Single Train Operation

I’ve seen a lot of people commenting on this in their trip reports. I understand it when the park is dead empty, but why do some parks (SFKK, SFWoA, etc.) insist on only running one train even when there is a crowd? Sure, it cuts down on some wear on the trains, and creates less work for the ride ops, but are these actually tangible benefits?

This topic has come up before, and the reasons were something along the following:

- saves on staffing
- saves on maintanence
- saves on maint. labor

I don't respect any park that doesn't add a second or third train once the line is longer than 15 or 20 minutes.

Do a search on the previous topic if you want more detailed discussions and ramblings.

HW's coasters only have 1 train. It is amazing, I have never gotten a re-ride on a coaste w/ only 1 train.

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©Bruce's P:)sting Co.

If a park is gonna pay a ride op the same wheather there is one train or three! They might as well get there monies worth!

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Steel top 5
1.S:TE
2.Stelth
3.B:TR
4. Riddler's Revenge
5. Goliath

We ************ to a ride-op about there only being one coaster and wondering when they were going to add the second train (even though we were next to ride the ride... fact is fact... why there was one running)... the ride op said that the line/wait wasn't long enough to warrent a 2nd train. The line wait for a single train was nearing 20 minutes!

That's plenty reason to pop in the 2nd train. It's a Vekoma SLC... how much worse can it get with a 2nd train running? Well, it appears that the line has to get much longer before the 2nd one is added... because an hour later, they finally put it on.

The thing is... it takes an additional 10 minutes to put the 2nd train on. That additional ten minutes where the line moves nowhere just adds more and more people to the line making it a longer wait.

In the morning for most half-way popular parks and above (ie: SFNE, SFDL as half-way popular vs. Cedar Point & SFMM as more popular)... why not just START off with two trains??

C'mon, you know it's going to get crowded enough to warrent the second one, so why not get an early start at it??

It baffles me sometimes. You can get such easy walk-ons in the morning if they ran two trains when they know they are going to in the first place!!!

I guess ride-ops don't care about your ride records... just doing what they're told to do!

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The Great Escape... Soon to become Six Flags Adirondack Escape!!!

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*** This post was edited by Jeff on 6/19/2001. ***

And what were you trying to achieve by yelling at the rid op.? You think it's the op.'s decision to run 1 train?

OK, so you add the second train and the wait goes from twenty minutes to almost nil. What will happen is they won't have enough of a line to load one train consistently,let alone two.Running two half full trains instead of one full train is not good economics.So they switch the second train out untill the line builds back up again. SOP is to wait untill you have a reletively full que and then add the second train.

See GEMINI. 6 train operation, 24 second loading and its a walk on almost every time! Half the time they send out half full trains. They could cut it down to one or two and sure, the line would be about 20 minute's which other parks would actually allow. Cedar Point sure is doing crappy for allowing some wheels to wear and putting a couple more operators on the platform.

I thought the idea was you don't want people in line! How are they going to buy food or drink, play games and purchase souvenirs if they are standing in a line which is more than double because a park is saving a train?

If I am at a park, I pay to get in and I expect to be served. One trains operations are for shuttle coasters.

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I rode Gemini 100 times in 12 hours.

I asked a ride op on Batman: Kinght Flight at SFWOA why there was only one train when the line was one hour long. She said if the line gets over 2 hours they'd put another train on. SFWOA is so under staffed it's almost impossible to get value for money on a days admission. Not only that, but three coasters were closed that day, so they should have put the extra staff on Batman and Villain and run 2 trains. "Don't tell me how to run my park" was what the promotions manager told me.

I went to PKI the day before SFWOA and they were running 2/3 trains on all coasters. Nearly all coasters were walk-ons except for the front.

SFWOA can put in 100 coasters - until they improve staffing and customer service it will always suck!

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100 different coasters ridden in 16 days! *** This post was edited by Grant on 6/19/2001. ***

I was dissapointed that X was only running one train on a crowded day. I'm sure the park has a reasonable explanation for this because from what I've heard they are short on Ride-op's and mechanics.

While I was at VisionLand Saturday tey put the blue train on Rampage around 1 because lines were LONG, but they ran it EMPTY most of the day(even though they had 4 people checking restraints and one operating and one checki heights,etc.). The only time they ran it full was when the line got short or when people complained because of the wait. Stupid, huh?

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Visit my VisionLand and SFOG site at: www.geocities.com/six_flags2002
*** This post was edited by rampagelover on 6/19/2001. ***

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Kevin said:
"I was dissapointed that X was only running one train on a crowded day."

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I sure hope u mean X-Flight because if you did get a ride on X right now...it would be a very short, and very painful one.

Well at most parks you need 2 operators at a ride. Running one train is the same as running 2 in that scenario as you still need the same amount of people for 1 train as you do for 2 trains. It differs from park to park.

Try running Shockwave with 3 trains with 3 ops. Talk about hauling.

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BMCOASTER

bmcoaster@wi.rr.com

i was at dorney park there second weekend in operation in 01 and they where very poor on dealing with the crowdes and that was the most crowded i seen dorney park in my time of going there. they had only one train on both herculies and thunderhauk and if there was 5pairs of riders for one row of seats for both rides the line was 15mins or so and it wasent conveinet at all other wise i would have had alot more at dorney park. as for the other rides they still had lines 15 mins or more becuase dorney dident seem to be so firminluar with that much crowdes the line for talon was about 20mins maybe 30 later on in the day but if that was cedar point or SFGadv or any other popular park thats good with capity control for rides the line would have been less then 15 or 10 mins. i love dorney park but they need to fix the capity porplems for its rides.

Well according to SFGL, they only run two trains "on weekends when its really crowded".

To me they are saying "we are lazy bums"

Give me a break, they ran all trains at The Point except two on Mantis on a WEDNESDAY.

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At SFGAm, they usually start off with the full amount of trains. At least I think they do because I always remembered that Raging Bull had all 3 trains on the track on the count the line is an hour in the first 20 minutes of opeining.

SFMM wasnt that crowded this past friday and they had full trains on all rides except Colossus (all three but only one side open),Viper (two train op, but no line at all) and same with Ninja due to no line.

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"ok everyone go ahead and pull down on your shoulder restraint so you feel nice and stuck!"

Is there anything more annoying than a racing coaster that is not being raced???

I went to SFKK SFDL SFNE and SFWOA all within two weeks. Not one of those parks had more than one train operating on any of their coasters. I take that back X-Flight had 2 of the three working. That is it! I thought it was just a six flags thing. I would think that you would want to get people on and off the rides as quick as possible so that they are not standing around doing nothing when they could be in the shops or at concession stands buying things.

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kip099 said:
"Is there anything more annoying than a racing coaster that is not being raced???"

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A Park with lots of good coasters and not enough people to run them????

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