New GM takes over at Lake Compounce

Congratulations to Mr Brick. I don't see this changing much in the way of operations in the park, which is a very good thing.

One unanswered question (or perhaps it was answered previously...)

What is Tom Wages going to do? Moving up? Moving on? Retiring? From the article it sounds obvious that he is moving away, but it didn't say where...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Hopefully this won't change much in the way the park is run, The Lake is one of my favorite parks out there. However, if there is one thing I'd like to see change, it would be more 2-train operation on Boulder Dash. In the past 3 years, in about 12 visits to the park, I have only seen 2-train operation once. Now granted, I've still never seen a very long line, but I have definately waited 10-20 mins at times (longer for the front row), when the wait could have been cut in half with a second train. The only excuse I've ever gotten from management at the park is they do not add on the second train until the line has reached the other side of the bridge, in my opinion that should change to once the station is full.

Still love the park, though, and still will continue to be a season pass holder, just my little pet peeve. Congrats to the new GM, and keep the free soda! =)

10-20 mins is not a long wait.

It is if your hair is on fire and you're waiting for a bucket of water, Moosh.

Otherwise, though, I agree.

LOL kpjb...true dat ;)

I agree 10-20 mins is not a long wait, thats why I said it was my little pet peeve, but it's always been in my opinion that if a second, third train, etc is available, then it should be in use. I'd expect the one train op from big corporate parks, but when Lake Compounce is supposed to be all about guest satisfaction, why keep people waiting in line when they can be doing other things (riding other rides, eating, playing games, buying merchandise, putting their money into the Lake's pocket). I've encountered a decent amount of groups who seemed to share my peeve when we're all in line together for 20 minutes, knowing that it could easily be 10.

This season I got about 20 rides or so on Boulder Dash, it coulda been 40. You take the 600,000 people or so who visited the park this year, and had the park been running 2 trains everyday, that would be a significant amount of more rides for guests, and more time for them to enjoy the rest of the beautiful park. There's got to be a reason why Holiday World is adding a second train to the Raven next year....

Will I catch Kennywood on a day that has two Phantom trains running? ;)

I had read some place that Tom was leaving for "personal reasons" and that it had nothing to do with his relationship with KWE. As far as the operation of a second coaster train, from my experience the second train is for back up, to insure the continious operation of the coaster in the event a problem develops with the primary train. Depending upon operating policy it can be brought into service in addition to the primary if conditions warrent it. Just because it's there and the ride is capable of running multiple trains doesn't mean that added wear and tear justifies it. True the addition of the second train may reduce the que line to almost nothing, but when you start repeatedly dispatching multiple trains that are not full you're not running the ride efficiently. The que acts like a regulator, insuring a steady flow of riders filling the train to capacity. If the wait is a consistent ten to twenty minutes then the ride is running efficiently.

Guess you will just have to drink the free soda while waiting 10-20 mins.....lol I'll take the 10-20 min wait anyday if it means saving $3-4 for every drink throughout a day!