@Jb85 Alton was run by a public company from 1990 - 2005 and from 2013 onwards (with an odd mix of shareholders inbetween).
Disney is a public company. That's not the problem, if you perceive there to be one.
This was kind of the point I was trying to make in the first place. I belive they are focused way too much on capital expenditure costs and not operational cost....You have to look at the lifetime cost of the attraction - you can't just look at operational costs or capital expenditure costs, they're not exclusive of each other in both practical and tax terms.
I'm not sure the terms "low Opex" and "wooden roller coaster" are associated with each other. Ever.SW8 should be low Capex and Opex, a tried and tested ride system, decent throughput (hopefully) to be gained by either one or two stations with not a huge amount in each (3 x10 row trains?)so a staff member per 5 rows or just 2 staff, plus an op, batcher, 2 in a bag drop, one on merge, one on entrance and a staff member or 2 in offload (if it has one)
Have lessons been learned? I don't hold my breath