When discussing theme parks one topic often comes up - operations.
People are always interested in discussing how efficiently parks operate their roller coasters.
Some theme parks are known for their good operations, the park dispatch train after
train without hesitation or delay.
Other parks though are known for the exact opposite, with operations that seem slow and inefficient.
All this however, is completely anecdotal.
Good operations for one person, or one theme park, could be poor operations for another
because each may have different ideals of efficiency.
Some rides, especially those with a larger number of small trains, often dispatch faster
too, but this doesn’t mean that the operations are better however.
So, how can we effectively compare the operations of theme parks?
I’ll tell you.
We recently visited Alton Towers; partially to ride some rides, but mainly, to time how
long it takes the park’s roller coasters to dispatch trains.
We measured the time from the moment one train leaves the station, to the moment another
leaves the station.
This not only includes the time it takes guests to board, and for the ride operators to send
the train, but also the time it takes the train to enter and park inside the station.
We have to note here that for theme parks, safety is the number one priority.
Parks will not compromise on safety to dispatch quicker and have better operations.
So with that in mind, let’s find out how we can judge a ride's operations by working
through an example with the newest of Alton Towers’ 7 big roller coasters - Wicker Man.
Wicker Man opened in 2018 as the UK’s first wooden roller coaster to be built in over
20 years.
It was constructed by Great Coasters International (GCI), and features a maximum of three trains,
each of which seat 24 riders.
We timed how long it took Wicker Man to dispatch multiple trains, eventually gaining about
10 readings.
These ranged from 1 minute 19 seconds to 1 minute 38 seconds, with the average being
roughly 1 minute 29 seconds.
This means Wicker Man is capable of dispatching roughly 40 times an hour.
If we multiply this by the number of riders per train, 24, we get 973 - or the real world
capacity of the ride.
So, while I was in the queue, an average 973 people were riding Wicker Man every hour.
With this, I’m assuming that every single seat in the train is full, which we know isn’t
the case, especially in COVID times.
Nevertheless, it gives a good indication of how many people could ride.
The manufacturer of Wicker Man, GCI, claims that it has a theoretical capacity of 952,
which equates to a dispatch every 1 minute 31 seconds.
If we compare the real world capacity to the theoretical capacity we can determine the
load factor - of a percentage of the theoretical capacity how good are the operations.
For Wicker Man the load factor is 102%, meaning Alton Towers were dispatching trains faster
than what the manufacturer of the ride said was reasonably possible.
So, are Wicker Man’s operations good?
Yes, they’re really good!
Using this load factor value we can compare operations across rides, and perhaps even
theme parks.
So lets analyse the other roller coasters at Alton Towers.
One of the rides at the park often known for its slower operations is Rita.
Rita opened in 2005 and is a hydraulic launch coaster built by Intamin.
The ride features two 20 person trains, meaning it needs to dispatch quicker than Wicker Man
to have a similar capacity.
The ride’s manufacturer claims that 1150 people can experience it every hour, which
equates to a dispatch roughly every 1 minute 3 seconds.
In reality, this is a boldly optimistic claim.
We measured that on average Rita sent a new train out of the station every 1 minute 49
seconds, equating to a throughput of 659 riders per hour.
This results in a load factor of 57%, much lower than Wicker man’s 102%.
Realistically we’d expect the load factor percentage to be a good indication of operations.
Although, this might not always be the case as some rides have more reasonable theoretical
throughputs, like Wicker Man, while others choose to be way more optimistic, like Rita.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rita had the worst load factor value of the 7 Alton Towers roller
coasters we looked at.
Though what about its neighbour, 13?
13 opened in 2010, becoming the world’s first vertical freefall drop roller coaster.
Similar to Rita, it also features 20 person trains, but can operate up to 3 of them at
any one point in time.
13’s lap bar restraints make it easy for ride operators to check restraints, so we’d
expect a good load factor percentage.
Intamin, the manufacturer of the ride, claims that 1100 riders per hour can experience 13
- a capacity which would require a new train leaving the station every 1 minute 6 seconds.
Compare the ease of restraint checking on 13 to Rita and it really puts Rita’s optimistic
1 minute 3 seconds dispatches into perspective.
During our visit, we found that on average 13 dispatched every 60 seconds, leading to
a real world throughput of 1210 riders per hour.
Similar to Wicker Man, 13 was dispatching faster than its theoretical time, and therefore
had a load factor of beyond 100%, 110% to be exact.
Although, due to covid measures, the final 3 rows of the 10 row trains are filled with
water dummies.
So in reality ride operators have even less restraints to check.
Nevertheless, 13’s operators were fantastic, and it didn’t take long to time enough dispatches
to create an average.
Let’s move over to X-Sector now, home to two of the park’s most intimidating roller
coasters, the Smiler and Oblivion.
The Smiler opened in 2013 as the world’s first 14 looping roller coaster, and continues
to hold that record to this day.
At max capacity, it can run 5 trains of 16 riders, which according to the ride’s manufacturer,
Gerstlauer, leads to a theoretical throughput of 1200.
However, Alton Towers can only run up to 4 trains on the Smiler, lowering its theoretical
throughput to around 985 riders per hour - equivalent to a dispatch every 59 seconds.
Coincidentally, a train leaving the station roughly every 60 seconds leads to some fantastic
duelling around the layout, which we saw during our visit.
On average, the trains were sent out of the station every 1 minute 20 seconds.
This equates to a real world throughput of roughly 720 riders per hour, and a load factor
of 73%.
Sadly compared to other Alton Towers roller coasters, this figure is below average, which
is especially frustrating as it attracts a large number of guests.
Does Oblivion fare any better?
Built by Bolliger and Mabillard, B&M, in 1998, the ride became the world’s first dive coaster,
featuring a near-vertical descent.
Oblivion has two stations, built in series, meaning the ride can load and dispatch two
trains at once.
With all seven 16 riders trains on the track, B&M claim 1900 riders can experience Oblivion
every hour.
Alton Towers usually run up to 5 trains at any one point in time, which lowers the two-station
theoretical throughput to around 1108 riders per hour.
A dispatch of both trains is therefore required every 1 minute 44 seconds to achieve this.
We recorded an average dispatch time of 2 minutes 9 seconds on the day, leading to a
real world capacity of 897 riders per hour, and a load factor of 81%.
Prior to this, I thought Oblivion’s operations were perhaps slower than other rides in the
park.
However, with a real world capacity of 897 the ride can handle more guests than I expected.
Towards the end of the day we headed over to the Forbidden Valley, home to both Galactica
and Nemesis.
Galactica opened back in 2002 as Air, the world’s first flying roller coaster built
by B&M.
It was then rebranded to Galactica in 2016 with the addition of virtual reality.
Similar to Oblivion, it features two stations, but these are placed in parallel, next to
each other, which means that each station can load trains independently of the other.
This was done to maintain a high capacity while allowing for the additional time it
takes to load and unload flying roller coasters trains.
Galactica can run up to three trains, each of which seat 28 riders.
B&M claim it has a theoretical throughput of 1500 riders per hour, which requires a
dispatch every 1 minute 7 seconds to achieve.
In reality, we measured the average dispatch time to be roughly 1 minute 25 seconds, equating
to a real world throughput of 1182 riders per hour, and a load factor of 79%.
Again, this surprised me.
Galactica had gained a bit of a reputation for poor operations whilst virtual reality
was being used on the ride, previously leading to dispatches every 3 minutes or so.
And finally, a ride that has always been known for its good operations is Nemesis.
Nemesis opened in 1994 as Europe’s first inverted roller coaster.
Also built by B&M, the ride features two 32 passenger trains, which can achieve a theoretical
throughput of 1400 riders per hour, through dispatching every 1 minute 22 seconds on average.
Interestingly though, the full circuit takes about 1 minute 40 seconds to navigate.
Meaning Nemesis should alternate between quicker 60 second dispatches and longer 100 second
dispatches.
On average, we saw that a new train would be sent on Nemesis roughly every 1 minute
and 36 seconds, leading to a real world capacity of 1201 riders per hour.
This resulted in a load factor of 86%, higher than most other rides at the park.
It’s worth noting that this data was gathered all in a single day, and the park was relatively
busy, but not completely rammed.
To recap, here are the theoretical throughputs of Alton Towers’ 7 big roller coasters,
in order of biggest to smallest, based on the number of trains they were running during
our visit.
Galactica has the largest theoretical capacity, whilst Wicker Man has the smallest.
In reality, our measurements provided a different story.
Based on real world throughput 13 had the best capacity, whilst Rita had the lowest.
Reshuffling the order sees Wicker Man and 13 climb multiple spots, while Galactica and
Rita fall several positions.
Combining the capacity of all 7 rides leads to 6842 riders per hour, meaning if all 7
roller coasters had an hour long queue, 6842 people would be held within all 7 queue lines.
In reality, due to COVID measures, and the fact that not every train is filled to maximum
capacity, the real figure would be less, but we can dream.
So, does Alton Towers have good operations?
I think it’s fair to say, yes!
Some rides beat their theoretical throughput, while many came relatively close.
Across the 7 roller coasters, the average load factor was 83%, a value brought down
by the inconsistent operations of Rita.
However, it’s hard to gauge whether these operations are good until we compare them
to other theme parks.
So, expect operations analysis videos from other UK parks, including Thorpe Park and
Blackpool Pleasure Beach soon.
Perhaps with your help we could expand this series to theme parks in other countries too?
Anyway, let us know what you thought of this more analytical and data driven video in the
comments down below.
Thank you for watching, and we’ll see you all next time.