Attraction Source Forum

a tweet



:sus:

Please... Let's see work start this year for a 2022 coaster

You know S&S made a new coaster prototype called axis. It’s very low to the ground and very compact in design. Now where’s one place I know that has both these factors in coaster building hmmmmm.


And that’s means it could be a suspended and non suspended coaster!

Hmm, I'm a little unsure on this image. Whilst we could be seeing an application soon if SW9 is to open in 2021 (which follows the gaps between Thirteen, Smiler and Wicker), this could just be a tease. I remember at some point in 2014 seeing a similiar tweet from Towers themselves- well over a year before anything of SW8 surfaced. But here's hoping that this tease has meaning!

Yeah hope so.

Never too early to discuss. An Intumin Blitz and RMC hybrid hyper are all missing in the UK. The competition in Europe is far better than UK with Taron, Wild Fire, Shambala, Zadra, etc. Rita is perhaps holds the record for the shortest launch roller coaster ever at 25 seconds and not worth a 15 min queue.

A coaster like Taron would be amazing for AT, perhaps with a better first section. Of course, RMC would be difficult for AT and best suited for Thorpe, especially considering Wicker Man in the park.

I think with the survey stuff as well (See Future Of Rita thread), I think the start of the secret weapon process could be coming sooner than expected.

Well, assuming SW9 is scheduled for 2022, we could potentially see a planning application go in some time next year...

Hopefully yeah. If Rita is set to go, we'll get some kind of announcement, either saying it's closed for the foreseeable future and dosen't operate at all in 2020 or it'll close towards the end of the summer to prepare the site over Scarefest 2020 and Christmas 2020. This would mean we could see construction in 2021 and beginning of 2022, similar to the Wicker Man process between 2016 and 2018.

Coaster Chall wrote:Hopefully yeah. If Rita is set to go, we'll get some kind of announcement, either saying it's closed for the foreseeable future and dosen't operate at all in 2020 or it'll close towards the end of the summer to prepare the site over Scarefest 2020 and Christmas 2020. This would mean we could see construction in 2021 and beginning of 2022, similar to the Wicker Man process between 2016 and 2018.

I highly doubt Rita is going anywhere anytime soon.

Though many coaster enthusiasts hate the ride, the general public love it. Just the thought of them being launched "really fast" from 0 is still a very gimmicky experience, even though there are many other coasters that do it better. Plus, Rita is still too reliable to close down, it's only turning 15 this year...

As of where I don’t know yet, but I would love to see a Premier Rides multiple launch steel coaster (or potentially a Mack Multi-launch or an Intamin Blitz). But the sort of Möbius Loop Roller Coaster, similar to the new West Coast Racers at Six Flags Magic Mountain. It would fit perfectly in a low down environment, one restricted by tree height, and the fact it being a dueling coaster, but you get to ride both sides as it is essentially just 1 piece of track which means a longer ride time.

Where do you all think SW9 would be located? 
- Air car park, now that the car park is being expanded? I can't see this happening. The expansion seems to be for busier times of the year, so that people don't need to park on the grass. If Forbidden Valley were to get another coaster, it would feel like the area is a mini theme park  It's strange for there to be a dense area of rides and large spaces in between. 
- Another shot at a coaster to go through the valley, from Dark Forest to Forbidden Valley? This would maximise the space that Towers has. Hopefully it could be done without it affecting the beauty of the gardens. It would really put Towers back on the map, by having such a terrain coaster with HUGE drops. 
- The lawns in front of the towers? People can't imagine this happening, but Alton Towers is a theme park after all. An iconic attraction spanning over a large footprint in front of the towers, being the first attraction you see when you enter the park. Again, it could spoil the view of the towers when you enter the park, but could it work if it was a ground hugging multi-launch coaster with underground tunnels?

It seems that in order to build anything large we'd need to see something be removed first, so I'm personally hoping that we see Rita scrapped for something else, possibly another launch coaster like Taron. However, as others have said, Rita is still popular amongst the public, so there's all the chance it could be sticking around longer.

Air car park is an interesting case. I'd love to see that space used for developments of the Resort, but I'm unsure on whether it'd be doable as a theme-park expansion as it's so far away from the rest of the park. We could see the Galactica gate and possibly the Woodland Walk to link it to the existing area, but I still feel it'd be too isolated. The area will likely still be used as parking as the new tarmac in the fields are more of a "back-up" option it seems. If there was a chance for development on the existing car park then I think it'd likely be used for more accomodation or second gate activities.

Morgan wrote:It seems that in order to build anything large we'd need to see something be removed first, so I'm personally hoping that we see Rita scrapped for something else, possibly another launch coaster like Taron. However, as others have said, Rita is still popular amongst the public, so there's all the chance it could be sticking around longer.

Liseberg removed Kanonen for Valkyria, because they believed that the park lineup would be better with a dive coaster, and Kanonen was believed to be overshadowed by Helix, although it was still popular. I think towers could remove Rita and replace it with another launch coaster. Rita isn't that old either, so I assume it can be sold off to another park as well. 

Kanonen was unfortunately rough as hell, short, low capacity and generally not that great. Rita isn't much better, but works for the park still.

Morgan wrote:Air car park is an interesting case. I'd love to see that space used for developments of the Resort, but I'm unsure on whether it'd be doable as a theme-park expansion as it's so far away from the rest of the park. We could see the Galactica gate and possibly the Woodland Walk to link it to the existing area, but I still feel it'd be too isolated. The area will likely still be used as parking as the new tarmac in the fields are more of a "back-up" option it seems. If there was a chance for development on the existing car park then I think it'd likely be used for more accomodation or second gate activities.

If the station was on the old Ripsaw site, the coaster could weave around and with Galactica as it makes it's way over to the car park for the majority of the ride 

Do you think that whatever plans they had for SW9 will be pushed back due to the Coronavirus or will they still go ahead as planned (which ever year they decided)?

scruffy_ wrote:Do you think that whatever plans they had for SW9 will be pushed back due to the Coronavirus or will they still go ahead as planned (which ever year they decided)?

I fully expect that the events of this year will have an impact on the investment that Merlin put into the parks over the coming years.

Whenever SW9 was originally planned for, we probably won’t see it for a year or two after that. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say we’re looking at an opening in 2023.

2023 would work in my opinion, because Wicker Man is technically family thrill, and The Smiler is extreme thrill.

2023 is 10 years after Smiler, so that tells me it is a new thrill coaster, if 2023 does turn out to be the opening year of SW9..

From looking at this pattern, that is my theory.

At this point any kind of 'pattern' or cycle has gone completely out of the window. SW8 was late because of the Smiler incident and this pandemic will have an even bigger impact on their finances. Its completely dependent on how long parks must stay closed and whether the public has any interest in visiting public places.

That is definitely true. It won't be until like halfway/towards the end of the decade that we get some kind of a pattern back again, so I know that it'll be worth the wait.