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X-Sector's Future (including Oblivion and The Smiler)

The Smiler is 100% defined in the publics eye as "that one that had a really bad crash". No one knows or even cares about the fact it turns upside down 14 times.

No one seems to think it is a must ride because of that fact either. I've heard more people say they are avoiding the ride due to the crash than I have say they will ride it. No one outside of enthusiast circles cares about the fact it turns upside down.

They care more about their perceived safety being at risk. (Even though it is not.)
 
On the Smiler; I hear more people say they either avoid it because of its history/don't enjoy it because of how it rides than I hear say positive things about it.

I worked for the company during the time the accident happened and the after-effects were pretty phenomenal ranging from staff cuts, public perception & overhauls to procedures/training across all ride occupied sites... I've not worked for the Wizard for many years now but it was a prominently sore topic until I left a few years later, among staff & guests & have known many people talk about it even now. The publicity surrounding it was devastating to the reputation of The Smiler. All the general public see is a terrible accident without the understanding that it was a series of unfortunate human errors rather than the ride itself being dangerous. There was never going to be as much publicity when it came to explaining the accident cause, so a not insignificant amount of GP likely still consider the ride itself dangerous (which as @DistortAMG says, it is not).

I can't see Smiler receiving any kind of retrack... Oblivion however, it's still a solid & well received ride all these years on...I would never dispute the potential for a reimagined version, a retrack or any other form of life extension! 😊 Long live Blivvy!
 
Alphe86 said:
As long as the Smiler is pulling in 60-90 min queues on main queue - alongside 40+ min fast track, it’s going nowhere
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Queue times aren’t everything, though; that could be just as much down to throughput as it is down to popularity. While it was admittedly doing quite well on my last visit, Smiler certainly isn’t Alton’s highest throughput coaster by any stretch, getting consistently below 1,000pph even on 4 trains.

I do agree that The Smiler seems to remain very popular among the Alton Towers visitor populace, though, and that could play in its favour in any discussions regarding its future. From my experience, it is the one Alton Towers ride a lot of people I know seem to talk about, and not due to the crash either. Anecdotally, it seems like a very popular ride despite its history.

With regard to the crash; some people may still view the ride as unsafe, but wouldn’t a lot of these people just not be visiting the park at all due to a general perception that the park overall is unsafe? A lot of the tabloid furore following the accident set out to paint Alton Towers overall as unsafe rather than just The Smiler in isolation.

I would argue that the crash is in the past for many, however, as the guest figures had wholeheartedly recovered to their pre-crash levels by 2019, and the crash seemed to dissipate from the public conscious considerably when Wicker Man opened, with that ride starting to reignite Alton's fortunes.

I’d wager that popularity among the guests who visit is likely to be more pivotal in any decisions regarding Smiler’s future than its perception among people who don’t visit.
 
Alphe86 said:
As long as the Smiler is pulling in 60-90 min queues on main queue - alongside 40+ min fast track, it’s going nowhere
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A decision on keeping a ride won’t be made solely on the length of the queue. Once it’s at the end of its life (Corkscrew, Black Hole, Nemesis) it either needs refurbishing or replacing.

A new coaster would easily achieve the same amount of queues in a park that lacks overall capacity like Alton does.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Possibly because outside of the Big 6 there's very little to do for its target demographic, it's also on the right side of the park for traffic too.
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I’m not just referring to queue times.

It does seem to compare well to the other rides in terms of demand, from my experience, but a lot of people I talk to about Alton Towers also seem to talk about it positively.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Possibly because outside of the Big 6 there's very little to do for its target demographic, it's also on the right side of the park for traffic too.
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It's the overall experience that I have the issue with. The whole ride area is grotty, from the queue line to the station and even the ride cars themselves smell rancid. If you aren't put off by all of that there's a boneshaking jolty rollercoaster at the end of it.

Sign of a great coaster for me is you ride it and as soon as you get off you want to run round and do it all again straight after. Nemesis, Oblivion and Wickerman all do that for me.
 
Just a note to mention, I've changed the thread's title to better reflect the actual discussion that is occurring, about future of the whole X-Sector.

Given that neither Oblivion nor The Smiler will be going anywhere any time soon, it makes more sense for this to be a more general discussion about the future of the X-Sector, rather than trying to split the discussion in two.
 
Maybe it's just me who can lap smiler all day, not too rough and doesn't make me sick but then I was lapping it's single rider queue during a massive rain downpour at night during scarefest maybe I'm just crazy, smiler is my favourite UK coaster though.

I can't see oblivion going as the lift hill and brake run will surely last a while I'd imagine it's where its at the bottom of the hole where the most stress is absorbed, I don't think it would cost a massive amount like nemesis when the time comes, what would cost a massive amount would be filling the hole or using it for something else.

Smilers a tough one whether it'll be retracked or not I doubt they'd go all out like they have done for nemesis with smiler hopefully they can just do a collosus job with it and do the odd replacement as it comes.

I do find it funny ever since the word got out that nemesis was getting retracked we've all been speculating what else would get the the scrap treatment and what will get retracked, here's me just hoping it won't be covered in mould and grime come March.
 
Ethan said:
The accident was nearly 9 years ago surely people still don’t think about that. It’s operated for many years since with no problems
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There's not a week goes by when, during park season, I will be at work, pick up my phone and peruse social media, only to see that some trash paper has posted an "article" saying that a ride at Towers has stopped on the lift hill, with quotes from people saying they were "stuck hanging in mid-air, terrified".
And all the comments below are from halfwits making comments about how much of a death-trap the park is.
The vast majority of people who visit the park(s) are uneducated general public npcs, who don't know an up-stop wheel from a chain lift.
And it is upon these people's footfall that the parks base their investment decisions on, not the likes of us sat debating the ins and outs of Gerstlauer, B&M or Intamin and retracks, and the lack of flat rides, on a public forum.
Despite our sentiments and what we would do, park management had very different ideas and what makes good business acumen to do with attractions.
It is testament to the significance of Nemesis that that ride is being preserved, when many could argue that Corkscrew really did more for the park, and that now just stands as a piece of art.
The incident of 2015 has not been forgotten, and probably never will be, as long as The Smiler stands. And I think once the ride has made good on it's investment, and starts to become a costly, maintenance money pit, management will be keen to see it out the door to get the accident out of public consciousness.
 
I am a bit more posetive on the smiler, it is deffinatly still popular, and after talking to quite a few people a lot don't remember the crash, I rode with one set of people whose daughter had been at the park on the day of the accident, and they only remembered it after getting put on the front row, truth is after going to alton quite a bit this year, smiler was very popular there was always a crowd outside the smiler, and it is probably one of the most well known rollercoasters, but also the queue times tend to all equal about the same for all the rides and it probably isn't as good in the eye of the public.

also i have seen some recently made videos discussing the accident, could have brought it back up in some peoples minds (one from 2 months ago has over 1 million views)?

Imo i think that towers would look at retrack it and push it as a new ride, with either added theming or re theme it, as if it was a similar time line to nemesis a full retrack may be 10-20 years away
 
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jibbsie said:
I am a bit more posetive on the smiler, it is deffinatly still popular, and after talking to quite a few people a lot don't remember the crash, I rode with one set of people whose daughter had been at the park on the day of the accident, and they only remembered it after getting put on the front row, truth is after going to alton quite a bit this year, smiler was very popular there was always a crowd outside the smiler, and it is probably one of the most well known rollercoasters, but also the queue times tend to all equal about the same for all the rides and it probably isn't as good in the eye of the public.

also i have seen some recently made videos discussing the accident, could have brought it back up in some peoples minds?

Imo i think that towers would look at retrack it and push it as a new ride, with either added theming or re theme it, as if it was a similar time line to nemesis a full retrack may be 10-20 years away
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also remember, how many people are looking up the smiler into google, and many news stories will be about x ride getting stuck fear for your life it is just the press i have seen articles talking about people being stuck face down in a horrifying position stuck on galactica for what was probably like a 10-20 min delay,
before going many people will not even look at the map or park offerings, they will just say lets go to alton towers
 
Pretty much no one I work or socialise with is even aware of the accident. And they all ride it frequently.
It’s one of those - tragic as it was - it’s not such a big thing now for the majority of people I feel
 
The Smiler is not very old, so there's no indication at all that it will remain popular in the distant future.

Parking any personal preferences (I don't dislike the Smiler as much as many and have also a fondness for Oblivion), The Smiler is still a popular attraction. But I can't see any indication that it's popularity is any more or less than can be expected at this stage in its operational life, and owing to it's rubbish capacity and location not too far away from the park entrance, it can't really be quantified in any tangle way by looking at the queue times it generates.

Similarly, I can't subscribe to any view that Oblivion remains anything other than popular among guests. It is short and 26 years old, but I think general riders still see it as a unique, intimidating, and thrilling drop into a hole in the ground regardless of how many Thoosies may have grown immune to it after riding it multiple times per season.

Not that I think popularity will play much of a big role in any commercial decision regarding either of them anyway as neither can really be compared to Nemesis for various reasons.

Oblivion is a prototype coaster and as such has some coaster heritage attached to it. It is heavily built into the surrounding area whilst being quite efficient with space, by a high quality manufacturer, with a simple layout. The Smiler is a Gerstlauer built to far lower standards, with a complicated layout, PR baggage, little heritage attached other than the fact it inverts 14 times, on a plot of land that can easily be developed for something new in the future. They can't just go round retracking everything every time something reaches the end of its operational life.

I'd be surprised if anything happened to Oblivion within the next few years, but even more surprised if The Smiler was not scrapped completely within in the next 15 years to make way for something new.
 
It’s hard to gauge the Smiler popularity as it has such a mediocre throughput. Bit like Rita.

Trying to say a ride that averages 850pph is popular by comparing it to the queues of rides that get 1100pph is never going to work.

Don’t think it’s going anywhere, just don’t think it’s as popular as some suggest.
 
Dave said:
It’s hard to gauge the Smiler popularity as it has such a mediocre throughput. Bit like Rita.

Trying to say a ride that averages 850pph is popular by comparing it to the queues of rides that get 1100pph is never going to work.

Don’t think it’s going anywhere, just don’t think it’s as popular as some suggest.
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Smiler is operated more efficiently than Oblivion these days. If you look at their potential throughput Smiler gets much closer to it. The single rider really helps the ride because there’s rarely empty seats. I constantly see empty seats on each shuttle for Oblivion. Don’t think the team on Oblivion are anywhere near as efficient. It may get through more people per hour but I still expect better than they achieve these days
 
Ethan said:
Smiler is operated more efficiently than Oblivion these days. If you look at their potential throughput Smiler gets much closer to it. The single rider really helps the ride because there’s rarely empty seats. I constantly see empty seats on each shuttle for Oblivion. Don’t think the team on Oblivion are anywhere near as efficient. It may get through more people per hour but I still expect better than they achieve these days
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Oblivion is hampered by operational changes over the years that have slowed it's throughput in favour of safety.
I won't go into detail what all of those changes are, and I'm sure there are some I'm not aware of but if you look at earlier videos of it in operation, it's clear staff had far less to concern themselves with.
They used to dispatch shuttles with guests still on the exit platform!
All this to say that it's nothing to do with the efficiency of any team, they are all doing their best with what they are given.
 
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