Thorpe Park, located in Surrey in the UK, is currently home to some of the country’s
biggest roller coasters!
But today we’re less interested in their size, and more interested in their efficiency.
We’re on a mission to find the best theme park operations by timing how long it takes
each major roller coaster at a park to dispatch trains from its station.
It’s worth noting that for theme parks, safety is always the number one priority.
So, with that in mind, does Thorpe Park have good operations?
Let’s find out…
Thorpe Park is home to 5 major thrill coasters, The Swarm, Colossus, Stealth, Saw: The Ride
and Nemesis Inferno, but let's start with the park’s newest roller coaster.
The Swarm opened to guests in 2012 as the UK’s first wing coaster.
The ride features two trains, each of which seat 28 riders, with 14 on the left side of
the track, and the other 14 on the right.
To fairly compare the operations of different rides, we first have to determine its theoretical
throughput, i.e. how many people can ride this particular roller coaster every hour
according to its manufacturer.
Bolliger and Mabillard claim that 1100 people can ride the Swarm every hour, which requires
a train to leave the station every 1 minute and 32 seconds.
During our visit to the park, we timed how long it took the Swarm to dispatch trains,
gathering about 10 readings.
On average, the ride would dispatch a single train every 2 minutes and 13 seconds.
This equates to a real world capacity of roughly 756 riders per hour, lower than the theoretical
figure of 1100.
We can compare different roller coasters to each other by dividing the real world capacity
figure by the manufacturer’s theoretical figure, producing what’s known as a load
factor.
For the Swarm, that value is 69% - meaning the ride is reaching 69% of it’s effective
maximum efficiency.
Is that good though?
Eh?
Let's see how the park’s other roller coasters compare.
One of Thorpe Park’s oldest major rides is Colossus, which debuted in 2002 as the
world’s first roller coaster to feature 10 inversions.
It features two trains, which are each capable of seating 28 guests.
Intamin, the manufacturer of the ride, claims it can achieve a capacity of 1300 riders per
hour.
To do this, Colossus would need to dispatch a new train from the station every 1 minute
and 18 seconds, which is extremely optimistic.
Sadly, and expectedly, the reality is very different.
We measured that Colossus would dispatch a train every 2 minutes and 27 seconds, leading
to a real world capacity of 686 riders per hour.
Overall, the ride had a load factor of 53%, meaning operations were close to half the
speed they should be.
Intamin, the ride’s manufacturer, is known to inflate theoretical capacities, but a load
factor of 53% is definitely not great.
Does Stealth, Thorpe Park’s tallest roller coaster fare any better?
Stealth opened to the public in 2006 as the UK’s fastest roller coaster, reaching the
top speed of 129kmh 80mph.
It features two trains which both seat a maximum of 20 riders.
Though, to improve operations, Stealth has a separate load and unload platform.
This means that guests leave the train after their ride, allowing for an empty train to
enter the station.
This can quickly be filled with new guests, reducing dispatch times.
The ride’s manufacturer, Intamin, claims that 1000 riders can experience Stealth every
hour - a capacity which would require a dispatch every 1 minute and 12 seconds.
We measured an average dispatch time of 1 minute and 40 seconds, resulting in a real
world capacity of 721 riders per hour, and a load factor of 72%.
A definite and welcome improvement compared to Colossus.
Similar to Stealth, Saw also employs separate load and unload platforms to increase the
capacity.
Saw: The Ride opened to guests back in 2009 as the world’s first horror film themed
roller coaster.
Unlike most roller coasters however, it features a larger number of smaller trains, each of
which hold 8 riders.
These trains are loaded and unloaded in pairs, meaning 16 riders leave the station during
a single dispatch.
A maximum of 8 cars can navigate the course at any one point in time, which the manufacturer
of the ride, Gerstlauer, claims leads to a capacity of 1000 riders per hour.
In reality, Thorpe Park often uses only 7 of the 8 trains on Saw, lowering its capacity
to roughly 900 people per hour.
To achieve this, 2 trains must be sent out of the station every 1 minute and 4 seconds,
with the 2nd train being held just after the station for approximately 30 seconds.
In reality, we measured that on average, Saw dispatched trains every 1 minute and 33 seconds.
This results in a capacity of 621, and a load factor of 69% - the same as the Swarm.
And that leaves us finally with Nemesis Inferno.
Nemesis Inferno opened in 2003 as the park’s 2nd big thrill coaster, after Colossus.
The ride utilises two trains, suspended below the track, which hold 28 riders each.
The roller coasters’ manufacturer, Bolliger and Mabillard, claim that 1150 riders can
experience Nemesis Inferno every hour.
To do this, a new train has to leave the station every 1 minute and 28 seconds.
During our visit we measured that, on average, Nemesis Inferno would dispatch a new train
every 1 minute and 47 seconds.
This leads to a real world capacity of 939 and an impressive load factor of 82%, the
highest of all 5 of Thorpe Park’s major thrill coasters.
It’s worth noting that this data was gathered all in a single day, and that the park was
extremely busy.
To recap, here are the theoretical throughputs of the park’s roller coasters, in order
of largest to smallest, based on the number of trains they were running during our visit.
Colossus has the highest capacity, at 1300, whilst Saw has the lowest, at 900.
In reality, the measured capacities were very different.
Nemesis Inferno had the largest throughput, at 939, whilst Saw had the lowest at 621.
Reshuffling the order reveals that Colossus, despite having the highest theoretical capacity,
had the second lowest real world capacity.
Combining the real world figures for all 5 roller coasters leads to a total capacity
of 3724, meaning 3724 people can experience Thorpe Park’s thrill coasters every hour
- 68% of the total theoretical capacity.
In reality, due to COVID measures, and the fact that not every train is filled to maximum
capacity, the real figure would be less.
So, does Thorpe Park have good operations?
It’s a very mixed bag.
Nemesis Inferno had good operations during our visit, whilst Colossus’s operations
were lacking.
But how does this compare to other parks?
In a previous episode we analysed Alton Towers operations.
Alton Towers’ Nemesis is the same type of roller coaster as Thorpe Park’s Nemesis
Inferno - so from an operations standpoint you’d expect the two rides to be somewhat
similar.
We know that Nemesis Inferno had a load factor of 82%, whilst Alton Towers’ Nemesis had
a load factor of 86%; two very similar scores.
Alton Towers’ Rita is also the same type of ride as Thorpe Park’s Stealth, even though
they do look very different.
However, Stealth averaged a load factor of 72%, 15% higher than Rita’s relatively poor
load factor of 57%.
Although overall, compared to Alton Towers, operations at Thorpe Park weren’t as good.
The total load factor across Alton Towers’ 7 major roller coasters was 83%, a whole 15%
higher than Thorpe Park’s total load factor.
In fact, the best operations at Thorpe Park, on Nemesis Inferno, were equal to the average
operations at Alton Towers.
So, Thorpe Park’s operations aren’t as good as Alton Towers, but they’re far from
being bad.
That marks the end of another operations analysis video.
Since the last video, several of you have gotten in touch about gathering data for your
local theme park.
If you’d like to contribute to this series, get in touch with us.
Either message us on Instagram, message us via our facebook page, or send us an email.
All three of those links can be found in the description.
Because of your help, expect the next analysis video to assess whether Liseberg, Sweden’s
most popular theme park, has good operations.
Thank you for watching, and we'll see you all next time.