Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

[Dave]

All comes down to money, investment, effective preventative maintenance, and the holding of critical spare parts. Ultimately their management of some or all of the aforementioned has been poor. The arguments of Brexit and ride age are weak in comparison.

Both ride age and Brexit are contributing factors, but again this is not a binary issue, it’s complex.

Other factors will be maintenance staff vacancies, sickness in the team maybe, maintenance leadership team.

It’s really rare that issues like this can be distilled down to one simple issue.

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

Galactica Bingo has been a thing since it opened, they would have to replace the entire control system and all three trains. I would guess that’s around £5 million so questionable they would ever do it unless it’s part of a bigger refresh like Nemesis.

I don’t recall it being an issue when new, I would have to take your word for it.

In which case, B and M should’ve resolved it. I can’t believe everything needs to be replaced just because a sensor says the restraint isn’t locked.

 

[AT86]

I don’t recall it being an issue when new, I would have to take your word for it.

In which case, B and M should’ve resolved it. I can’t believe everything needs to be replaced just because a sensor says the restraint isn’t locked.

I was there opening day. It was the same then and has been ever since.

As per previous posts in this thread, B&M amended the design post Air (and I assume the Superman ride at SFOG that opened a week or so after Air) but as a prototype, this is the risk you take as a park to get a ‘first’.

 

[Tom]

Both ride age and Brexit are contributing factors, but again this is not a binary issue, it’s complex.

Other factors will be maintenance staff vacancies, sickness in the team maybe, maintenance leadership team.

It’s really rare that issues like this can be distilled down to one simple issue.

It seems relatively clear to me that its broadly through a lack of investment, and sufficient increases in budgets to cope with all of the issues both of us raise (sickness aside).

Why aren't they filling vacancies? I'd suggest they aren't sufficiently competitive - i.e. don't pay enough.

You can somewhat offset the impact of ride age and Brexit via increased expenditure.

Who at the park is failing to make - or win - the arguments for increasing budgets? The apparent KPI of 'guest rides per day' is clearly taking a hit, and to what consequence? Maybe they will secure better budgets after these issues.

 

[Mick]

I guess the issue is the trade-off between expenditure and benefits. Taking the hypothetical £5m cost to fix Galactica, for that you’d have increased reliability and quicker ops that may get an extra 1000 people through the ride on an average day.

Or, for that same £5m, you could build a brand new flat ride in the area which will have the capacity for several thousand a day, is easier to market and more likely to result in increased ticket sales.

If you’re thinking short term it’s pretty clear what the best option is, if you’re thinking longer term there’d a lot more to consider and it’s a really tough balancing act, as if you ignore the faulty coaster you’re setting yourself up for much bigger problems in the future.

PS all numbers are for hypothetical purposes, I have no idea on costs or throughputs!

 

[ThemeParkOwen]

I know this is probably a loud of rubbish but when I was on the bus on Saturday on the way to Towers , there's was a member of Galactica staff who stated that Galactica has been open late every day this season due to staff shortage at the start of the morning.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I know this is probably a loud of rubbish but when I was on the bus on Saturday on the way to Towers , there's was a member of Galactica staff who stated that Galactica has been open late every day this season due to staff shortage at the start of the morning.

Occam's razor suggests that it's the most likely explanation. Drayton had similar issues with opening their larger rides last year, notably the rapids, as a result of staff shortages.

 

[Austin Towers]

Queue times info seems to be the only thing that's consistent at present. Every time I open it to see what coaster is down it never disappoints. There's always something unavailable.

 

[Kraken27]

When Air opened the sensors on the locking pins in the armrests of the seats were optical & the good old British weather (so rain) played havoc with them. They were changed pretty fast.

It does seem odd that Galactica has so many issued with the sensors on each seat (admittedly there are 4 per seat, whereas a normal B&M sit-down / inverter only has 1 per seat).

Another issue with “original Air” was the in-station radio comms between the train & the control system. These frequently dropped out & were replaced with infra-red comms which worked.

 

[Dave]

It seems relatively clear to me that its broadly through a lack of investment, and sufficient increases in budgets to cope with all of the issues both of us raise (sickness aside).

Why aren't they filling vacancies? I'd suggest they aren't sufficiently competitive - i.e. don't pay enough.

You can somewhat offset the impact of ride age and Brexit via increased expenditure.

Who at the park is failing to make - or win - the arguments for increasing budgets? The apparent KPI of 'guest rides per day' is clearly taking a hit, and to what consequence? Maybe they will secure better budgets after these issues.

I don’t think they under invest in parts quality (I’m pretty sure they will only allow parts to be purchased direct from the manufacturer rather than cheaper alternatives), I think they should have invested in more stock parts after Brexit (I will refrain from a rant on the stupidity of Brexit).

I suspect pay might be an issue, JCB is just around the corner and they often want the same qualifications and skills that Towers want so that wouldn’t be a shock if it’s a contributing factor to their woes.

 

[Josh555]

It’s not really the excuse that’s being pitched.

For some things it’s a valid point and Easter is very early this season. Some people have been getting hysterical every time a ride has had 20minutes of downtime which is just silly.

For other things (Rita and Thirteen on reduced capacity for example) it’s the historic neglect of the rides that is the issue and folk have a point.

Like most things it’s not as binary as some like to suggest.

I’d be genuinely interested to hear the actual reason that the rapids is closed.

If it’s due to some sort of issue that cropped up close to the start of the season, then absolutely fair enough.

If, as I suspect seems more likely, it’s maintenance which could have been done during the closed season which they’ve chosen to do now because they thought they could get away with it due to the time of year then it’s not good enough at all.

 

[Dave]

I’d be genuinely interested to hear the actual reason that the rapids is closed.

If it’s due to some sort of issue that cropped up close to the start of the season, then absolutely fair enough.

If, as I suspect seems more likely, it’s maintenance which could have been done during the closed season which they’ve chosen to do now because they thought they could get away with it due to the time of year then it’s not good enough at all.

I’m 96% sure it’s not deliberate. They had cranes over the rapids early December last year so maintenance was occurring in closed season.

 

[Kraken27]

I don’t think they under invest in parts quality (I’m pretty sure they will only allow parts to be purchased direct from the manufacturer rather than cheaper alternatives), I think they should have invested in more stock parts after Brexit (I will refrain from a rant on the stupidity of Brexit).

I suspect pay might be an issue, JCB is just around the corner and they often want the same qualifications and skills that Towers want so that wouldn’t be a shock if it’s a contributing factor to their woes.

Certainly on "old Nemesis" if you looked at a lot of the green proximity switches on the track, they all had the RS [Radio Spares] logo on them, so these were not purchased from B&M or Consign AG who did the original control system. That said, RS is a very trusted supplier to many companies in the UK, so I am not suggesting cost-cutting in any way.

I also agree that JCB just round the corner don't help Towers at all. Back when I worked at Towers a Tech Services qualified welder [to name but a few] all jumped ship to JCB as the money & benefits were better there. To come to think of it, I can think of at least 5 Tech Services guys who jumped to JCB in just 5yrs.

 

[Adthoms]

Well by the looks of things, Th13teen didn't open at all today.

 

[Alphe86]

As I said earlier. At this point they need to be transparent and tell us what we already know - the ride has some serious issues but the park is committed and are working hard to have it resolved by the start of summer (or whenever)

 

[Austin Towers]

£43,261 salary for a mechanical engineer currently advertised. It's not bad money. Electricians may demand more.

I manage 12 maintenance electricians at an airport, different industry yes but similar high pressure environment where breakdowns can seriously inconvenience the public. They're on £50k basic but we need to keep them as their experience and knowledge on our equipment is invaluable. If towers have a high turnover of tech service staff then they'll always be on the backfoot.

New staff need training which takes up the time of experienced personnel. There's nothing worse than holding someone's hand for a period of time only for them to leave and you're back to square one and having to start from scratch with someone new.

We haven't had any new faces in our department in 8 years. Our guys are happy and well looked after and I can trust every single one of them. When we do get someone new it's 2 years before we send them on their own to breakdowns. Invest in your staff and it will pay off.

 

[Bowser]

As I said earlier. At this point they need to be transparent and tell us what we already know - the ride has some serious issues but the park is committed and are working hard to have it resolved by the start of summer (or whenever)

Just like Hex.... and Skyride.... and River Rapids... any more?

It's a shame how quickly the goodwill from a mostly excellent Nemesis reopening has been swallowed by the overwhelming negatives. Although imagine how much worse things would be if that was still closed.

I do think, much like with Blackpool, the parks must surely realise that these shambolic season starts in the vlogging era are incredibly detrimental and in retrospect promoting an After Dark event in those first few weeks was a poor decision with such bad availability.

If (and hopefully when) Universal open, with a 365 park no less, Merlin are going to get crushed if this standard remains.

 

[Relife]

It's more noticeable when a coaster is down when it's only one of two rides in the area. This is why flat rides are absolutely essential

 

[jibbsie]

I don’t recall it being an issue when new, I would have to take your word for it.

In which case, B and M should’ve resolved it. I can’t believe everything needs to be replaced just because a sensor says the restraint isn’t locked.

well there is 4 per seat, and the question is what is wrong with them, as it may be new sensors or new brackets etc, if they have to dismantel most of the seats and remove a large part of the wiring to fix it, there is in exccess of 250 sensors with miles of wiring per train, this also wont solve all the problems as there can be problems with the locking motor not fully locking (when they have to use the key to ensure it is fully turned), that requires removing all the motors and mechanics then replacing them and at that point you may as well tack on a new train controll system to fix any issues with that and then also a new controll system.

for 13 I recall seeing new brakes at the bottom of the lift hill, I am guessing this is to solve the rain issues and improve the reliability of the ride. Could the down time be related to that new system? I do recall seeing the seats for the 3rd train under the lift last week, so probably not the train issue

 

[Dave]

As I said earlier. At this point they need to be transparent and tell us what we already know - the ride has some serious issues but the park is committed and are working hard to have it resolved by the start of summer (or whenever)

Why?

You haven’t a clue what’s up with it, you are making assumptions.