Th13teen - Ride discussion

[Ash84]

Hope its fixed soon, I was praising thirteen for its lack-of-stoppages on my first visit on Wed.

Ash

[bobblebob]

Seems at the moment its down more than its up

[Vik]

Despite testing it didn't re-open. I think now the ride does need to be closed for a few days whilst it is quiet and these issues sorted out. It is just not acceptable for the ride to continue operating as it is with constant breakdowns and lengthy closures throughout the day.

This morning between opening at 10 and 11.30 the ride had stopped about 5 times due to problems with the drop.

[Ash84]

Please keep us posted, I'm planning a visit on Wed


Ash

[bobblebob]

[quote=""Vik""]Despite testing it didn't re-open. I think now the ride does need to be closed for a few days whilst it is quiet and these issues sorted out. It is just not acceptable for the ride to continue operating as it is with constant breakdowns and lengthy closures throughout the day.

This morning between opening at 10 and 11.30 the ride had stopped about 5 times due to problems with the drop.[/quote]

Agree. Its not fair on the people who que for anything up to an hour, just to find the ride breaks when they get near the entrance.

At least stick some of the wraths in the que line to keep people entertained

[danny13]

I agree with Vik. If they think they will be able to fix the ride within a week were it is quiet such as termtime then they should. They could easily advertise on their website that th13teen will be closed for those days. Would solve a lot of problems and give the staff and customer services a rest!

[James6]

In long term, I also feel that would be the best option, it can't really carry on like at present.

[bobblebob]

Assuming there is a fix? Or is it a case of the technology of the ride and the stress on the parts is just too much for it to handle 7 hours a day, 7 days a week?

[bradpeet]

[quote=""bobblebob""]Assuming there is a fix? Or is it a case of the technology of the ride and the stress on the parts is just too much for it to handle 7 hours a day, 7 days a week?[/quote]

Now there is a thought.

Maybe (at least as an interim measure) Th13teen needs to be made a part time attraction - opening at (say) 2pm. Not ideal of course - but surely a good compromise if there is a fundamental problem which needs a lot of research to come up with a fix. Although to make that decision so soon would be rather surprising.

[chrismci]

On the way home we were talking about shutting the ride for a week or even a couple of weeks now before they hit peak season. We're at AT around once a month, my brother and sister-in-law haven't been for 8 years, so had Air, Rita and Spinball as "new" rides. They weren't too hacked off not to get on Th13teen, but if it had been their only new ride I think we would have been in the queue for the morning breakdowns and the day would have been disappointing.

I don't see how it can be a good commercial sense to continue running a ride that is breaking down this frequently. But this does assume there is a fix that can be applied, I do hope there's testing going on out of hours and Intamin haven't been let off the hook yet. If there isn't a fix available yet they just need to keep running as best they can, ideally they need to manage customer expectations and stick a sign at the entrance warning that there's a good chance of it breaking in the 90 minutes you're waiting. Would that be too much honesty?

On a positive, the staff evacuating the train on the second lift hill looked well drilled...

[Kaz]

I don't think this is so much a mechanical problem, more so a software issue. The chances are they need to re-write some of the computer program that runs the ride as to gain more flexibility in terms of the ride making self-adjustments according to variable parameters.

[Jon]

When listening to the John Wardley interview, his emphasis on the whole ride being sleek and without stopping was clear. Although much of this gives a faster throughput, making the design so quick-paced has left a minimal room for error. The demand of the ride means it was designed not to stop much on the second lift hill, it is used more as a bit of support to ensure it keeps going fairly fast. It is exactly this which has created the problem.

The adding of magnetic trims, the reducing of capaity, these are short-term stabs that are trying to fix the long term problem and gradually reducing the ride to something really quite unreliable and minimally exciting when it is. I'd say, insert a proper break run before the second lift, let the ride stop and start again then you know for definite what speed it will enter the station at. You can get rid of the trims and be left with a reliable ride with great throughput.

[Dylan]

I agree with the above comments, that its about time they set some dates to close the ride down for an extended period to try and get these problems fixed. Whilst I am fully aware that all new rides have 'teething problems', I think the issues that Th13teen is experiencing is slightly more than that. I was at AT all weekend, (yesterday with friends and family who are generally once a year visitors) and we never managed to get on Th13teen once. Arrived at the Dark Forest by 10, and it didn't open, we came back later to find it running, for it to break down with a lift hill and queue line evac. Towards then end of the day we noticed it was back up and running with an hour queue, so we headed into the full queueline, to have it breakdown again 5 mins later.

I didn't even bother with it today.

[Vik]

At least now the whole ride does not have to be evacuated just to start the train on the second lift hill now. The problem does appear to be the drop not working properly, then the train behind stops of the lift hill.

Engineers were running back and forth between the station and the Drop area everytime the ride stopped. The first break down, the people who were on the train which had the failed drop were offered a re-ride. When they got back on a few trains later, it failed again with the same riders.

The staff just all seem to sigh at the same time 'Oh god, not again '. On the plus side, this time they kept us informed and were very polite, which was much better than previous occasions, and with the second lift hill being able to be re-started now, breakdowns lasted about 5-10 minutes. Only trouble is, it was breaking down every 5 - 10 minutes as well, before finally giving up all together around 2pm ish.

This was also spotted on the kiosks at Park Entrance on the way out :-



Though this was probably in reference to the issues over the last couple of days.

[garyh]

Thirteen definately is proving to be unlucky for Alton Towers doesnt it. I am totally stunned that these problems were not detected when Intamin were building and testing the ride. I worry that perhaps AT have made a right mess up with installing this ride, and the big question is of course, what do they do about it now.

They cannot change the track, that would involve closing the ride for months, planning permission, extra cost, design, engineering costs etc. Not possible.

Slowing the cars down more may be another option, but then the ride loses the speed and appeal. The trim brakes on the ride have already completely spoiled the ride. Will this mean putting permanent weights on the cars., changing the bearing and wheels to slower ones etc. but then slowing it down now hasnt fixed the problems.

So in short I think AT are going to have a real headache over this one. With Air the problem with the breakdowns was computers and sensors, with 13, it seems to actually be the design of the ride, which is somewhat worrying.

I cant recall other SW rides having such problems or downtime, sure Air had its fair share, but this seems to be down every day. This is going to be a huge embarrisment for AT if they dont have their new ride they have been heavily advertising up and running for peak season, which starts end of next month.

Given the hype, the advertising, and the general consenus from the public that this ride is nothing more than average, and now this down time, this ride is proving to be nothing but a let down for AT.

[Islander]

[quote=""garyh""]...and the general consenus from the public that this ride is nothing more than average...[/quote]
Whoa there, you're going to have to back up such a sweeping statement - it certainly doesn't agree with the general feeling on this forum. I would hazard a guess that actually the general public are impressed with the ride, along with many, many enthusiasts. It's only really those that were expecting a successor to Nemesis that seem to be disappointed.

That aside, I agree with the bulk of your post. It does appear that Thirteen is being a tad too unreliable...

(I feel so, so lucky that I didn't notice any downtime at all during my two days at AT last week...)

[Vik]

To be fair though, most people outside of, shall we say, the enthusiasts community, who have commented on Thirteen to me have said it was 'OK' at best. They enjoyed the drop and the backwards bit was good, but the coaster section was boring and to slow.

Were they expecting the next Nemesis? No, but they were expecting something a hell of a lot better than they experienced, given it was advertised as being the Ultimate coaster, amongst others.

A colleague from work was also on park yesterday, and taking my advice joined the queue at 10am. Though joining a little bit late, at around 10.15, he commented on how many times it broke down. Twice when he was in the station, plus another 4 times whilst in the outside queue.

He suggests that it was a waste of a 90 minute wait, though 30 minutes of that were because of breakdowns, as it was nothing better than average. If it wasn't for the drop and the backwards section it would be no better than the Mine Train.

In fact if anybody asks me what it is like and is it worth a visit, I'm very vague in my comments. Whilst I like the ride myself, I don't want to encourage people to travel some distance to end up disappointed at either a ride which they think isn't very good or that they queue for 90 minutes only for it to breakdown.

I notice now that guests are being issued with Thirteen exit passes. Quite a few people had them yesterday afternoon. Glad to see those people waiting along time only for the ride to close are at least getting something to compensate rather than the previous 'Nobody is getting any exit passes if you have a problem with that, go and complain at guest services'

[PeteB]

This whole situation is out of hand at the park. I dont understand how the ride worked almost flawlessly within its first 3 days of opening.

I blame the whole thing on Intamin. They really do build truely CRAP rides. Give me a Mack, Vekoma or B&M any day and this would never had happened.

[John]

I was concerned right from the off - putting the words "world's first" and 'Intamin' together never seemed like a good idea.

I will however commend AT on trying to run the ride with the highest possible capacity even with all the issues. Loading each train differently is much less practical than closing off the back few rows for all trains so its great to see them making the effort

[rightbackgranty]

Any news on whether 13 is open today? Heading to Towers tomorrow, and worried that I wont be able to get a ride!