• 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 2022-25

Tom said:
We have 'weather delays' on many rides for heavy rain now.
Click to expand...

When Spinball couldn’t run in the rain (note: which it can again now) it had it for rain. All rides have a maximum operating wind speed so they use weather delay for that too. They also use it for thunderstorms.

But just heavy rain? As mentioned above, all rides can run in this.
 
Tbh, I’ve seen really heavy rain activate sensors and E-stop rides on life hills several times, is it worth the risk of leaving people exposed trapped on a lift hill for maybe 30-60 mins in those conditions ?
 
Operations were generally very good again today.

Nemesis was doing pretty well again; they seem to have returned to old Nemesis operations on there! Galactica was also doing solidly on 3 trains and 2 stations, Wicker Man was doing well on 3 trains, and Thirteen and Smiler were also doing well on a full capacity service.

One stinker, however, was that Oblivion was only on one station and four shuttles. In the summer holidays, that is less than ideal… it shouldn’t really be on one station in the summer holidays!
 
Matt N said:
Operations were generally very good again today.

Nemesis was doing pretty well again; they seem to have returned to old Nemesis operations on there! Galactica was also doing solidly on 3 trains and 2 stations, Wicker Man was doing well on 3 trains, and Thirteen and Smiler were also doing well on a full capacity service.

One stinker, however, was that Oblivion was only on one station and four shuttles. In the summer holidays, that is less than ideal… it shouldn’t really be on one station in the summer holidays!
Click to expand...
I agree, operations were excellent on Sunday. They were bashing the trains out at a great rate of knots on Nemesis (helped by one of the staff 'chivvying' people along, which was great to see). Very few closures throughout the day, just Nemesis, Subterra and Toxicator for a few mins in the morning, along with Hex and Curse, but barely anything closed in the afternoon. They just need to keep this up now.
 
My girlfriend and I have just got back from one of our best trips in what feels like forever. It was quieter than we were expecting it to be with queues averaging about 30-40 minutes in the afternoon.

Pretty much everything was running at full capacity and staff were throwing trains out.
I’d say our only real delays were Spinball as they added a fifth cart on, and Hex (but that was due to people faffing about and someone getting their arms stuck under the bar).
I think we spent more time walking through Nemesis’s queue line than actually queuing for it.

I am so happy that the skyride is open. That has shaved off so much time and given us some respite through the day.
 
Haven't been online much recently but just wanted to reiterate what others have said about great operations, they were absolutely amazing on Monday! (we went Sunday and Monday, crazy to think I was on park at the same time as the famous Matt N!)

My friend who hadn't been to Alton Towers for a very long time was shocked as they'd only heard of poor ops constantly through social media so it was a nice surprise for us! Just a few things of note;

  • I think The Smiler, TH13TEEN, and Nemesis crew deserve a special mention just because of how quickly they are sending trains on there, as well as them being on max train ops; I don't think we ever stood still for more than a minute in The Smiler queue!

  • Like it was for you on Sunday Matt, Oblivion was on only one station (at least around lunchtime, unsure if it changed later on) which massively inflated the queue to what and reduced the throughput to what it couldn't have been, which was a small shame. The worst part is waiting on the brake run for about 5 minutes after the ride is over!

  • There was little to no downtime on any major coaster which is a major first personally! In fact, the downtime we did experience while in the queue (Nemesis Reborn & TH13TEEN) was due to guests pulling phones/loose articles out while on ride.

  • Galactica began the day strong with two station ops but when we returned towards the end of the day operations were quite poor, having dropped to one station two train op - it really does make the queue move much slower. We also noticed a lot of empty seats being sent out despite a relatively busy single rider queue which defeats the purpose really. Out of all the rides I would say Galactica had the worst ops on Monday.
Overall though our visit was a huge success in terms of operations/queue times and has definitely encouraged us to visit more often; added bonus was that it was super quiet for a summer holiday visit :)
 
Glowstone_King said:
Like it was for you on Sunday Matt, Oblivion was on only one station (at least around lunchtime, unsure if it changed later on) which massively inflated the queue to what and reduced the throughput to what it couldn't have been, which was a small shame. The worst part is waiting on the brake run for about 5 minutes after the ride is over!
Click to expand...
In the interests of fairness, I should add that the ride seemingly went up to 2 stations in the afternoon. TPW were there filming a vlog (he arrived seemingly just as I left, at around 1:30pm), and he reported that Oblivion was operating 2 stations when he arrived in X-Sector. So something must have changed later on!

I’m glad to hear that you also had a good visit, and that the good operations seemingly stayed until Monday!

I have an arsenal of throughput figures from my trip, which I’ll put in the thread a bit later (I don’t have them to hand at this exact moment).
 
Not a good start to the day that The Curse of Alton Manor didn't open at 10:30 am due to an issue. No idea if it will open today.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
 
karl.stubbs said:
Not a good start to the day that The Curse of Alton Manor didn't open at 10:30 am due to an issue. No idea if it will open today.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
It's only 30 mins, talking about it in isolation from everything else I wouldn't say it's not a good start. Considering the new Harry Potter ride at Universal Epic Universe didn't open until 3pm on the first public day the other month (even though it had been testing and then running for passholders for weeks previously), I think a 30 min delay due to tech reasons is pretty acceptable!!

Edit - sorry just reread your post and I see that it hasn't opened yet.
 
I have some throughput timings from my trip to Alton Towers on 26th and 27th July that I’d like to report!

Across the two days, I managed to grab the following throughput timings:
  • Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 1,207pph (3 trains/2 stations, average of 4, 26th July 2025)
  • Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 1,163pph (2 trains, average of 5, 26th July 2025), 1,130pph (2 trains, average of 5, 27th July 2025)
  • Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 787pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, average of 3 dual dispatches, 26th July 2025) (Note: This figure was obtained in a brief moment when the ride did not have a batcher, so the platform staff were having to multitask), 939pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, average of 4 dual dispatches, 26th July 2025), 644pph (4 shuttles/1 station, average of 2, 27th July 2025)
  • Spinball Whizzer (Theoretical: 950pph on 8 cars): 631pph (6 cars, average of 2, 26th July 2025 (Note: While I got relatively few readings for Spinball, I had a longer timing that I accidentally messed up by missing one, and the longer timing had a very similar, if not slightly faster, average; ops seemed pretty consistent on here for the whole time I was in the area)
  • The Smiler (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 5 trains): 882pph (4 trains, average of 10, 26th July 2025), 830pph (4 trains, average of 6, 27th July 2025) (Note: This figure was skewed downwards slightly by one instance of a larger guest who didn’t fit needing to be rechecked and evicted; the average of the other 5 readings was higher)
  • Thirteen (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 3 trains): 1,272pph (3 trains, average of 7, 26th July 2025) (Note: This reading was skewed down by 1 or 2 instances of larger guests needing rechecking, as well as 1 instance where guests lingering from the prior train needed ushering off the exit platform prior to dispatch)
  • Toxicator (Theoretical: 1,200pph): 482pph (average of 3, 27th July 2025)
  • Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains): 970pph (3 trains, average of 10, 26th July 2025), 1,080pph (3 trains, average of 6, 26th July 2025), 991pph (3 trains, average of 7, 27th July 2025)
Overall, I thought operations were broadly excellent across the weekend! In terms of a few specific thoughts that stick out to me:
  • After a bit of a slip in efficiency last year, Nemesis seems to have returned to its pre-retrack form in terms of operations; they were brilliant on there all trip, with little to no stacking, and there were staff members hurrying people along on the platform and at batching!
  • It has been a bit inconsistent on some trips in the past, but I have to say that Galactica was doing brilliantly last weekend! They were killing it on 3 trains and 2 stations; I rode it twice and didn’t stack either time, and whenever I was in the station, it seemed very common for there to be a notable gap between a train leaving my station and the train behind re-entering it. The train was frequently slowing down on the lift hill (because the train in front hasn’t cleared the block yet) too. Brilliant!
  • The key throughput highlight of the weekend was probably Thirteen. Given that my 1,272pph average was skewed down by a couple of larger guests needing rechecking, I think it’s fair to say that the Thirteen staff were doing brilliantly! It was on 3 trains, and they were throwing the trains out; when they were on a roll, they were getting dispatch intervals as fast as 50s, and the vast majority of dispatch intervals were under a minute! There was a dispatch where the staff had checked the train so fast that they had to usher the guests still exiting from the previous train off the exit platform to dispatch. Isn’t that awesome? It was like being in Europa Park or Universal! That ride really is a queue muncher when it runs to its full potential!
  • The one bleaker spot on the otherwise excellent throughput picture was Oblivion. When I encountered the ride on Saturday, it was lacking a batcher at one point; that 787pph figure is probably the worst I’ve ever measured on 2 stations, and it was almost solely due to the platform staff having to duck out from the platform to come and batch people at periodic intervals. They did regain a separate batcher later in the day, but even then, the operations were not exactly staggering, with the average still being above 2 minutes between dual dispatches. It was also only running one station on Sunday, which definitely isn’t ideal in the summer holidays. This is the one ride that notably doesn’t quite hit its potential; I think baggage is the key thing that stymies it, as it takes a long time for people to cross those long rows. If it had a baggage hold or fancy cages like Yukon Striker, I think the throughput on Oblivion would go up two-fold.
  • Wicker Man was doing really well as usual, with frequent cases of a train going up the lift hill before the one in front hitting the brake run, but I do think it might now be time to dispense of the compulsory pre-show. I noticed that they were often having to wait for the pre-show to end before they could fill the airgates (the station queue was running out of people before the doors were opening to let a new batch in), which did seem to slow dispatches down in some cases.
Overall, the weekend boasted broadly excellent operations, and no queue was very long at all! It’s weekends like this one that make me disagree with the common consensus that Alton Towers have dreadful operations; I’d argue that figures like these suggest that the park actually do very well on throughputs in general, with most rides running on full capacity and dispatching promptly!
 
Mick said:
I always think the ride staff at Towers do a tremendous job at throughputs. Obviously they’re not responsible for the technical issues which can sometimes effect a ride’s operations, but I’ve never failed to be impressed by the teams working.
Click to expand...
They do the best they can in bad circumstances. But when rides are running with anything less than the maximum number of trains, there's only so much they can do.
 
Matt N said:
I do think it might now be time to dispense of the compulsory pre-show.
Click to expand...

I disagree with this. The pre-show is part of the attraction and ride experience. Yes people on here will have seen it many times but many people will be doing it for the first time. By the very numbers you provide the coaster is already exceeding its theoretical throughput despite any delays the pre-show may bring so i don't think that's a strong case for removing it.

As i've said in the past, i'd rearrange the merge point/baggage drop so its less of a free for all and this would also speed up the pre-show cycle if desired.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top