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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Some time in the very late 80's or early 90's, I remember getting one of those "chocolate bar selection" cardoard box christmas things. It was Alton Towers themed. On the back were a whole load of "fun facts". Including how many gallons of paint it took to repaint Corkscrew.... every year. (Or so they claimed, at least.)
 
It does feel like the Merlin philosophy is "most people won't notice therefore it's acceptable"... it's about cutting as many corners as they can get away with in the mistaken belief that people don't see it.

Now I don't for a minute believe any of this is a safety issue, but presentations really are important and this just shows a complete lack of pride. It makes you wonder when this nonsense will end. Why do Merlin run their parks in a state of austerity when they're a cash rich business?
 
Funcone said:
I’m not sure exactly how much it’d cost to repaint a ride like Inferno, but having seen how much several other British coasters cost to get repainted, I expect it costs less to get a ride like Inferno painted than some of the estimations I’ve seen on enthusiast forums.
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Having worked commercial painting projects a few years back, I can tell you it costs A LOT. But not so excessive that a company like Merlin can’t afford it.

Merlin only see short term gain, and painting a rollercoaster doesn’t put money back in the bank. A frustratingly idiotic way of running a business that’s all about the experience, but nothing new.
 
According to this tweet from Towers the Nemesis repaint (and associated work) was £120k.



So it’s not small change. But for a company the size of Merlin which turned over £1.5billion with a £400 million profit in 2017. Its hardly earth shattering.
 
Yeah on that cost/profit ratio alone they could afford to paint every coaster they have and still have enough profit left that the stock market wouldn't care.
 
To put it another way, if Sub Terra cost £6.5 million and it costs roughly £120,000 to repaint a coaster the size of Nemesis, then for the cost of Sub Terra they could have repainted 54 Nemesis sized coasters. In fact for the cost of Sub Terra they could freshen up pretty much every ride in all of their UK parks. When you look at it like that, I'm sure there's a business case for it.
 
And how do you market a coaster repaint to the general public.

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So this is in Nick Varney's email signature.
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What a shocking state inferno is in.

I bet colossus and stealth are the same though. Not been to Thorpe for a while, it bores me.

You only have to look at the state of Smiler though and thirteen to see a pattern

Give wickerman a year or two and it will be the same. Saving grace is wood is meant to age and doesn’t need painting ( perhaps we will see more woodies now! )
 
I'm surprised that no one has yet mentioned that I'm A Celebrity has been removed from Thorpe Park's website. To me, that sounds like it's gone permanently, so... RIP I'm A Celebrity, I guess. I must admit that I'm not too surprised at this removal given the fact that the attraction operated seasonally in 2017 and 2018, but it's still sad to see the attraction leave, if you ask me.

However, parks need to develop and progress, and the (presumed) removal of IAC does beg the question; what will replace it? Well, I heard quite a good theory over on TTSP Forum. Now, I have talked about Project 2020 multiple times before on this forum, and a member on TTSP forum has said that when Thorpe have put photos online of their 2019 map being made, nothing whatsoever is shown of Old Town bar Saw and Samurai. Not even the Sticky Sisters food stand or the Burger King within the area. Now, the portion of Old Town containing Loggers and Slammer was already a ripe plot for development, if you ask me, and IAC's plot of land would add even more room for a potential future coaster, so this theory is basically saying that the plot of land stretching from the Loggers/Slammer area to where IAC is could be completely redeveloped to house a new coaster. I reckon this is quite a good theory, personally, and I reckon a coaster could be quite big if it was to use this area... what do you guys think?

The next few months could potentially be very exciting! I'll admit that the chances of this being a 2020 project are decreasing, but I still have hope; Swarm's application wasn't submitted until February 2011, so anything could happen!
EDIT: Here's a link to the theory on TTSP: http://forum.towerstimes.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=115&t=41878&start=200
 
I think 2021 might be more likely for Thorpe’s next major coaster, with Gardaland getting the major investment in 2020. Gardaland where due this year orginally but Heide Park have ended up with the major investment, so think its highly likely Gardaland will get big investment next year.
 
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