Single Rider Lines

[Stealth1]

I have noticed that a lot of parks don't have single rider lines. I was wondering why that's the case? I go to parks alone a lot or if I do have some one coming with me they usually don't ride a lot of the coasters. I have noticed a lot of times empty seats on different coasters cause of single riders. Wouldn't be beneficial to send a full train every time?

[RaceBoarder]

It is beneficial to capacity, but you also create problems with the GP... Mainly, they gripe and moan about people "cutting in line"... From there, you also have to monitor abuse of the line as well...

[Imiha]

In Italy (Gardaland and Mirabilandia) someone usually yells "uno" or "due" (you can see the screen with how many seats are left) in the line and the first single or double rider gets to skip the line. It's actually pretty good, it's fast, no one complains and if there are no single seats left you just wait like normal.

[michaellynn4]

Wouldn't be beneficial to send a full train every time?

 

In most cases, no. You could end up adding time for each dispatch that would end up reducing the number of trains you could pump through each hour.

[Whodey]

^i disagree. Kings Island had a single line on Diamondback before converting it to Fast Lane line. When they assigned seats and there was an opening they grabbed a single rider. This does not slow loading the train. This fills the que in front of every seat. The ride op still check the restraint wether the seat has a person in it or not. Let's go with your theory that it slows down dispatch. If so maybe two trains an hour? What is the lost capacity vs how many empty seats go out in an hour? if you average 1 open seat on every train that would be filled with the single rider it would negate the loss of two trains an hour.

[Blind Idiot God]

Six Flags New England has shortened or eliminated several of them because of groups abusing them and multiple instances of altercations between people using or abusing the lines and staff and/or guests that very nearly got violent. Sometimes it was just guests who thought that they were cutting and decided to verbally abuse and threaten people using the lines, other times it was groups who were abusing the lines who became belligerent when told to leave by staff.

[Stealth1]

I think a lot of those altercations stem from a lot of teens hanging out at parks now. You never see that happening as much with people using fast pass. If parks don't want to use single rider lines why don't they ask for single riders more often then. I was at Cedar Point last week and a couple of times on Dragster they asked for single riders but most times they don't. Its not like it slows operations down a lot cause by the time people put there stuff in the bin they can easily get another rider in an empty seat.

[Blind Idiot God]

I guess it depends on the park. SFNE is within a stone's throw of Springfield, Hartford, Holyoke, and Chicopee, all of which are very rough cities with gang problems, and it does lead to poorly-behaved and occasionally aggressive and belligerent crowds. I can distinctly recall someone using the single rider line on Bizarro a couple years back and being verbally accosted by a couple of gangbangers who thought that he was cutting; when he made the (very ill-advised) decision to flip them off and keep moving, they started loudly threatening him and throwing gang signs and the attendant very nearly had to call security (I did see another attendant talking them down, so I guess that it was a case of disaster averted).

[ajfelice]

If the whole point of a single rider line is to fill seats that would have been otherwise left empty, how is there potential for abuse? Sure a ride operator could group members of the same group together in the same rows, which is an intentional violation of policy, but that is probably a very rare case that might only happen when a ride operator knows the guests. If a group of four decides they do not have to sit together or have a preferred row and they get into the single rider line and are assigned to unoccupied seats, where is the abuse?

 

If groups choosing the single rider line create a long line for single riders and the line becomes longer than standby, quite frankly that is the guests' own fault. However, a park should be very keen on when opening a single rider line is most adventageous to avoid this issue. Most groups are also not even going to think of doing this as the general thought is, "OMFG if our group of 12 doesn't all ride at the same time we are going to die."

 

Groups I have been with at busy parks on limited time have used the single rider lines as a group. It cut down waits substantially, and we were just fine not all riding together since we all got to experience the attractions we wanted to in our very limited time. Since we were willing to ride not all together, I would define us as a group of single riders.

[Ridewatchers]

Six Flags Magic Mountain opened up a new coaster called Twisted Colossus. There is a SR line, but they are not using it yet (why?) Earlier posts said that this could increase occupancy (at the expense of rph), but "TC" has a grouper that assigns seats. They set up the ride in a way that the SR, ADA, and fast pass lines fan in to the stanchions adjacent to the gates. This means that they can grab singles and assign them to rows without slowing down load times. So a good grouper plus SR could _increase_ rph, which is good news for all of us.

[Canobie Coaster]

I love single rider lines and think they often aren't used since a lot of coasters just have people pour into the station. It would require an extra staff member to grab the single riders or the ride attendants who are busy loading the train need to grab these riders which would impact dispatch times. Any ride with a grouper should have a single rider line in my opinion.

[RaceBoarder]

If the whole point of a single rider line is to fill seats that would have been otherwise left empty, how is there potential for abuse? Sure a ride operator could group members of the same group together in the same rows, which is an intentional violation of policy, but that is probably a very rare case that might only happen when a ride operator knows the guests. If a group of four decides they do not have to sit together or have a preferred row and they get into the single rider line and are assigned to unoccupied seats, where is the abuse?

 

If groups choosing the single rider line create a long line for single riders and the line becomes longer than standby, quite frankly that is the guests' own fault. However, a park should be very keen on when opening a single rider line is most adventageous to avoid this issue. Most groups are also not even going to think of doing this as the general thought is, "OMFG if our group of 12 doesn't all ride at the same time we are going to die."

 

Groups I have been with at busy parks on limited time have used the single rider lines as a group. It cut down waits substantially, and we were just fine not all riding together since we all got to experience the attractions we wanted to in our very limited time. Since we were willing to ride not all together, I would define us as a group of single riders.

Perfect example of abuse would be SFGAm's use of a single rider line on Raging Bull... You would walk up the Flash Pass lane and tell the Flash Pass person you were a single... They then let you merge with the regular line at that point...

 

You could have 3-4+ people walk up, claim to be single riders, and bypass 90% of the line... after the merge, you were just another person in line... You could reform the group and go about your business...

[ejot]

^ But that's not a proper single rider line, that's just an asinine policy of granting single riders a free Flash Pass for the ride. Which: (a) doesn't fulfill the purpose of filling in seats that would otherwise remain empty, and (b) would justifiably anger other waiting guests. It *really is* just allowing people to cut for no particular reason. Six Flags being Six Flags, in other words.

 

In the more reasonable, traditional implementation of SRL, IE a separate queue going all the way to the boarding point, with an operator grabbing from it to fill in seats that are left empty by the general queueing/boarding, I agree with ajfelice completely. A group using the lane is abusing nothing. They're giving up seat preference and any chance of riding together in exchange for the benefits of using the lane.

 

Expanding on this, I actually find the term "single rider line" itself to paint the wrong picture. It should be something like "empty seat fill-in line" (I'm sure something more eloquent could be imagined). Then clearly state the terms: By using this line, you give up seat preference and grouping preference. Long as you agree to those conditions, anyone can, and should be, allowed to use it. This should minimize other guests feeling like they're being cut, if they clearly understand their opportunity to use it themselves, should they wish to agree to the terms.

 

This would actually be a very interesting scholarly analysis with properly controlled variables, etc. Can an SRL actually increase throughput in practical use, and is it a positive ROI practice? Either parks have done this, and it's not profitable, or they're lazy/presumptive. I do suspect the latter.