Calculating PPH

How do you calculate the PPH (people per hour) of a ride while you're waiting in line?

(I bet its so simple I'll be smacking myself later...)

------------------
Tommy Penner - Variable X
Fact: 43.3% of all statistics are meaningless.

(60 minutes/dispatch interval) x Number of seats

Example? MF dispachtes a train about every 1:45 or (1.75 minutes) (60/1.75)x36= 1,234 PPH

------------------
2002 Magnum--199
The world I love, the trains I hop, to be part of the wave, can't stop.

Allright, so basically all I do is bring a wristwatch with me, and time the dispatch interval?

Question: What is the dispatch interval? Would it be the time when a train arrives in the station to the time it leaves?

------------------
Tommy Penner - Variable X
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound as they fly by."

No, dispatch interval in this case is from the time one train dispatches until the time the next train dispatches. On Magnum, the dispatch interval is about 1:20 or just under that. Raptor is actually shorter than that and Gemini is very short when they're running three trains per side.

I was timing MF at 1:37-1:38 fairly consistantly last year. Natalie probably knows what it's supposed to be. So either that ride is still slow or they're not dispattching in time this year. :)

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

Dispatch interval is the difference in time between consecutive trains leaving the station. For example, say the blue train leaves the load station on MF at noon sharp. Next, the yellow train, which is right behind blue, leaves the load station at 12:02pm sharp. The dispatch interval is two minutes.

Basically to get pph, you need to get the number of dispatches for an hour and multiply by the capacity of one train. Personally, I like to work in seconds, so the formula would be:

(3600/Avg Dispatch Interval)*Train Capacity

------------------
Scott W. Short, Rail Junkie
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Yea, I guess seconds would be easier then converting seconds to minute's. :)

As for the 1:45 on MF, they can get it out quicker and when they are on and get it out even before the 1:30 mark. The average gets bumped up a lot though, mostly because releasing the restrains means rechecking all lap bars.

------------------
2002 Magnum--199
The world I love, the trains I hop, to be part of the wave can't stop.
*** This post was edited by Joe E. 7/1/2002 1:03:49 PM ***

Speaking of dispatch intervals:

At coastermania I timed 3 consecutive intervals on ID to be 65 seconds.

Saturday I timed 3 consecutive Raptor intervals to be 65 seconds.

Those crews rock!

------------------
- The Darling one
The closest I'll ever get to riding a B&M Flyer is looking down while on Raptor... :(

Funny that this would come up as I did this myself for the first time at CP last week. On Monday the 24th, MF was dispatching every 2 minutes give or take a few seconds.

A little math and I figured the PPH at 1080. This is probably why the wait was around 1 hour for most of the day.

Two minutes is not a good time for MF at all. Maybe you caught a couple bad trains with special accesses or something. I feel that something about the newer rides being able to stack trains takes away some of the urgency that is present at older rides like Magnum, Gemini, Corkscrew, Iron Dragon, etc. These ride all set up in the event of the crew not getting the train out fast enough. Although, Raptor can stack and the crew over this year has been doing a darn good job of proving me wrong from what I hear! :) Magnum is actually dispatching a second or two quicker this year because they can send it when the train is cresting the second hill, and there is no "knock knock...knock knock..." For some reason though, I've heard the numbers are down. Maybe they're missing an interval heer or there and not packing the trains or something.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

I think the reason Magnum's numbers are down is because they are hellbent on finding single riders and will delay the dispatch of the train 10-15 seconds just to get that one rider on. Is it really increasing capacity that much when you're adding that much time to the interval? The airgates aren't helping the single rider search as they often times need to be reopened to let the person through.

------------------
- The Darling one
The closest I'll ever get to riding a B&M Flyer is looking down while on Raptor... :(

I feel that something about the newer rides being able to stack trains takes away some of the urgency that is present at older rides like Magnum, Gemini, Corkscrew, Iron Dragon, etc. These ride all set up in the event of the crew not getting the train out fast enough.

Corkscrew can stack all of its trains. It's the only Arrow coaster at Cedar Point that can.

------------------
Corkscrew Crew 2002
http://www.msu.edu/~kemppai8/ --- My stupid website

This is off topic but i thought it was funny to see Corkscrew running with no people on it on Sunday.

------------------
Welcome to Alaska...And enjoy the rest of your day here at Cedar Point America's Rollercoast!. My everychanging top 5 list
5 X-Flight 4 Wicked Twister 3 Magnum Xl 200 2 Raptor 1 Mille

Has it always been that way or did they change it recently? For some reason, I thought Corkscrew could set up in 2001, but I could be wrong. I know it can't set up this year because I saw them stack all three trains (large guest) in late August and there was no set up...

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

Corkscrew could always stack its trains. When trains are stacked, they are in the station, ready brakes, and the transfer brakes. The ride would only setup if the person in controls forgets to bump the train all the way up into the readies or if for some reason the person in controls couldn’t (power failure, proximity switches going bad, etc.) then the third train would setup in the safety brakes. Prior to 1999, Corkscrew's computer system was manual and trains had to be parked in the station manually, but trains could still stack in the readies and transfer brakes.
------------------
Corkscrew Crew 2002
http://www.msu.edu/~kemppai8/ --- My stupid website

Wow... I never did get around to calculating PPH during my trip, first step you need a watch ;)

However I do remember being on Corkscrew when they had all trains stacked during that trip. I was on the third train waiting unfortunately. I couldn't see what the delay was, someone probably threw up.

So yes, Corkscrew can stack all its trains.

------------------
Tommy Penner - Variable X
Cedar Point FanBoy since 2001. || (PT) Cruiser Boy since 2002.
What would you say if I told you I met my Homecoming date at Cedar Point?

It probably wasn't a guest illness, rather a guest that brought a stuffed animal, souvenir cup, bag, purse, water bottle, etc., and the guest demanding us to hold it for them, or one of us having to ask a large/tall guest that didn't fit in the harness correctly to exit. If we had to clean up puke, a ride host would have been sent to each train that was stacked while the puke was being cleaned up.

------------------
Corkscrew Crew 2002
http://www.msu.edu/~kemppai8/ --- My stupid website

Ahh alright. Nobody walked back to our train, so yeah it was probably something else.

Question: Is that standard procedure on all the coasters? Someone threw up on Gemini (I'm sure on this one, water and disinfectant being thrown into the red train), and there was another train stacked behind it. However, I don't remember seeing an op walk over there.

------------------
Tommy Penner - Variable X
Cedar Point FanBoy since 2001. || (PT) Cruiser Boy since 2002.
What would you say if I told you I met my Homecoming date at Cedar Point?