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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-25

The statement does say that “phased attraction closures begin… starting from 60 miles”. To me that reads as rides start closing when there is a particular type of weather working 60 miles.

I’m not sure anyone’s arguing that they should run Nemesis in a lightning storm, but more that it at least appears that they are being overly cautious. When the indoor rides then break down at the same time, it’s clearly not a good look.
 
She hasn't though, has she?

Suddenly, in 2023, half or more of the park's rides close in typically British weather? Based on events seemingly 60 miles away and many many hours in advance based on projection.
Not based on events sixty miles away Tom!

If there are storms coming, the technology is now available, free and easy to access for all...that wasn't the case in the past.

The company must act on perceived risks to the park...not "Oh there are storms sixty miles away, time to shut down everything"...but..."There are storms heading towards us from the south, coming in at ten miles an hour, we will need to shut the park in an hour or so if those storms continue to approach, anything less would not be safe."

Lightning is not set in its approach, lightning strike areas can jump thirty to fifty miles in literally seconds, you can't slow natural forces down, prediction is not an exact science.

Suddenly, in 2023, people started noticing closures more, and make a big deal about in on bloody social media.

This time last week, massive storms were forecast to shoot up the centre and east of the whole country.

Did the Towers close at all...not that I am aware.

The actual storms that day ended up staying off the east coast...all the forecasts (I do three as a gardener) got it wrong.
It happens. Often.

But you can't blame Merlin!

Final, climate change point here.

Overall, lightning strike averages remain pretty constant, but warming seas make our own maritime climate at greater risk of bigger, more powerful storms.
The three peak strike months over time...all in the last few years.

So the insurance companies can't stand still, and must adapt to greater risks of a strike, to protect their precious profits.
So change your procedures, or increase your cover cost.
 
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2023, she says it herself.

She does not say eveything suddenly changed. It says that thier weather policy was “formally introduced” that year. In other words, they brought in a more robust policy which suited better for changing times. Not that the rides ran in lightning storms directly overhead before 2023…

You’re really clutching at straws now.
 
If they are monitoring storms within a 60 mile radius, wouldn't they see that it's not actually progressing towards the park?

From what I could find, Disney and Universal in Florida close attractions when lightning is within 10 miles.

If Alton Towers are monitoring six times that distance they could at least watch the storm's progression and see if it's moving towards the park before deciding to act.
 
Let’s not forget that the park had already caused one very serious accident by ignoring weather rules. If someone got zapped, the first question from the HSE would be ‘slow learners, eh?’.

Weather forecasting isn’t an exact science, and thunderstorms are particularly tricky. It’s not for some random park employee to stick their head out a window and go with their gut.
 
And again, the scariest coaster experience of my life...bar none.
Stopped briefly on the top of the Shockwave lift hill, watching the big black clouds roll in from the stunning second city of Brum, with lots of lightning flashes following the front line.
That was roughly twenty miles away, and it felt too close, in my humble opinion.
 
For all the negativity around Towers, I must give credit where credit is due. Operations in Forbidden Valley are smashing it this morning!

Nemesis is hardly stacking, and Galactica is slowing down on the lift hill, with 3 trains and 2 stations! Both rides are getting ~1,200pph!
And people say Towers operations are bad when they are not.
 
Though not quite as fast as they once were, Operations on Galactica are generally amongst the best on any B&M flying coaster ever built. Several only have one station whilst most of those with two seem to very rarely run 3 trains. I've seen Tatsu on 2 trains / 2 stations but never running 3. Acrobat at Nagashima is configured to run 2 trains/2 trains and Flying Dinosaur at USJ is set up to run 3 but due to the bag storage you have to return to the station you left from, which results in the bizarre situation of trains waiting on the brakes despite one side of the station being empty. I was at Universal Orlando recently and waited an hour for Manta which was running 2 trains / 1 station with ~5 minute dispatch times, a throughput of less than 400/hr
 
The mistake people make Alton Towers is a park you need to plan in your mind and do it if you don't you won't maximise your day.

It's not ideal and I don't agree with it but it is what it is
 
Though not quite as fast as they once were, Operations on Galactica are generally amongst the best on any B&M flying coaster ever built. Several only have one station whilst most of those with two seem to very rarely run 3 trains. I've seen Tatsu on 2 trains / 2 stations but never running 3. Acrobat at Nagashima is configured to run 2 trains/2 trains and Flying Dinosaur at USJ is set up to run 3 but due to the bag storage you have to return to the station you left from, which results in the bizarre situation of trains waiting on the brakes despite one side of the station being empty. I was at Universal Orlando recently and waited an hour for Manta which was running 2 trains / 1 station with ~5 minute dispatch times, a throughput of less than 400/hr
The bag storage must if changed now for Flying Dinosaur as the train does return to opposite station. There are lockers near start of queue which you can access when you exit. Ops on this have been great on this. way better than Galactica.

Nemesis a couple of weeks back was really good with no stacking. Just like days of old.
 
When rides also operated in the rain!
Those special times of legitimate queuejumping, it was something like...
"We are experiencing very heavy rain at the moment, if you would prefer to wait, please step aside and allow other (bloody crazy fools) riders past."
Did the shortcut twice straight round in the lashing rain.
 
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Seeing as I’ve only been in the park for 2.5 hours (arrived at 10:15) and am already queueing for my 7th ride on a Saturday in the summer holidays, I don’t think I can complain about ops at all today!

Wicker Man is also on 3 trains, and the optimal interval of “train on the lift hill crosses over the train entering the brake run” is frequently being attained! Ops aren’t quite as consistently fast on there as I have seen, but they’re still doing very decently (averaged 970pph, or 89s per dispatch, across 10 dispatches). They do seem to be having some issues with the pre-show not ending quite quickly enough to fill the airgates, though, so perhaps that’s a factor?
 
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Hasn't it already been mentioned that the early part of the summer holidays is fairly manageable?

The problem with things being so meh and miserable that an above average day is treated like the second coming. Consistency is key to the operation quality.
 
Hasn't it already been mentioned that the early part of the summer holidays is fairly manageable?

The problem with things being so meh and miserable that an above average day is treated like the second coming. Consistency is key to the operation quality.
You see, this is where I think people on here can be a tad picky at times.

I’m not saying Towers doesn’t have bad days on occasion, but I cannot complain one bit about today. I managed 17 rides all in, and for the most part, operations were excellent and queues moved reasonably well. The longest I waited all day was 35 minutes; for a Saturday in the summer holidays, I don’t think that’s anything to quibble with! This is a peak period, and in general, I think the park handled it very well today.

As said, Nemesis and Galactica were absolutely brilliant this morning. Wicker Man was also excellent as ever, and seemed to be whacking 80s dispatch intervals out with ease when I rerode later. Spinball was a slick operation, managing 20-25s intervals pretty consistently on 6 cars. Smiler was also attaining nearly 900pph on 4 trains, which is brilliant for that ride!

The absolute highlight of the day operationally, though, was Thirteen; wow! They were attaining intervals as fast as 50s on there at times, and the average while I was in the station was 56s, or 1,272pph. And I should add that this was with a couple of larger riders who needed rechecking, as well as one dispatch that was held up by guests not exiting the platform quickly enough after the staff had checked the lap bars. How good is that? I can’t see how the staff on there could have gone any faster; it almost felt like I was in Europa Park!

The only one that let the side down a bit was Oblivion. There was one point where they lacked a batcher and the station staff were having to multitask, and those were some of the slowest operations I’ve seen on that ride on 2 stations. However, a batcher came a bit later on, and the ops sped up after that, so I think I just caught them at a bad time.

It’s days like today that lead me away from the common consensus that Alton Towers and Merlin have dreadful operations. Because my numbers would suggest that throughputs-wise, they’re actually pretty good; we could have it a whole lot worse!

I should add that availability was also pretty good, with relatively limited downtime and most things opening on time in the morning.
 
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