Why have travelling coasters progressed so little compared to their permanent equivalents?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. The recent news of Mellors seemingly having purchased a travelling Sky Rocket II for Riyadh Winter Wonderland in Saudi Arabia recently got me thinking about travelling coasters. And it got me thinking; the world of travelling coasters is arguably somewhat stuck in the past compared to the rest of the coaster industry. Permanent coasters have progressed so much in even the last decade, but the travelling coaster scene still has a lot of the same heavyweights making it up as it did 30 years ago, with very little progression. Olympia Looping is still the largest travelling coaster in terms of size (it’s tall, fast and long), and it was also custom. However, that was built all the way back in 1989. A lot of the travelling rides around now seem to be variations on Wild Mouse coasters or aging Schwarzkopfs and Pinfaris. The Riyadh Sky Rocket (I feel like it does have a name, but I can’t remember it at the moment) is arguably the most promising development for travelling coasters in some time, in my opinion (it’s a huge ride at 150ft, and it’s also pretty fast at 62mph), but that is still a clone, and it’s also less than 1,000ft long, so not the longest of rides. So my question to you today is; why is it that travelling coasters have progressed so slowly compared to the rest of the coaster industry, and do you think we will ever see large-scale, custom travelling coasters built again in the same way they were in the 80s?


As for my opinion; I’m unsure on why the travelling coaster scene hasn’t progressed much compared to the permanent coaster scene. However, in terms of large-scale custom travelling coasters being built again; never say never. I’d argue that making compact, quick-to-build thrills is easier than ever before, and some modern coaster types are offered on a base frame. For instance, I know that much of Gerstlauer’s portfolio is available on a base frame; I’m unsure on Infinity Coasters, but I know that Euro-Fighters and many of the smaller ride types definitely are.


But what are your thoughts?

 

[JAperson]

To be honest I think it's quite simple, they need to travel. Of course it depends how often a coaster needs to travel but a lot of these large travelling coasters can take a week to put up and down. The fact things like olympia looping travel is incredible and especially as it's taken up and down in what just over a week?
I also doubt there's the money it in for both manufacturers and operators for them to bother developing them much more. Also a lot of fairs move every week and a ride that takes a whole week to put up and take down is not going to be helpful.

 

[Skyscraper]

To be honest I think it's quite simple, they need to travel. Of course it depends how often a coaster needs to travel but a lot of these large travelling coasters can take a week to put up and down. The fact things like olympia looping travel is incredible and especially as it's taken up and down in what just over a week?
I also doubt there's the money it in for both manufacturers and operators for them to bother developing them much more. Also a lot of fairs move every week and a ride that takes a whole week to put up and take down is not going to be helpful.

And remember that Olympia Looping requires 50 trucks! Not many fairs will have the space lol.

 

[D4n]

Agree with pretty much all of the above. The simple truth is that travelling coasters reached their maximum logistical size back in the 80s.

 

[Craig]

Ah I love a good travelling ride topic!

About 8 years ago, there was an interview with Rudolf Barth (owner of Olympia) saying that they already struggle with the insane costs to run Olympia Looping. Back then, it cost around €80k in transportation costs alone to move it from Oktoberfest in Munich over to the Freimarkt in Bremen (a distance of around 500 miles). With the increase in fuel costs since, I dread to think how much it costs these days. We’ve already seen the ride travel less on the fair circuit and stick around for longer for “residencies” at places like Weiner Prater and Winter Wonderland. Indeed for Winter Wonderland, the costs will no doubt be absolutely staggering for transportation, I’m actually surprised they’re making it over this year!

There’s not only higher transportation costs to factor in either. There’s fuel costs to run the ride when it’s actually setup, there’s labour costs on top of that which are much higher than when the ride debuted in 1989 and I have no doubt that insurance and health and safety related costs are considerably higher these days too. Remember it also takes a week to setup too, so there’s the cost of doing that to factor in too, all while the ride is making zero cash.

Mellors and Saudi Arabia are a bit of a different beast. What they’re doing very much falls into the “residency” category since their “Winter Wonderland” event actually runs for five months, which isn’t far off from a theme park summer season! So whilst on the face of it it sounds like a fair, it’s very much a semi permanent attraction that’s running for half of the year, so large installations like the old AA mine train etc are fairly viable. Likewise with Global Village at Dubai, as it’s open 6 months of the year it can pretty much be considered a permanent seasonal park.

That said, the rides they’re adding to places like Saudi Arabia and Dubai I wouldn’t really consider them to be travelling models in the traditional sense. They’ve either been converted from permanent models like the mine train, or like the Skyloop probably just slightly retrofitted to be able to provide a ride which could be removed if necessary but realistically will still require substantial construction and ground preparation to be erected.

Tl:dr - True travelling rides are technically and logistically a nightmare so there’s no market demand for them to be produced by manufacturers. Fuel and labour prices are substantially higher than when the likes of Alpina Bahn, Testrecke and Olympia Looping debuted. Oh, and no one is as batshit as Anton Schwarzkopf these days either

 

[pluk]

Even if modern engineering removed a lot of the issues of size and running costs I still don't think it'd be a viable investment. The sad truth is the arse has fallen out of the travelling fair circuit. Outside of major events and speciality stuff like Carters, people just aren't interested in travelling fairs like they used to be. When the fair was in town it'd be rammed every night, now they are deserted most of the time. I guess there's just too much easy access to entertainment now, and social media has made reports of accidents much more prevalent, the fair doesn't hold the same draw to the average person.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

When I use to go to travelling funfairs in the late 90’s early 00’s it was ranging from 50p to £1 a ride with just the bumper cars costing more. Now watching Shawn’s funfair vlogs and he says go and support theses showmen I can’t afford to pay £10 a ride for me and my daughter. I think the best your gonna find on the funfair circuit is a caterpillar or a small powered coaster.