happen to be near the park entrance, so naturally get bigger crowds at the start and end of the day...
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I think perhaps it’s also that Wicker Man and Smiler happen to be very popular with the general public and it’s no coincidence that both are quite visually striking rides (Big Bob with the flames and the Smiler with its trains appearing to duel around the crazy looking track and The Marmaliser). They make for very Instagrammable rides that capture the public’s imagination more so than the other coasters, and of course that’s exactly what they were designed to do, be a visual spectacle.
 
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Ethan said:
I mean I don't particularly care how many trains its on as it's a crap ride so I never go on it, but for those who do it must be frustrating. Yes I'm aware that towers are lacking in engineers and staff in general because they offer minimum wage and are in the middle of nowhere so who would want to work there
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Cast your mind back to opening day and Wicker Man was on 1 train. Why? Because the other failed inspection. Things happen. Relax.
 
s_g_k said:
from Enterprise and Hex which clearly have serious technical issues.
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This is by no means clear. There's not really any indication about the seriousness of the issue with either ride at this point.

It could be something serious... or it could be waiting for parts to be delivered, which is reasonably trivial if an annoying faff in this day and age.
 
Ethan said:
Why is everyone sticking up for towers below par operations on certain rides. It doesn't matter if the parks empty or packed they should be able to operate their rides as efficiently as possible. 10 years ago you'd never see Galactica and Oblivion on 1 station on off peak days. This is all down to poor recruitment over the past few years where they have minimal staff and thus can't physically operate the rides like they used to. If the uks biggest and arguably best theme park struggle to recruit staff then god help the smaller parks
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11 years ago I saw Galactica running 1 train on an off peak September day. Back then there was an entrance host too so they had plenty more staff than today. Seen it on many other occasions too over the years.

At the end of the day it could be many reasons; lack of engineers to complete regular maintenance checks out-of-hours? I'd rather lose the extra craft on a quiet day than a weekend. Could be an issue with a craft that requires a part that is on order? Who knows? No point getting upset over it.

Lack of actual ride staff is the most unlikely reason though, as it requires the same number of hosts to run 1 craft as it does 2.
 
As this is the one-stop shop for throughput discussion here on TowersStreet, I’d be intrigued to know; how on earth did Oblivion ever get a throughput higher than Silver Star? It’s listed as 1,900pph on RCDB, which would equate to a dual dispatch of 32 roughly every minute, while Silver Star is listed as 1,750pph.

However in reality, I’d say that SS gets a vastly higher throughput than Oblivion. Silver Star manages a solid 1,700pph, whereas Oblivion’s doing well to get even half its theoretical throughput figure (950pph) from my experience; both times I’ve timed Oblivion on 2 stations, it’s gotten a tad shy of 900pph, whereas it gets around 600pph on 1 station.

I must admit I find myself wracking my brains as to how Oblivion ever got a throughput even vaguely close to 1,900pph, because when the ride gets 900pph now, the staff seem to be working as hard as they can, and I struggle to see any real room for improvement.

Was 1,900pph ever attained on Oblivion, and if it was, what did they used to do differently in the ride’s initial seasons?
 
It had mandatory lockers too early on iirc?

118.75 shuttles an hour to get 1900 pph or dispatch a pair of shuttles every minute and I believe it even allowed 2 shuttles on the lift at once?

For a comparison, Olympia Looping can easily kick a train of 28 out every 45 seconds, sometimes much less. All down to staffing. Oblivion for peak throughput needs off station bag storage, 4 platform staff, a 5th member on the exit gate and the 6th staffer batching, maybe a 7th for batching station B.
 
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I do wonder if back in the day people visiting theme parks had bags and stuff as much as they do now?

You wouldn’t have a phone and other bits like that back in the day. I guess maybe a camera but most wouldn’t. Now people have so much stuff on them. I think people faff much more now a days as well, than previously.
 
John said:
Bags are the main issue on Oblivion, takes such a long time for someone in the left seat to drop off a bag & get back to their seat
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Yeah I've had that issue before. I was a single rider once and on the left-most seat, and because I couldn't be bothered to go all the way to the bag cage (even though the rider next to me told me to go) I waited for the host to come and check my harness. They took my bag and gave it to another host to put it on the cage, before checking my harness.
 
Poisson said:
It had mandatory lockers too early on iirc?

118.75 shuttles an hour to get 1900 pph or dispatch a pair of shuttles every minute and I believe it even allowed 2 shuttles on the lift at once?

For a comparison, Olympia Looping can easily kick a train of 28 out every 45 seconds, sometimes much less. All down to staffing. Oblivion for peak throughput needs off station bag storage, 4 platform staff, a 5th member on the exit gate and the 6th staffer batching, maybe a 7th for batching station B.
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It has never allowed two shuttles on the lift at once. One on the lift and one sitting outside the station on the pre lift.
 
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