Throughput Timings Thread

[Bowser]

Furius Baco is on a 3 minute dispatch interval (for a ride that lasts under a minute) this morning. This is why the queues get so large at this park.

I've almost seen better dispatch interval on The Ultimate with one train ops!

Edit: 4.40 for the last dispatch interval. That is not a typo.

Yeah i saw how bad it was on the last ThemePark Worldwide blog. Normal queue time was over 2 hours and fastpass queue was about 5 minutes

 

[Tonkso]

Coming back to this, we just rode again in the evening and they were pulling 60 second dispatches easily, and there was a manager in the control booth watching. Amazing how quick the queue processes when dispatch is good.

 

[oriolat2]

I've done the maths now in the nerdy spirit of this thread. 480pph, for a ride with a capacity of 1500.

I hope Universal do buy this place back and overhaul the ops. Shambhala even has a target countdown clock that gets ignored, until it's an hour before home time.

The 1,500 pph figure was never achieved, as that was the targeted capacity running all 3 trains, which was done in its first season for a few days before it was deemed too costly.

The problems with ops are so engrained within PA structure that I am afraid it would take more than Universal to fix them. Everyone managing the park which have been responsible for such bad practices over the years should be fired right away.

 

[Tonkso]

They were pushing 60 seconds in the event though, and whilst I know coasters rarely pull their theoretical capacity, it must have been running at over 1000pph at that point compared to ~400 in the morning. It can be done.

 

[Bowser]

They were pushing 60 seconds in the event though, and whilst I know coasters rarely pull their theoretical capacity, it must have been running at over 1000pph at that point compared to ~400 in the morning. It can be done.

Again the cynic in me would suggest they're not going to sell more fastpasses at the end of the day but people are more likely to leave satisfied if their final memory is positive.

 

[oriolat2]

Again the cynic in me would suggest they're not going to sell more fastpasses at the end of the day but people are more likely to leave satisfied if their final memory is positive.

That's the logic everyone thinks the park should follow, yet they are convinced that milking their guests dry will be better in the long run. What's sad is that people, no matter how bad the experience, are likely to come back for their yearly local theme park fix because they will tend to think it was bad luck or they caught the park on a bad day. Management is well aware of this and is not going to change their business model to enhance guest experience at the expense of not making a quick buck.

 

[Matt N]

For anyone who's interested, I managed to time various ride throughputs on my visits to Alton Towers yesterday and today. The throughput readings I managed to attain are as follows:

• Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 871pph (3 trains/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 10)
• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 1,301pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8)
• Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 1,146pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 7)
• Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 394pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 5), 357pph (1 train, 24th March 2024, average of 8)
• Runaway Mine Train (Theoretical: 1,061pph on 1 train): 473pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 4) Note: The back car was missing, so the 473pph figure, which assumed a full train of 46, would have been more like 432pph in reality due to the train actually only carrying 42 riders as opposed to the usual 46. The average dispatch interval was 5m 49s, for reference.
• Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains): 829pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8), 770pph (2 trains, 24th March 2024, average of 8)

I also have a few other side observations and insights to offer:

• Operations on Nemesis Reborn were noticeably slower today than they were yesterday. Yesterday's operations, listed above, saw dispatch intervals of 90s or less and little to no stacking, with a train often being dispatched as the one in front of it was still completing the course. Today, however, dispatch intervals of no faster than 2 minutes were being attained and stacking was routine. I'm not sure what the difference was, but today's operations were notably slower. I was unable to get a proper timing, but a brief attempt I made at timing saw a dispatch interval of over 2 minutes being attained, and I'd say that this was quite par for the course for the time I was in the queue. Pretty much every train I saw stacked outside the station for a notable period. For some perspective, I waited 60 minutes from the gun for my ride yesterday, while I queued 50 minutes from a little before the Phalanx shipping container lab for my ride today.
• The Smiler looked as though it might have been running 4 trains today, but I wasn't sure. I say this because the ride was often attaining perfect duelling, which I wouldn't imagine is possible on only 3 trains!
• I noticed that the intervals on Galactica appeared to be pretty inconsistent when I was doing the timing above. The intervals appeared to range between 80s and over 3 minutes!

 

[VonRolland]

For anyone who's interested, I managed to time various ride throughputs on my visits to Alton Towers yesterday and today. The throughput readings I managed to attain are as follows:

• Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 871pph (3 trains/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 10)
• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 1,301pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8)
• Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 1,146pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 7)
• Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 394pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 5), 357pph (1 train, 24th March 2024, average of 8)
• Runaway Mine Train (Theoretical: 1,061pph on 1 train): 473pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 4) Note: The back car was missing, so the 473pph figure, which assumed a full train of 46, would have been more like 432pph in reality due to the train actually only carrying 42 riders as opposed to the usual 46. The average dispatch interval was 5m 49s, for reference.
• Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains): 829pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8), 770pph (2 trains, 24th March 2024, average of 8)

I also have a few other side observations and insights to offer:

• Operations on Nemesis Reborn were noticeably slower today than they were yesterday. Yesterday's operations, listed above, saw dispatch intervals of 90s or less and little to no stacking, with a train often being dispatched as the one in front of it was still completing the course. Today, however, dispatch intervals of no faster than 2 minutes were being attained and stacking was routine. I'm not sure what the difference was, but today's operations were notably slower. I was unable to get a proper timing, but a brief attempt I made at timing saw a dispatch interval of over 2 minutes being attained, and I'd say that this was quite par for the course for the time I was in the queue. Pretty much every train I saw stacked outside the station for a notable period. For some perspective, I waited 60 minutes from the gun for my ride yesterday, while I queued 50 minutes from a little before the Phalanx shipping container lab for my ride today.
• The Smiler looked as though it might have been running 4 trains today, but I wasn't sure. I say this because the ride was often attaining perfect duelling, which I wouldn't imagine is possible on only 3 trains!
• I noticed that the intervals on Galactica appeared to be pretty inconsistent when I was doing the timing above. The intervals appeared to range between 80s and over 3 minutes!

Theoretical maximum throughputs are almost always never achievable sadly unless your park resides in Rust...
Galactica is an absolute arse ache to get high numbers on, seats out of use, people faffing on offload, not having bay loaders, leg flaps not closing fully, locking pins being stiff or needing rechecks not to mention having to bringing crafts up & down with rechecks. We with a cracking team rarely got over 1000pph sadly
Nemesis was a breeze usually no comments
RMT never exceeded 600pph in my time, that's with all the carriages attached btw. Major issue that slows it down is the exit turnstile, kids,, bags and teddies get caught and slows everyone down, on quiet days we'd use the RAP gate to expel everyone, so much quicker

Unfortunately it all comes down to Towers listening to the staff and aiding them, for 3/4 seasons we would contribute ideas that would've increased throughputs but if it involved finances that was the end of the convo. Extra staff on galactica, exit airgate on RMT along with other suggestions all shot down. Shame but alas

 

[Matt N]

Theoretical maximum throughputs are almost always never achievable sadly unless your park resides in Rust...

I’m not sure that’s necessarily true. Even at Alton Towers, I’ve often seen Wicker Man exceed its theoretical figure on 3 trains, and Nemesis got pretty close to it on my one reading on Saturday. And I’m sure that plenty of other parks with decent operations can hit the theoretical figures sometimes.

Galactica is an absolute arse ache to get high numbers on, seats out of use, people faffing on offload, not having bay loaders, leg flaps not closing fully, locking pins being stiff or needing rechecks not to mention having to bringing crafts up & down with rechecks. We with a cracking team rarely got over 1000pph sadly
Nemesis was a breeze usually no comments
RMT never exceeded 600pph in my time, that's with all the carriages attached btw. Major issue that slows it down is the exit turnstile, kids,, bags and teddies get caught and slows everyone down, on quiet days we'd use the RAP gate to expel everyone, so much quicker

Unfortunately it all comes down to Towers listening to the staff and aiding them, for 3/4 seasons we would contribute ideas that would've increased throughputs but if it involved finances that was the end of the convo. Extra staff on galactica, exit airgate on RMT along with other suggestions all shot down. Shame but alas

That’s interesting to know.

I can’t say I’m surprised by Galactica being a faff, but it might interest you to know that the exit turnstile was actually gone from RMT this year! Surprisingly, its removal didn’t seem to improve the throughput compared to usual.

 

[VonRolland]

I’m not sure that’s necessarily true. Even at Alton Towers, I’ve often seen Wicker Man exceed its theoretical figure on 3 trains, and Nemesis got pretty close to it on my one reading on Saturday. And I’m sure that plenty of other parks with decent operations can hit the theoretical figures sometimes

Have to remember tho that diffrent manufactures over estimate more than others and especially the older coasters are operated much more differently back in the day which makes it slower

 

[Matt N]

I got a few interesting throughput readings and operational insights from my recent trip to Legoland Windsor and Thorpe Park, if anyone’s interested.

Legoland Windsor

• Minifigure Speedway (Theoretical: Unknown): 825pph (2 sides each running 1 train, 9th June 2024, average of 2)
• The Dragon (Theoretical: Unknown): 555pph (unknown number of trains, 9th June 2024, average of 2) Note: While I do not know the exact number of trains The Dragon was running, I should note that there was occasionally a small gap in the station between a train leaving and the next entering, so I’d maybe take a stab at 2?

I should caveat these numbers by saying that the averages are based off of a very limited number of readings due to either a very limited ability to consistently view the rides from their respective queue lines, me trying to conserve my phone battery or both.

In terms of some more general operational insights:

• Flight of the Sky Lion seemed to be operating pretty slowly. There was only one staff member in charge of both batching the main queue and managing Fastrack/RAP, and things seemed to be moving pretty slowly as a result. The one staff member was working very hard, but I think they could maybe have used another. I did not get an exact timing, but at an uneducated guess, I’d take a stab at there being not much more than a cycle going every 10 minutes. As I say, that’s an uneducated guess from me, and it could absolutely be wrong, but things felt like they were moving slowly on there.
• On some rides, I noticed that the park weren’t filling empty seats. I can fully understand why they aren’t rigidly filling all empty seats, particularly given the demographic that visits Legoland, but on Ninjago, for instance, I got an entire 4-person car to myself when there was a 60+ minute queue of people behind me. Surely a group of 2 or 3 could have been batched next to me?
• In general, I think Legoland could do with some higher capacity rides. The queues often seemed to move quite slowly, and for some of the park’s more major rides, advertised queues were quite often approaching or over 60 minutes for much of the day. Minifigure Speedway is a start in this regard, with a throughput that definitely seemed improved on many of the park’s other rides, but similarly to Chessington, I think they could do with a few queue munchers. At least one new attraction that can get close to or exceed 1,000pph with relative ease would be good.
• For reference, the day of my visit was a Sunday in early June where the park closed at 5pm, so it wasn’t an especially peak day by any means.

Overall, I’d say operations and throughputs at Legoland were somewhat slow. In many cases, the queues did seem to be moving quite slowly. How much of that was down to operations and how much of that was down to the intrinsic throughput of the rides, I don’t know, but many queues were quite slow, and I think the park could do with some higher throughput rides. Minifigure Speedway is certainly a start in this sense, though, and the operations on there seemed pretty good!
Thorpe Park

• Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains): 594pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 3)
• Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 1,067pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 8)
• Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars): 788pph (unknown number of cars, 10th June 2024, average of 8)
• Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains): 782pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 4) Note: There was an instance of guest faff on 1 or 2 of these readings, so a consistent figure may have been above 800pph without this. The dispatch time seemed to be 90s or a bit below when the ride was running smoothly.
• The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains): 1,063pph (2 trains, 10th June 2024, average of 6)

In terms of some more general operational insights:

• Operations on Inferno were awesome. It was very rarely stacking, and stacking for only a short period when it did. It didn't stack on any of my 3 rides, anyway. Great job!
• Operations on The Swarm were also fantastic. The ride was frequently not stacking or stacking for only a very short period; on all 3 of my rides, it either didn’t stack or only stacked for a matter of around 10 seconds!
• I think Stealth could really do with a single rider queue or some means of filling empty seats. It seemed to really slow things down when the operators had to push down the restraint of an empty seat, what with how bulky those old Intamin OTSRs are.
• I noticed that operations on Saw were sometimes slowed down somewhat by holdups at the baggage hold, with the airgates occasionally being empty when a duo of cars turned up ready to load guests. Baggage holds normally improve throughputs substantially, but here, it oddly almost seemed to be taking away from the throughput (?).
• The pre-loading screens that the park have invested in currently seem a bit redundant, with nothing actually being shown on them.

Overall, then, I’d say that operations at Thorpe Park were pretty good. The main weak link was Colossus, which returned a pretty weak figure, but I’ve long come to expect that from Colossus, and it’s understandable given the cramped and bulky nature of the ride vehicles and restraints. Inferno and Swarm had absolutely stellar operations, with little to no stacking being frequent, and Saw was also doing about as well as can be expected from a ride of that nature. I’ll be interested to see how Hyperia compares operationally whenever I eventually get on that!

 

[Bowser]

Flight of the Sky Lion seemed to be operating pretty slowly. There was only one staff member in charge of both batching the main queue and managing Fastrack/RAP, and things seemed to be moving pretty slowly as a result. The one staff member was working very hard, but I think they could maybe have used another. I did not get an exact timing, but at an uneducated guess, I’d take a stab at there being not much more than a cycle going every 10 minutes. As I say, that’s an uneducated guess from me, and it could absolutely be wrong, but things felt like they were moving slowly on there.

Sky Lion is always very slow. I've only ever seen it operating with 1 member of staff and whilst it would ordinarily seem inadequate one person is actually sufficient as by they time they've done the RAP, FastTrack and main queue batching, the doors still typically aren't open anyway so an extra staff member would be redundant.

10 minutes is about right, i've timed it myself. The actual film length is just over 4 minutes i believe so boarding typically takes 6 minutes. Difficult when you're loading several dozen young children but i do notice almost every time we ride we're inexplicably waiting for several minutes. I suppose it only takes 1 person of 50+ to hold things up.

 

[Matt N]

For those interested, I was able to get some throughput timings during my visit to Alton Towers today. The readings I was able to get were as follows:

• Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 863pph (3 trains/2 stations, average of 4, 28th July 2024)
• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 954pph (2 trains, average of 7, 28th July 2024)
• Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 997pph (6 shuttles/2 stations, average of 9, 28th July 2024)
• Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 758pph (2 trains, average of 8, 28th July 2024)
• The Smiler (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 4 trains): 755pph (4 trains, baggage hold open, average of 7, 28th July 2024)
• Thirteen (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 3 trains): 1,102pph (3 trains, baggage hold open, average of 6, 28th July 2024)

In terms of a few other general insights:

• Operations on Nemesis generally seem to be notably worse post-retrack. I’m not entirely sure why, but before, you’d often get dispatch intervals of close to 90s, whereas it now seems like dispatch intervals of more like 2 minutes are more par for the course.
• Galactica’s dispatch intervals varied between very quick (~80s) and very slow (multiple minutes). I’m assuming that this is down to the dual stations?
• On The Smiler, I noticed that they seemed to be struggling to get enough people from the main queue up into the station quickly enough to match the ride dispatches at times. I also noticed that the merge host was heavily prioritising Fastrack and RAP over the main queue and single rider. Single rider in particular was abandoned for quite a few minutes at a time, although I accept that this may be something to do with them wanting to stagger the number of single riders in the station and using the baggage hold.

 

[VonRolland]

For those interested, I was able to get some throughput timings during my visit to Alton Towers today. The readings I was able to get were as follows:

• Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 863pph (3 trains/2 stations, average of 4, 28th July 2024)
• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 954pph (2 trains, average of 7, 28th July 2024)
• Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 997pph (6 shuttles/2 stations, average of 9, 28th July 2024)
• Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 758pph (2 trains, average of 8, 28th July 2024)
• The Smiler (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 4 trains): 755pph (4 trains, baggage hold open, average of 7, 28th July 2024)
• Thirteen (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 3 trains): 1,102pph (3 trains, baggage hold open, average of 6, 28th July 2024)

In terms of a few other general insights:

• Operations on Nemesis generally seem to be notably worse post-retrack. I’m not entirely sure why, but before, you’d often get dispatch intervals of close to 90s, whereas it now seems like dispatch intervals of more like 2 minutes are more par for the course.
• Galactica’s dispatch intervals varied between very quick (~80s) and very slow (multiple minutes). I’m assuming that this is down to the dual stations?
• On The Smiler, I noticed that they seemed to be struggling to get enough people from the main queue up into the station quickly enough to match the ride dispatches at times. I also noticed that the merge host was heavily prioritising Fastrack and RAP over the main queue and single rider. Single rider in particular was abandoned for quite a few minutes at a time, although I accept that this may be something to do with them wanting to stagger the number of single riders in the station and using the baggage hold.

* Nemesis can't send trains as quick anymore as trains take longer to clear the brake run
* Galactica usually has slow/fast dispatches following each other because of the stations and Crafts aren't allowed to overtake unfortunately

 

[Matt N]

* Nemesis can't send trains as quick anymore as trains take longer to clear the brake run
* Galactica usually has slow/fast dispatches following each other because of the stations and Crafts aren't allowed to overtake unfortunately

1. I don’t think this is necessarily it. I noticed on quite a few occasions that the train often stacks outside the station for quite a bit of time now, whereas on old Nemesis, it wouldn’t do this too often and wouldn’t do it for very long. I also know that Reborn can still go much faster than it did today, as on the first day I rode it, I saw it getting 1,300pph, and hitting those pretty consistent ~90s dispatch intervals like old Nemesis did. This unfortunately seemed to be the exception rather than the norm, however; it was doing 2 minute+ dispatches both the day after and today.
2. That’s interesting to know! I did wonder if it was something like that.

 

[Matt N]

I’ve just realised that I forgot to post a couple of timings from my time in East Anglia; I have timings and operational insights from Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and Pleasurewood Hills!

I’m afraid I don’t have many timings due to many of the queues being too short to get any meaningful timings, but the timings and insights I do have are as follows…
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

• Roller Coaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 3 trains) - 315pph (1 train, average of 2, 11th August 2024)
• Family Star (Theoretical: 600pph on unknown number of cars) - 404pph (5 cars, average of 2, 11th August 2024)

In terms of general insights, operations seemed pretty good for a park of Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach’s calibre! Family Star was whacking out cars in little over 30 seconds (I’ve seen far worse than that on similar rides elsewhere), and even though only the one train was running, checks on the Roller Coaster were very prompt; they didn’t even seemingly need to check our restraints, so we pretty much just sat down and went! I do think the ride would benefit from a second train, however; with the separate offload area, there was actually time being wasted while people got off the ride and the onload area was empty. All in all, though, I thought GYPB had pretty good ops for a park of its calibre; queues were certainly short, anyhow!

Pleasurewood Hills

• Cannonball Express (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 5 trains) - 159pph (1 train, average of 4, 12th August 2024)

In terms of general insights; the queues were too short to gauge a reliable picture of Pleasurewood’s ops, but I thought they were perfectly good, for the most part; I didn’t think they seemed excessively slow by any stretch. Similarly to the Roller Coaster at GYPB, I think Cannonball is hampered considerably by only having one train in operation, with that separate offload area actually slowing things down. Cannonball Express was the only ride I saw build up any kind of considerable queue while I was at Pleasurewood Hills; it took us 15-20 minutes to pass through a short queue of only a few people, and it looked much longer by the time we got off.

 

[Matt N]

I have some more throughput timings and insights from my visit to Thorpe Park on Sunday. The readings I was able to get were as follows:

• Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains) - 764pph (2 trains, average of 4, 18th August 2024)
• Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains) - 765pph (2 trains, average of 9, 18th August 2024)
• Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 932pph (2 trains, average of 8, 18th August 2024) Note: This reading was skewed downwards by one particularly slow dispatch; prior to that, the average was over 1,000pph.
• Saw The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars) - 853pph (unknown number of cars, average of 10, 18th August 2024)
• The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains) - 882pph (2 trains, average of 5, 18th August 2024)

In terms of some more general insights:

• Saw and Colossus were operating about as well as I’ve ever seen them operate. Saw in particular seemed to be operated excellently!
• Hyperia was operated very well, with little to no stacking; a train was frequently starting to head up the lift hill as the train in front hit the brake run! However, its throughput is definitely inhibited by how slowly the train moves along the final brake run; due to this, there is unfortunately quite a bit of idle time in the station between trains. If they were able to sort this out and make the train return to the station more quickly, I think they would get much closer to that 1,050pph theoretical figure.
• Operations on Nemesis Inferno were pretty good; it quite frequently wasn’t stacking! I did notice quite a few empty seats on my train, though; maybe they could be slightly more forthcoming in encouraging different groups to sit together?
• The Swarm was a bit of a weak link, unfortunately. There seemed to be very little urgency to the operations on there; I honestly think the 882pph reading I got was quite a generous assessment of the situation. Dispatch times of multiple minutes were not uncommon. It’s a shame, as when operated well, Swarm can be a real throughput powerhouse! I do wonder if the return of the baggage hold on here would help; people dealing with baggage on the platform does seem to delay the opening of the airgates and the swift movement of people onto the ride somewhat.

 

[DanielNJ]

I have some more throughput timings and insights from my visit to Thorpe Park on Sunday. The readings I was able to get were as follows:

• Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains) - 764pph (2 trains, average of 4, 18th August 2024)
• Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains) - 765pph (2 trains, average of 9, 18th August 2024)
• Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 932pph (2 trains, average of 8, 18th August 2024) Note: This reading was skewed downwards by one particularly slow dispatch; prior to that, the average was over 1,000pph.
• Saw The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars) - 853pph (unknown number of cars, average of 10, 18th August 2024)
• The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains) - 882pph (2 trains, average of 5, 18th August 2024)

In terms of some more general insights:

• Saw and Colossus were operating about as well as I’ve ever seen them operate. Saw in particular seemed to be operated excellently!
• Hyperia was operated very well, with little to no stacking; a train was frequently starting to head up the lift hill as the train in front hit the brake run! However, its throughput is definitely inhibited by how slowly the train moves along the final brake run; due to this, there is unfortunately quite a bit of idle time in the station between trains. If they were able to sort this out and make the train return to the station more quickly, I think they would get much closer to that 1,050pph theoretical figure.
• Operations on Nemesis Inferno were pretty good; it quite frequently wasn’t stacking! I did notice quite a few empty seats on my train, though; maybe they could be slightly more forthcoming in encouraging different groups to sit together?
• The Swarm was a bit of a weak link, unfortunately. There seemed to be very little urgency to the operations on there; I honestly think the 882pph reading I got was quite a generous assessment of the situation. Dispatch times of multiple minutes were not uncommon. It’s a shame, as when operated well, Swarm can be a real throughput powerhouse! I do wonder if the return of the baggage hold on here would help; people dealing with baggage on the platform does seem to delay the opening of the airgates and the swift movement of people onto the ride somewhat.

Went to Thorpe on Tuesday - ops were pretty much in line with what you experienced, and were generally very, very good. However - Swarm ops were absolutely brilliant. Best i've seen on any coaster at any park. When our train was dispatched the other train was just entering the inline twist. I got readings of around 8 cycles whilst queuing and dispatches were on average every 80s, so 45/hour = 1260/hr.

It meant that the queue was only about 25m during the middle of what seemed a busy day at the park. There was the odd empty seat though, they didn't place much emphasis on ensuring every seat was filled.

 

[Matt N]

Apologies for being nearly a month late, but I have some throughput timings and insights to share from my recent trip to PortAventura World in Spain. The throughput readings I was able to get were as follows:

• Dragon Khan (Theoretical: Unknown on 3 trains) - 668pph (2 trains, average of 4, 10th September 2024), 806pph (2 trains, average of 3, 11th September 2024), 409pph (1 train, average of 4, 12th September 2024)
• El Diablo (Theoretical: Unknown on 3 trains) - 1,000pph (2 trains, average of 4, 11th September 2024)
• Furius Baco (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains) - 580pph (2 trains, average of 3, 10th September 2024), 622pph (2 trains, average of 10, 11th September 2024) Note: The 11th September average was skewed downwards by one particularly slow reading at the end; the picture up to that point was closer to 700pph.
• Red Force (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 3 trains) - 434pph (2 trains, average of 10, 11th September 2024) Note: This average was skewed downwards by one particularly slow reading at the end. Up to that point, the average was closer to 550pph, or a train around every 80s.
• Shambhala (Theoretical: 1,680pph on 3 trains) - 816pph (2 trains, average of 10, 10th September 2024), 774pph (2 trains, average of 9, 11th September 2024), 425pph (1 train, 12th September 2024, average of 2)
• Stampida (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains per side) - 1,229pph (2 trains per side, average of 6, 10th September 2024)
• Tomahawk (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 552pph (2 trains, average of 3, 10th September 2024)
• Uncharted (Theoretical: 900pph on 3 cars) - 720pph (unknown number of cars, average of 2, 12th September 2024)

Overall, I did not think that PortAventura’s operations were nearly as bad as I was expecting. Were they overly fast? No. But I also didn’t feel that they were abysmally slow either. Express Pass also wasn’t oversold, and queues moved decently. Queue times weren’t too bad either; I didn’t queue over an hour for anything all trip, and while the likes of Shambhala and Dragon Khan did get longer queues on occasion, there was always a major ride on a short queue to ride. Stampida, El Diablo, Street Mission and the water rides amongst others never seemed to get a queue longer than 20 minutes all trip.

In terms of the actual throughputs themselves; the only time I saw anything run on 1 train was Shambhala and Dragon Khan in the slightly hairy weather on Friday. Under normal circumstances, everything seemed to run at least 2 trains, and while not lightning fast, I didn’t think the dispatches were excessively slow either.