Six Flags Magic Mountain new rides

I have a bad feeling that the new trains aren't going to help with regards to smoothness. The Japanese version is a 2 minute punch in the face and is far worse that X has ever been. The new trains are lighter, which is good for track health but it seems to increase the amount of ass whooping that riders experience.

Photo of Stan Checketts being interviewed in X2 Train car.

http://coastercrew.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10004/normal_iaapa_day_3_011.JPG

Interveiw will be in day three podcast that will be put up later tonight. Days one and two already posted.

^ so... how does the AUDIOVISUAL NEW DIMENSION work on X2?

I don't see any speakers........ . . . .

:)

(edit)
P.S.: I looked at some POVs of Eejanaika on youtube such as this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qRs4-iRdCzk&mode=related&search=
and from the reaction of the riders it was no way as rough as my recent experience on X -
each time I came back into the station, I heard no one laughing at all, but a lot of people moaning about how rough it was.
So, I'm not giving up hope yet that new trains will give X a better ride.

*** Edited 11/18/2007 9:16:03 AM UTC by superman***

You're using a POV to determine a rides roughness?

I also hope that the new trains can add a little more smoothness to X. We'll just have to wait and see.

Ok, as someone who hasn't been to SFMM since 2001 - this is all I can think of.

If they are spending alot of money on buying new trains for X - why not make 'something' of it. Why spend all that money on improvements and not make the public aware of it?

It makes perfect sense.

The announcement made the papers here in LA but why spend the money on commercials now? Better to do so when the ride reopens.

The thing they still didn't fix with these new trains is the fact that your back of your leg gets banged on the ride, and the seat looks the same. They need a cushion in the back of people's leg area.

^ Take a closer look again, and compare the old seats with the new ones. The actual seat builds are different. Gone are the the extended bottom of the seats where riders would generally have their calves smashed against the car.

I never experienced this "leg banging" on X before though. Must only be an issue with people with weak legs.

I have to agree, the leg banging was one of the worst aspects for me.
On the next day, my subtle headache had disappeared, but the back of my legs still hurt from riding X the day before.

I never before thougt about having 'weak legs' - but I am a pretty tall person, which probably doesn't help in this case.

BTW... since the color scheme for X2 looks different - are they really going to repaint the whole thing?
I actually liked X's color scheme - it must be an infinte amount of paint... wow.

QQ Here: May be stupid... May be Not... But is the low capacity because of the time it takes to load people into the trains or because the track cannot handle more trains at one time....

Why not make an improvement and build another loading/unloading station into the mix?

--Jay

^ The low capacity is due mainly to the time required to load riders/unload riders.

If you haven't ridden X personally, you really have no idea how painstakingly slow it is, even if the ride ops are working quickly.

The ride averages a load time (time it takes when the airgates open to when the train begins leaving the station) of approximately 5 minutes per train, even with ride hosts rushing around checking harnesses.

And to answer your last question, they are completely gutting out the old station platform and reconfiguring it -- in hopes to speed up the load/unload process.

The problem is that it loads, and than unloads in two different positions. The same people that load the ride, unload the ride. They run from one position to the other other. If you are going to have an unload, and loading position, you need separate workers for each. Having loose articles on this ride is also a major problem. People will go where they got off, and throw there stuff over there. That was two years ago though when I went.

*** Edited 11/19/2007 8:26:28 PM UTC by Spinout***

^ The ride having a separate load and unload area is not the root of the problem, it's actually there because of the "main issue."

The main issue being the time consumed waiting for the seats to pivot from a reclining position to the upright loading position -- then loading passengers, adjusting the restraints, and then waiting for the seats to pivot from the upright position to a reclining position before dispatch.

Because of the amount of time it takes to dispatch a train, Arrow decided rather than let guests in the other trains stack behind a loading train, they would just create an additional block section where they could let riders off -- where the empty train would then advance forward when the train before it disembarks from the station.

With the complete redesign of the loading areas, dropping steel platforms (ala Eejanaika) would easily shave minutes off the loading time from the current setup. It is my understanding that the separate load and unload block setup will still be intact after the refurbishment.