Six Flags Magic Mountain's X has a long history of problems

Posted | Contributed by Jason Hammond

For riders, experiencing X can mean more than four hours in line. For Magic Mountain at Six Flags California, the ride's complexity has meant cost overruns, legal battles and engineering nightmares as wild as the head-over-heels roller coaster. In a high-stakes competition over which of the world's parks has the most thrilling coasters, Magic Mountain's experience with X shows the pitfalls of relying on the latest in coaster technology.

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Six Flags Magic Mountain

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I doubt the stats as well, but I'm sure the thing must have gone far over budget and must have had a rediculous upkeep/reworking budget thusfar.

I think I remember the original cost at around $14 million (if I'm remembering correctly).

Around the time X opened, I remember reading an article online where the price tag was given at about $14 million and had a quote from then-Arrow-CEO Fred Bolingbroke saying that it had twice the amount of steel that Goliath had. Unfortunately Google is not giving up the goods right now...

That set a few red flags off in my head given that Goliath's price tag was about the same....

RCDB lists Eejanaika's price at $31 million.

OK, so it's not quite a straight apples-to-apples comparison because you have Swiss and Japanese foreign exchange rates working against Goliath and Eejanaika's costs. Look at what the latter, plus earthquake codes, did to Steel Dragon 2000's costs -- $50 million?

Anyway, the $7M figure is clearly bogus.

Not all new technology has problems. Look at three B&M coasters in particular. Batman the Ride, Medusa, and the Incredible Hulk. All three used never before seen technology, and they are just fine.

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