Dar

Anything to do with the Olympics, including the rings and the name Olympia/ic, are trademarks of the IOC and they are quite aggressive with defending it. Barth seems to have got through the court system in Germany but can't/didn't want to bother in the UK for just 2 months

Best guess so far is that it's still coming, but Winter Wonderland wanted to announce it themselves!

The Vekoma looks miles better here! The Intamin seems very predictable and formulaic

Better to see the actual CCTV of the train being released and colliding with the stationary car? And the 20 seconds that the empty car spent stuck at the top of the batwing?

Just to pick up on this, not attacking you directly, but the report says the ride was put into "Evacuation mode", not maintenance mode, when the crash happened. Evac mode moves all the train back to the station, starting with the furthest away but still obeys other block rules

That's honestly almost unthinkable. How is that even possible? Lack of communication, not checking logbooks, and rushing to get it back open

There's a .zip folder at the bottom of this page http://press.hse.gov.uk/2016/alton-towers-owners-fined-over-smiler-crash/ that contains the CCTV footage and the expert witness report that details exactly what went wrong and why. Warning, it's 250 pages of the driest reading you've ever seen unless you do this for a living! Unfortunately it's been redacted to remove statements, names and other identifiable/confidential information. So appendices 1 and 2 are blank. If you watch the CCTV, you can see that the empty train was stuck at the top of the batwing for 20 seconds before rolling back into the valley. It's crazy to think that if the wind had been blowing in the opposite direction that day, none of this would have ever happened! Interesting to note that no issues were found with the operators or their working practices. (p21, pa. 48) It was 2 different engineers that weren't aware/told of the 5th train being added to the system and it was one of these that cleared the block, clearing this block is what allowed the full train to be sent under "evacuation mode", supposedly to get the riders off safely and get all the trains back into the station. (p5, pa. 10 - p7, pa. 15) He states that the ride and control system itself were robustly designed with an emphasis of "failing to safety". (p. 18, pa. 41) He wasn't happy with the training of engineers, with a lot of it being observational with little to no formal training.(p22, pa. 52) He lists the errors that lead to the crash from page 25, paragraph 54. It seems 2 engineers weren't told about the 5th train, they didn't check the log book (because there was no official procedure to compel them to), so they were unaware of the 5th train. Having seen 3 trains in the station/brakes and the 4th train at the top of the lift, the engineer was satisfied he knew where all 4 trains were and cleared the block without checking the track because he felt there was no need because he had already accounted for all the trains he was aware of. Not to mention that he was under financial pressure to get the ride back open as quick as possible, with bonuses offered for minimal downtime and clocks in the op cabin to keep track of up/downtime. All in all, a bit of a clusterf*ck.

Merlin have been fined £5 million.

They've been closed on mid-week days most of the season, it's to save money.

There was an S&S documentary that went through the development of the launch coasters of the time and this was the reason they gave, including images of the polyurethane wheels they'd tried before!

If I remember right, they had to use those because the normal polypropylene wheels in use at the time would melt and "burst" at the acceleration and speeds they were aiming for.

I prefer Iron Sheik

Europe's largest flying theatre and Europa Park's largest investment! The official name isn't going to be revealed until it actually opens next season. Official website with the launch video: http://www.project-v.eu/

Andreas Andersen from Liseberg tweeted this picture of the trains on the track: Still a bit indifferent to this as a whole, but I do like the white stripe down the side!

Investment cycles have nothing to do with "re-rideability" and everything to do with money. Ghost Train cost nearly £30 million, there's no way that's classed as anything other than a very major investment. If Ghost Train doesn't pull in as many guests as expected then we could be waiting even longer for a major investment, like the aftermath of The Swarm

I've heard the Chessington one from multiple people, apparently it was because Thorpe had looser planning restrictions so Chessington became the family park and Thorpe became the thrill-seekers one. I agree that the rest is utter nonsense!

Jesus, the past couple of pages have just been garbage. In actual, real, news Derren Brown's Ghost Train has re-opened. No idea what's happened, or why it closed in the first place but it does seem to be having some trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if it got some more attention over the close season!

According to this article in the Metro, this is the eighth incident in the past 5 years at the park. The same article also says that Tsunami had a previous incident that the Health & Safety Executive described as a "dangerous occurence", so it seems like the park could be shouldering a lot of flak for this if they haven't improved from that incident.

If it's that much of a big deal they should put a host by the test seat that pulls people out of the queue and makes them try the test seat like they did to me on Silver Star before barking "Reihe funf!" (the one with the fat boy seats) Sure you'll get some hurt feelings but surely it's better to do it before getting on the ride?

I've figured out how it could work! (please note: sarcasm. This thing is ridiculous enough as it is! )

Still don't get it! I assume it's going to be powered in some way, that s-bend at the end looks a bit sharp to be taken at any real speed?

The European Coaster Club posted a message on their Facebook page that the park are struggling to get this open for the 18th, even going so far as to ask the ECC to recommend members don't book any flights yet, just in case. They've also said that there won't be a press event because of the construction delays. Looks like they're in for plenty of long days and even longer nights getting this ready!

Ah that makes sense! Seems an odd thing to boast about but whatevs

How do they get to 3.5g on a free-fall ride? Is it launched down? Or up?

Sorry to shit on your biscuits but that one is from the first plans we saw with two gradients on the lift. This one by Nemesis94 on TowersStreet is a more up to date one based on the latest plans