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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

I'd challenge the argument of immunity to pressure. Anyone and everyone is potentially susceptible to pressure and influence (whether direct or indirect) from their superiors. This was proven in the Smiler accident, and in countless other prosecutions. Nothing to suggest this was a factor here, but the idea that technical departments are immune to pressure is questionable. They would have had deadlines and targets like anyone else.

This is more likely to be a manufacturing defect of some kind. It can likely be 'narrowed' to either: the lift hill will not function, or something else potentially serious was identified in checks prior to opening on Saturday.
 
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Part of me is hoping it doesn't open before the 8th, we haven't been to Thorpe in 9 years, Id hate it to be a very busy few days for us as we can't go often. I imagine any news of it reopening will bring floods again
 
Ryan said:
Again that weird wording about not being able to commit to opening before the 8th.

Surely they aren't in a position to commit to any date, they are having unforeseen technical issues?

It feels like they're setting themselves up for failure, you can see on social media how people are taking the 8th/9th as a reopening date.

So if their fixes don't work, their investigations need more time, they come up against problems connected, or unconnected, to the current problem - and they push back again, they're going to piss more people off than just leaving things as indefinite for now.

People, generally, aren't actually upset that the ride isn't open, they're disappointed at most. But people are upset and angry when they book time off, pay for hotels, make plans, and then they get cancelled. Which will be the case as long as they keep pushing the 8th June as a date to keep in mind.

It just seems like they're being a bit daft with this one, I dunno.
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See, I interpreted the wording differently. I thought that “can’t commit to opening before the 8th” meant that it may possibly open earlier than the 8th, but they have a fair degree of confidence that it will open by then; the park even said that they are “working hard to get it open earlier”, which would suggest to me that they don’t necessarily know that it’ll be closed right up until the 8th.

I assume that the park are providing exact dates because they have some idea of when they hope to reopen the ride by if all goes well with their fixes, which they may not have done when they made the original announcement on Saturday. If it does entail some sort of part, then I think it’s entirely feasible that they would have a rough anticipated timeframe of reopening.

If the reports of the ride having tested today are true, then I wouldn’t think that a reopening is miles off. If this test happened and was successful, then I’d hope that we may be reopening sooner than the 8th.

If they were certain that it would be out until the 8th, I think they would have been a bit blunter with their wording, as they were with the announcement that it would be closed until 29th May. That statement was very blunt in saying “the ride will be closed until at least 29th May”, whereas this one is more non-committal and vague, simply saying “we can’t commit to reopening before 8th June”. That to me infers that there is a possibility of it reopening before the 8th, but they’re a lot more confident in it reopening after the 8th. They even said “we are working hard to get it open earlier”, which suggests a possibility of an earlier reopening to me.

It is hard to know for sure, though, as we’ll never know for certain what’s happened with it or what fixes they’re making.
 
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According to Adventure Times UK, a new part was seen arriving today:

If the fitting of this is successful, hopefully reopening isn’t too far away.
 
I’ve been on park today and asked a person in the shop and they said it hasn’t been testing today.
Still looks a lot like a building site with landscaping unfinished.

I’ve got to say the he new Hyperia bogs are lush! Alton towers take note! At least they were open .
 
I think they need to give more info. There have been alot of theories online with some gaining traction no matter if they are true or not.

This has a feel of the smiler accident at AT. Not quite that bad but with the stories coming out about it breaking down and why the GP will just see it as an unsafe ride and wont wanna go on it. Enthusiasts wont care but the GP will.
 
Smiley said:
I doubt we'll ever know the reason, as it could kill Mack's business.
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You see, this is why manufacturers don't generally indulge thoosies with conversation and dialogue.
Absolutely over the top, no accident, no injuries, safety guidance clearly followed...and proper procedures prevented a piss poor performance.
"New ride folks, stuff happens, sorry".
How could this situation kill a well known, highly regarded manufacturer and business?
 
Tom said:
I'd challenge the argument of immunity to pressure. Anyone and everyone is potentially susceptible to pressure and influence (whether direct or indirect) from their superiors. This was proven in the Smiler accident, and it countless other prosecutions. Nothing to suggest this was a factor here, but the idea that technical departments are immune to pressure is questionable. They would have had deadlines and targets like anyone else.

This is more likely to be a manufacturing defect of some kind. It can likely be 'narrowed' to either: the lift hill will not function, or something else potentially serious was identified in checks prior to opening on Saturday.
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Without a doubt. No indication that this happened here, but as a general principle I’d find this hard to disagree with. I know this is going back a long way, but something like 180 police officers agreed to lie in their statements about what happened in the Hillsborough Disaster.

If you look at major scandals from Grenfell Tower to the unlawful conviction of the post masters, a lot of people colluded with wrong doing.

You can call it social conformity, obedience to authority, self interest… evidence suggests that whistleblowers are rare and are often treated very badly.

That’s not to say that anything wrong has happened here, but I’d say that given the ‘right’ circumstances, most engineers could be persuaded to cut corners. That would certainly be the general consensus amongst psychologists.
 
lee2804 said:
I think they need to give more info. There have been alot of theories online with some gaining traction no matter if they are true or not.

This has a feel of the smiler accident at AT. Not quite that bad but with the stories coming out about it breaking down and why the GP will just see it as an unsafe ride and wont wanna go on it. Enthusiasts wont care but the GP will.
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Once it has opened again and is running for a number of weeks, this will all be very quickly forgotten. It is completely different to The Smiler!

Does everyone remember when Ride to Happiness stalled not long after opening? Didn't think so!
 
lee2804 said:
I think they need to give more info. There have been alot of theories online with some gaining traction no matter if they are true or not.

This has a feel of the smiler accident at AT. Not quite that bad but with the stories coming out about it breaking down and why the GP will just see it as an unsafe ride and wont wanna go on it. Enthusiasts wont care but the GP will.
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They do not, and will not, give more information on the matter.
Why would they...to entertain a few thousand questioning thoosies.
When was the breakdown exactly?
It closed at the end of the day didn't it?
Then it didn't open the next day, because of issues following routine checks.
Sounds all good to me, bang on correct.
Only random thoosies with no concrete information about anything are letting off random vapours with zero evidence...again.
This does not have the feel of the smiler accident...in any way, in my eyes...mainly because there has been no accident, and the issue is totally unrelated to the smiler accident, and is absolutely minor in comparison with the awful crash.
Over the top comment.
No accident.
No breakdown.
No injuries.
Just opening issues with a big new ride.
No real news here, please move on.
 
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RtH stalled, Voltron stalled. This thing happens. Particularly at the start of life for equipment - reliability of machinery typically follows a bathtub curve.

Everyone is focused on speculating on the physical defect (whatever that is) but there were two known control system failures on opening day - one was the air gates, the other was the bag screens (that one happened in front of me). I'm also 100% sure the lift hill speakers weren't working on my first ride (they were on my second). So my speculation is they are taking the time not only to fix the physical part but to also try to fix any little control issue they identified on opening day at the same time whilst it can't physically operate. Any reprogramming work is not quick either! Then you need to do the appropriate testing before safety/insurance will allow you to reopen.
 
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