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The Future of Skyride

With Skyride down all season I'm glad I'm not visiting. I'd be dead if had to push wheelchair around all day with no real breaks.

The parks are too scared of officially announcing extended periods of downtime. Which then causes problems when guests turn up and (especially in the case of Skyride) important infrastructure is shut.
 
Willemgorman1 said:
The skyride and hex will be closed for the rest of the season. Bianca confirmed this. Source is on the ride availability thread.
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Double post. Im being a rebel.

She did confirm it. I beat her to it by half a day or so, in my original post! 😉. I purposely put it as a subtle confirmation though, because who am I to be confirming things without providing sources.
DistortAMG said:
Anyway, with this attraction being closed all season and the average life of ropeways around the world being around 30 years, could we be seeing this as we know it, leaving soon?
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At least, I hope with the extra time, any other outstanding work can be carried out as they have plenty of time. Work has already taken place, I assume more will come that was not originally planned. So there are positives.

Not sure how ive never noticed this before, but the gondola audio on the Skyride is I think provided by radio. Transmitted from the stations and picked up via a low power radio receiver that is solar powered on the gondolas. This means in theory, you should be able to tune in any radio when near a station and pick it up. Not sure why you would want to and I do not have a clue of the frequency. But I thought that was pretty cool.
 
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DistortAMG said:
Not sure how ive never noticed this before, but the gondola audio on the Skyride is I think provided by radio. Transmitted from the stations and picked up via a low power radio receiver that is solar powered on the gondolas. This means in theory, you should be able to tune in any radio when near a station and pick it up. Not sure why you would want to and I do not have a clue of the frequency. But I thought that was pretty cool.
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It is, there are certain sections (like just before entering or leaving the stations) where the signal can't reach and the audio cuts out.
 
Sort of, but the antannae is the entirety of the cable I thought - the reason the signal drops out in the stations is because the cars detach from the cable so they can move at a slower speed through the stations.
 
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Once had a stoppage when the car was in that area on approach to Dark Forest so we didn't receive any updates or the announcement that we could open the emergency ration packs. We were stuck for 40 frustrating minutes.
 
DistortAMG said:
Not sure how ive never noticed this before, but the gondola audio on the Skyride is I think provided by radio. Transmitted from the stations and picked up via a low power radio receiver that is solar powered on the gondolas. This means in theory, you should be able to tune in any radio when near a station and pick it up. Not sure why you would want to and I do not have a clue of the frequency. But I thought that was pretty cool.
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The cars can also be plugged in to charge their internal batteries I believe. Next time it's actually open, look up in the middle of the roof inside the gondala and there is an IEC port
 
Poisson said:
The cars can also be plugged in to charge their internal batteries I believe. Next time it's actually open, look up in the middle of the roof inside the gondala and there is an IEC port
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Often wondered what that kettle lead (as I call it) socket was there for!
 
Work was also taking place today on the dark forest station, there were a couple of techies above the cable working on something. As well as the TS station now being covered in scaffolding
 
Shame it has taken a full year to get the ball rolling.
After many months of enquiries and "higher level" complaints, I have had zero assurance that the ride will be reopening at the start of next season.
My indirect discrimination complaint continues under the Equality Act 2010, with the support of my local disability group, but the park still offers zero assurance that it will reopen next season.
Towers customer service still "strives" to support all guests, but the response to my complaint has been crapper than crap...including telling me the names of support organisations they belong to, but don't actually exist.
Same words repeated at length, with zero progress.
 
rob666 said:
Shame it has taken a full year to get the ball rolling.
After many months of enquiries and "higher level" complaints, I have had zero assurance that the ride will be reopening at the start of next season.
My indirect discrimination complaint continues under the Equality Act 2010, with the support of my local disability group, but the park still offers zero assurance that it will reopen next season.
Towers customer service still "strives" to support all guests, but the response to my complaint has been crapper than crap...including telling me the names of support organisations they belong to, but don't actually exist.
Same words repeated at length, with zero progress.
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There was scaffolding up in season so the work has been ongoing for a while.
 
rob666 said:
Shame it has taken a full year to get the ball rolling.
After many months of enquiries and "higher level" complaints, I have had zero assurance that the ride will be reopening at the start of next season.
My indirect discrimination complaint continues under the Equality Act 2010, with the support of my local disability group, but the park still offers zero assurance that it will reopen next season.
Towers customer service still "strives" to support all guests, but the response to my complaint has been crapper than crap...including telling me the names of support organisations they belong to, but don't actually exist.
Same words repeated at length, with zero progress.
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It’s not advertised as a transport but as an attraction. I get that you benefit from it to traverse the park but legally I don’t imagine you’ll get very far
 
I'll go round all the tautology again, one last time.
It is a transport system within the park, that has been used for mobility, for people with additional needs, for three decades...whatever you want to call the thing.
I don't get benefit from the ride, I get access to the rest of the park.
I worked with disabled clients for more than two decades, so I have a good general professional idea of the disability acts...
Lots of ableist conversation on here about what I should and shouldn't expect from the park.
I expect reasonable access for myself and my disabled friend...our needs have not been catered for, previous access arrangements were denied, and replacement provision (which was already there) is inappropriate for many with limited mobility, including myself and my disabled friend.
My local disabled group says I have a clear case under the Equality Act 2010 for indirect discrimination...legally I would prefer to take their opinion.
I'm not really minded to take up a civil case, even with the offered support, it isn't worth any material benefit to me.
The response from the park has been very poor indeed, the same words rearranged in a single lengthy paragraph with no progression, half a dozen times.
 
rob666 said:
I'll go round all the tautology again, one last time.
It is a transport system within the park, that has been used for mobility, for people with additional needs, for three decades...whatever you want to call the thing.
I don't get benefit from the ride, I get access to the rest of the park.
I worked with disabled clients for more than two decades, so I have a good general professional idea of the disability acts...
Lots of ableist conversation on here about what I should and shouldn't expect from the park.
I expect reasonable access for myself and my disabled friend...our needs have not been catered for, previous access arrangements were denied, and replacement provision (which was already there) is inappropriate for many with limited mobility, including myself and my disabled friend.
My local disabled group says I have a clear case under the Equality Act 2010 for indirect discrimination...legally I would prefer to take their opinion.
I'm not really minded to take up a civil case, even with the offered support, it isn't worth any material benefit to me.
The response from the park has been very poor indeed, the same words rearranged in a single lengthy paragraph with no progression, half a dozen times.
Click to expand...
Genuine question, and not an attempt at excusing the situation or being ableist.

In a completely hypothetical scenario where the Skyride was never built, would you still categorise the lack of a Skyride as discrimination? Or is it that the provision was offered, and has since been withdrawn, that brings about the discrimination?

Whether or not the intention of the Skyride was to provide access, or to entertain, is immaterial if it can be demonstrated that its use enables equal or parity access.

If I was to provide an analogy for the scenario I think you're describing. A building may have been built with a slope/wooden crossing leading up to its entrance many moons ago, without the expressed intent that it was relied upon for equal access. During a refurbishment someone comes along and decides that they'd rather have a spiral staircase to access that same entrance, and so they remove the slope/bridge. Although the slope was never intended to be relied upon for access, or even designed with that in mind, it has since become a means for physically disabled people to get equal and easy access; thus removing it counts as discrimination.
 
It would not be a problem if the skyride was never there...there would be no withdrawal of provision.
The fact that it was there, and was removed with no notice or warning, for a full season, meant my well made plans, for a very special persons 40th birthday big event, with his only friend outside the care system, were well and truly screwed.
In august they said closed all season.
They also said it was planned, and unplanned.
Can't be both can it?
My mate loves horror stuff, (Buffy bloody mad), so "the Curse" had been built up to.
He is heavily medicated and unsteady, I have multiple issues down my right leg, we are both well used to the parks systems, and did fine.
By coincidence, it is our Christmas meal out today...only one pint...he's been naughty again.
The main topic of discussion will be next seasons plans, this topic, and the customer service topic.
He will decide what next, and he knows Towers customer service has been crap, because we have talked about the bloody skyride, and not knowing, since Easter.
On a more positive note, Drayton Manor had absolutely stunning customer service for naughty groups of kids in care who wanted to run wild round the park in the night, and bent over backwards to support our special groups for days on end camping in the old site.
We have never had a problem with Blackpool, but the scale of the Towers makes a trip impossible without the skyride.
Simple as that.
 
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