Kennywood opening day 2021

Wouldn't the goal of a new control system to be so they could run more trains, not less?

You would think. But given Thunderbolt's safety record in the rain I am guessing the upgrade was done so trains wouldn't crash into one another in the station and it wasn't working out that way. Just guessing though. Like I said, this is unconfirmed. Last Friday evening it wasn't even running at 6pm.

TonyVM said:

My overall impression was, Kennywood, being landlocked, is drawing way to may people than that small park can handle. A good problem to have if you're a business though, if you know how to manage it.

If only capitalism had a mechanism for dealing with a situation where demand exceeds supply.

That place is one of the most mismanaged parks in the US. Ride closures, mass ride removals, and they are infamous at closing early.
definitely not worth the risk of spending money and time traveling there.

I would love to go just because I've never been there but it's just far enough away to warrant at least a dog sitter and maybe a hotel and with all I read about it that seems like a bit of a gamble.

Don’t let our stories scare you. Jack Rabbit, Racer, Thunderbolt, Phantom’s Revenge are exceptional. We just miss what it was and what we know it can be.

I don't think the rides themselves would be a disappointment, Jack Rabbit looks awesome I love wood coasters and I think that's a weak spot at CP. I just worry about going that far and having the park close early because of rain or other weird things like that I've heard of happening.

Stopped by on Saturday. It was busy. Steel Curtain is open with a 1 train operation, the other train was nowhere to be seen from the midway. Steel Curtain had a posted 2.5 hour wait and after timing dispatches I see why. It was taking upwards of 6 minutes for the train to come back around to the beer garden. A big part of that seems to how slowly the train crawls into the station.

Steel Phantom was closed. Thunderbolt’s queue was full due to the 1 train operation. We only had a beer and didn’t ride anything.

One thing about Kennywood that seems to be consistent is Jack Rabbit will run two trains and hustle to get them out. Sort of like how at Cedar Point you'll see 6-7 minute dispatches now on Blue Streak, Gemini and even Millennium Force - but the crew on Magnum will still hustle with three train ops to get a dispatch as soon as the previous train crests the second hill.

But one train on the track on the hot new coaster after sitting out all of 2020, a closed Phantom, and a control system that only allows one train ops on Thunderbolt - yikes.

One of the things about those "hustle" scenarios is that it seems to depend a lot on who leads a team, and how much of it are repeat employees. It seems like Magnum has for eternity had returning crew members, but not so much for other crews.

Not setting up the safeties used to be the motivator, but I think they updated the control system a few years ago to allow it to reset in station without having to send someone down to release them manually before the next train hit the top of the lift.

Perhaps that's how parks get efficient operations. Set up blocking systems that simply don't allow for stacking without a major hassle.

It works for guests, too. Continuous loading rides tend to be capacity bosses, even compared to a similar model ride (Wonder Woman, Primeval Whirl, Tony Hawk).