Capacity?

For those of you who were there, what was your opinion on capacity? Was the line (in your opinion) "slow"? Using the Cleveland cam, I computed only a 600 person per hour capacity!

You had the time to compute that? From what it looked like and what I've heard from friends who were there today, it ran pretty badly today. I would imagine capacity was low, or, at least, lower than what expected.

------------------
BUSH-CHENEY 2004
"Democrats talk about getting things done. Republicans get things done."

They had four trains on for about half of the day. It was up and down for a lot of the day. However about the last 4 hours of operation time it seemed to have run very well.

------------------
2004 Stats coming........after May 8th

Last 4 hours were good? That's was when I did the computation.

And S2Kster, it took only 15 minutes. I took the times that 9 trains launched. [Why 9? Each time a train leaves a station, another one follows. I refer to the as A and B trains. With 9 I had four measurements from A to B (A1 > B1, A2 > B2, etc.) and four measurements from B to A. I averaged the averages, and found that the average time per cycle was 1.8 minutes. Which means, 10 people per minute, 600 people per hour.]

Hopefully the staff will get better as the year progresses.
*** This post was edited by swimmerkev 5/9/2004 1:11:38 PM ***

so the last few hours of the day went pretty well?

I was there today and Dragster was running pretty much from 9:30-5p when i left. It did brake down for about 45 mins though around 1pm ish.. FYI they are doing freeway for TTD. They were giving them out at 9am which was very cool!

They were giving TTD freeway out at 9am? Huh? I stood near the freeway booth between 9am and 10:05, waiting for Dragster to open (It sure wasn't running at 9:30). The booth had nobody at it and the sign said that Freeway would begin stamping at 2PM.

They don't even start giving Millennium stamps until 11pm.

Am I missing something?

------------------
Richie Anderson
Millennuim Force TL '01
Ride Maintenance '02 & '03

Sorry! I mis-calculated the time. It was about 9:15a perhaps? I know it was before 9:30 though...

It was about 9:15 and they did give them out, its still on my hand. :)

------------------
2004 Stats: Trips: 2
Top Thrill Dragster: 3
Magnum XL 200: 12

Oh, you were there today. Duh, my fault. I was thinking Saturday. Makes sense to me now. lol

------------------
Richie Anderson
Millennuim Force TL '01
Ride Maintenance '02 & '03

I had a freeway stamp for Dragster from 1-2PM. It took me 48 minutes to get seated on a train (2nd row) because of all the intermittent down-time

They gave them out to resorts guests and Joe Cool because the ride wasn't open for Joe Cool. From what I saw they kept giving them out after the park fully opened. While I liked it today (because I got one) I see it causing problems if they keep doing it. It says on all the the new freeway signs at the booths that they will be given out starting at 2.

------------------
Steve Sergent
TTD: 129 & 5 Rollbacks

Yesterday I watched the CC and at about 2:00cct, I found that the train launched every 1:10. This makes 51 launches per hour and 816 pph capacity. The target time, I believe, for launches per hour is about every 42 seconds, which makes the capacity 1500 pph.

This is done not counting breakdowns, so still, they are far away from target capacity of 1500 pph. I do see it promising though, since in one day, they upped the capacity by 200 pph. I think that 6 train operation will help the capacity but is it enough to make the target capacity?
------------------
You haven't ridden Top Thrill Dragster until you have been on a rollback. ;)

Obviously, the crew will get better.

And, to be exact, 43 seconds creates 1500 pph. But, nothing's wrong with 42, right?

Despite this, I still think the crew needs to step up their game. They shouldn't stress that the lap bar be ULTRA TIGHT. Get it down, and move on. I mean, safetywise, is there a difference between touching and squeezing? If a rider wants it to be ULTRA TIGHT, let the rider secure it further themselves.

Monty Jasper was quoted in Sunday's Sandusky Register as saying their goal capacity was 10,000 rides per day. I'm sure this was just a very general number, but depending on the operating hours, that's a pretty low 800-1000 pph. The article also said that was the same capacity TTD was running at towards the end of last year, but I thought it was doing much better.

------------------
"Find yourself a dream and, when you find it, chase it like a bull chasing a rodeo clown; don't give that clown an inch, not one inch" -Sean Kelly

Whether or not the guests wants the lapbar ultra tight is not in question - That's the way it has to be. I doubt that's what holds the capacity down though. It is most likely the intermittent down time and breakdowns that keep it back...not the extra 1.5 seconds to secure the lapbar ultra tight. Give the crew time, alot of them are new, including some friends of mine. They'll get faster. It's only the 3rd day of operation for crying out loud.

------------------
BUSH-CHENEY 2004
"Democrats talk about getting things done. Republicans get things done."

What is keeping the capacity down when the ride is running? Ride-ops are speending more time inspecting the seatbelts and more riders are having to exit because they are too large. Not much CP can do about that.

I agree with what swimmerkev says about the lapbar touching vs. squeezing. I don't think that squeezing the riders legs with the lapbar is any safer than the lapbar resting on the riders thighs.

S2Kster, ultra tight is not the way it "has" to be.

------------------
Richie Anderson
Millennuim Force TL '01
Ride Maintenance '02 & '03

I haven't been on TTD this year, so what is this "squeezing" of the lap bar you guys are talking about? If it is what I am picturing in my mind, then it would take a bit more then 1.5 seconds... I didn't even realize that the ride ops were getting behind. Last year I remember the sled was slowing the ride down majorly. I could see some "squeezing" necessary, especially what happened at SFDL, because there are some really stupid people out there.
------------------
You haven't ridden Top Thrill Dragster until you have been on a rollback.

I dont' mind the "squeezing" I'd rather be held tightly in the seat than floating around like I was on Magnum. Besides, a lot of it was checking seatbelts. For some, the belt fits, they just don't have the dexterity to latch it with where the belt currently is with the lack of slack. I really don't like the belt design, as it makes it hard to see when you're seated and fumbling to attach it so that you can get your ride started quicker.

John

No, squeezing the lapbars against the riders legs doesn't really add extra time to intervals. What I'm getting at is when the ride ops come along and push all of their weight into your lapbar and crush your legs. It's not any safer than if the bar were down firmly against your thighs.

And it will add time to intervals if a guest asks to have the bars released because they are in so much pain from being crushed.

------------------
Richie Anderson
Millennuim Force TL '01
Ride Maintenance '02 & '03