T-Express is a wooden roller coaster, located at the Everland Resort, in South Korea.
Interestingly, the ride opened to the public as South Korea’s first wooden roller coaster,
and currently remains the only one of its kind even to this day.
On top of this, T-Express is the rare Intamin prefabricated coaster model, one of only four
built worldwide.
The ride opened to the public on the 14th of March 2008 at the cost of roughly 36 billion
won, equivalent to 32 Million USD in today’s money.
Its name originates from the sponsor of the attraction, T World, South Korea’s largest
wireless telecommunications operator.
Upon first impressions, T-Express looks menacing in every way.
The ride’s huge scale and high speed are partially possible due to the complex nature
of the track design.
Interestingly, the attractions manufacturer, Intamin, produces pre-cut wooden track sections
using precise laser equipment offsite, allowing for them to be put together on location in
a short amount of time.
The accurate nature of the tracks design allows for a smoother and more stable experience.
A ride on T-Express begins with guests boarding one of three vehicles, each of which are made
up of six cars, seating riders in 3 rows of 2.
This leads to a total of 36 visitors per train.
Once boarded, guests are dispatched out of the station building, undergoing a small left
hand turn, and a straight piece of track, before joining the lift hill.
The trains climb the huge 56m (184ft) high lift-hill, ascending the nearby hillside.
Interestingly, similar to other rides produced by the same company, T-Express utilises a
cable lift, allowing for guests to climb to the attractions highest point at a faster
rate.
Once the trains have crested the hill, they navigate a 180 degree right hand turn towards
the attractions huge 46m (151ft) tall drop.
Guests dive down the first decent, at a maximum vertical angle of 77 degrees, and quickly
reach the top speed of 104km/h (65mph).
Before they have time to breathe, visitors are instantly subject to a huge airtime hill,
followed by an intense long right hand turn.
The trains traverse a quick transition into a long left hand turn, followed by a small
hill into the attractions mid-course brake run.
A few seconds later guests once again plummet towards the ground, before navigating an airtime
hill, followed by a heavily banked right hand turn.
Guests enter another airtime hill, followed by a second right hand turn, into a series
of two further airtime hills.
At this point the layout is somewhat repetitive.
The trains navigate a mixture of near 180 degree turns, and airtime hills, looping around
the attractions footprint.
Each repetition sees guests come closer to the ground, retaining their high speed.
Riders finally emerge from the structure navigating two airtime hills, a slight turn, a further
airtime hill, and a long left hand turn into the attractions final brake run.
Throughout the entire thrilling ride, guests navigate 1651m (5417ft) of track in approximately
94 seconds of ride time.
This is calculated from the moment the train leaves the lift hill, to when it enters the
incredibly long final brake run.
Because each train has a large capacity, the ride has a theoretical throughput of approximately
1500 riders per hour.
Interestingly, the 2nd half of attraction’s layout is surprisingly similar, if not identical
to another coaster of the same model, Balder at Liseberg in Sweden.
After T-Express completes the mid-course brake run, both rides feature a repetitive layout
reliant on a mixture of airtime hills and highly banked turns.
This has allowed the attraction to be the longest of its kind by a significant margin.
Because of the rides impressive size, T-Express has been well received.
Everland Resort saw a significant increase of visitors within the young adult and teenage
markets, quantifying the success of the ride.
Furthermore, it has performed very well in many respectable wooden roller coaster polls,
often being ranked as one of the top 5 wooden coasters worldwide.
Despite their good reputations, Intamin’s prefabricated coaster model hasn’t seen
any new additions since the debut of T-Express in 2008.
This leads to the question; would you like to see more parks invest in large scale Intamin
wooden coasters in the future?
What’s your opinion?
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