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The Future of Skyride

Poisson said:
Don't see why you wouldn't get the manufacturers in during the extended outage to inspect it. Not sure it's all doom.
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they could be inspecting it after the outage, but I was thinking it could in relation to the large parts that were taken down the other day, if the manurfacture came out see inspect them:
DanJB said:
Current state of the FV station. Looks like the big pulley (for the side that goes to Towers Street) has been removed and is sat on pallets, with what I think is its axle in the foreground.
IMG_4551.jpeg
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s_g_k said:
I watched a very soothing recent POV of Skyride and it featured a heritage style narrative throughout the journey. I can’t recall ever hearing that myself, so I’m not sure if this was a more recent addition before its closure? Either way, I hope that soundtrack returns.
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I’m not sure which year it came in (possibly 2016/2017?) but there was one that had some whimsical background music that you often hear on TV shows (I’ve definitely heard it on stuff like 4 In A Bed…) and the narrative mentioned stuff like the carp in the ponds, etc. Was it this one?

Before that one the soundtrack was basically just an ATR advert with 2 people talking, it mentioned bits like Ice Age and Nemesis Sub-Terra but definitely lasted a few years after they debuted.
 
s_g_k said:
I watched a very soothing recent POV of Skyride and it featured a heritage style narrative throughout the journey. I can’t recall ever hearing that myself, so I’m not sure if this was a more recent addition before its closure? Either way, I hope that soundtrack returns.

Skyride and the monorail are vital pieces of infrastructure that should be maintained. Attractions in themselves, but they’re also a key mobility service even if the park doesn’t advertise them as such.
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Soothing? Nice music and commentary about plant species and carp ponds or not, it's the most terrifying attraction in the park!

You're of course right though. The absence of the (terrifying) Skyride, and any semblance of a fully functioning Monorail this past few seasons has highlighted how important both of them are. They're both integral to resort operations, and should be near the top of the priority list for investment.
 
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Matt.GC said:
A Skyride

Soothing? Nice music and commentary about plant species and carp ponds or not, it's the most terrifying attraction in the park!

You're of course right though. The absence of the (terrifying) Skyride, and any semblance of a fully functioning Monorail this past few seasons has highlighted how important both of them are. They're both integral to resort operations, and should be near the top of the priority list for investment.
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Skyride clearly is hence the recent work.

I fear the monorail is too far gone and without the manufacturer still in business i worry any fix will be seen as too expensive. Hope I’m wrong.
 
WillPS said:
Skyride clearly isn't hence it being out of action for 2 full seasons.
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It may not have been for a number of years, but it evidently is now seeing as they’re working on it. With Hex having reopened and had lots of work done on it, I have every faith that Skyride will reopen at the start of next season having had similar work done.

I would argue that the appearance of gondolas on the circuit in recent days is a promising development, at very least.
 
Matt N said:
It may not have been for a number of years, but it evidently is now seeing as they’re working on it. With Hex having reopened and had lots of work done on it, I have every faith that Skyride will reopen at the start of next season having had similar work done.

The appearance of gondolas on the circuit in recent days is a promising development, at very least.
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There's a difference between being "near the top of the priority list for investment" as @Matt.GC stated and what's clearly played out for Skyride.

If they wanted to have it open as a 'top priority', it'd be open now. They haven't.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn it was closed initially as a cost saving measure, but even in the best case that there was some investment needed to get it running again it could have been running by Summer 2023.

Same as Hex.

These things don't take that long when the money is there.
 
WillPS said:
There's a difference between being "near the top of the priority list for investment" as @Matt.GC stated and what's clearly played out for Skyride.

If they wanted to have it open as a 'top priority', it'd be open now. They haven't.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn it was closed initially as a cost saving measure, but even in the best case that there was some investment needed to get it running again it could have been running by Summer 2023.

Same as Hex.

These things don't take that long when the money is there.
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You really think a full strip down of the skyride doesn’t take a year? If ever you start maintaining cable cars let us all know so we can avoid.

It clearly was not at the top of their agenda in 2020, 2021 or 2022. 2023 it went kaput and it shot to the top. Same with Hex. Historic neglect is coming to bight them on the backside but that’s not what Matt.GC was referring to, at least that’s not how it read.
 
My apologies if this question has a seemingly obvious answer, but; what exactly could the park have done to avoid a situation like we have now with Hex and Skyride?

I’m aware that the broad answer is “more preventative maintenance”, but what sort of thing would this entail exactly? I assume the park did a degree of safety critical maintenance anyway, or else the rides wouldn’t get passed by the HSE each year?
 
Matt N said:
My apologies if this question has a seemingly obvious answer, but; what exactly could the park have done to avoid a situation like we have now with Hex and Skyride?

I’m aware that the broad answer is “more preventative maintenance”, but what sort of thing would this entail exactly? I assume the park did a degree of safety critical maintenance anyway, or else the rides wouldn’t get passed by the HSE each year?
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There's a big gap between 'doing the minimum required to get the ride open this season' and 'doing the right stuff to keep the ride going longer term'.

A crude analogy - but think about the difference between getting a car through an MOT (i.e. just the stuff which is about vehicle safety/emissions) and doing the stuff needed to keep it going longer term (changing consumable items before they expire, dealing with paintwork/rust issues etc).

If you just do the former you can expect more unreliability/bigger repair bills in time.
 
WillPS said:
There's a big gap between 'doing the minimum required to get the ride open this season' and 'doing the right stuff to keep the ride going longer term'.
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And that's exactly why it is closed this season. It's quite obvious they had every intention of opening it this season and at the last minute something or someone said no. So they have taken the opportunity to fix/replace/refurbish other areas of the ride while putting right whatever stopped them opening it, therefore keep it going longer term with much, much less downtime in the years to come.
 
Steve74 said:
And that's exactly why it is closed this season. It's quite obvious they had every intention of opening it this season and at the last minute something or someone said no. So they have taken the opportunity to fix/replace/refurbish other areas of the ride while putting right whatever stopped them opening it, therefore keep it going longer term with much, much less downtime in the years to come.
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Even if you accept that, and also accept that this cannot be done in a tighter timescale than 1 year (very much doubt that, but I'll go with it) - it begs the question, what happened last year in that case?

This doesn't sound like "near the top of the priority list for investment" level stuff.
 
Delaying major capital expenditure is common in business. It is more likely to be a tragic and deliberate delay rather than any emergent issues, even if that is possible. The issues - whatever they are - could have quite easily been known about for many years and sat on someone’s desk in actioned/unbudgeted.
 
Tom said:
Delaying major capital expenditure is common in business.
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Indeed it is, and prioritisation is important - but it cannot both be that Skyride is a top priority for investment but also has investment delayed while other investments happen. Were that to happen, it'd meant that Skyride was, in fact, not a top priority, surely...
 
WillPS said:
Indeed it is, and prioritisation is important - but it cannot both be that Skyride is a top priority for investment but also has investment delayed while other investments happen. Were that to happen, it'd meant that Skyride was, in fact, not a top priority, surely...
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It is ***a*** top priority, I guess - not ***the*** top priority (I've not seen that quote if it's been labelled as any kind of priority, apologies).

With disrespect intended, we now have highly PR-trained figureheads speaking on behalf of the park, saying something is a "top priority" and "requires major work" etc, while implying issues have just been discovered and work is progressing as fast as possible, it is not actually saying that at all. It could easily be saying that "we know it is millions of investment and we are not allowed to spend that this year".
 
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