Ridership Numbers for 2007

bholcomb said:

* Trains ridership numbers are up this year because they counted re-rides which weren't counted last year.

Did they actually have an op count the number of people who didn't get off? That seems pretty pointless.

It's always been that way. Station to Station is considered a ride, so instead of kicking everyone off and make you go through the turnstile again, they just do a head count of passengers still on before boarding begins.

Going back to the comment on the first page about gates...

I don't know what the State has said, apart from the fact that beginning in 2005 or 2006 (I forget which) all of the ride fences had to comply with ASTM F 2291. Come to think of it, it must have been 2005 since that's the year White Water Landing last operated, and it got a new fence.

My guess is that either the State or some other controlling authority mandated the installation of platform gates on the coasters and other rides. I say that because ASTM F 2291 has an elaborate set of guidelines for fences and gates when present, but nothing in F 2291 (which is the design standard for amusement rides) actually requires that the ride have a fence or a gate. When you think about it, it actually makes sense that fencing and gates would not be required of all rides...start with Corkscrew, for instance, which is not entirely fenced, as complete fencing would require blocking the midway. Cedar Point doesn't have any rides of this type, but there are rides out there for which fencing makes no sense at all, such as the streetcar that runs down Main St. in the Disney parks, or the backstage tram ride at Universal Studios.

In any case, we can safely assume that the platform gates are now required equipment, and the way that F 2291:6.4.3 is written, the seat belts are almost demanded by the standard as well. But those devices by themselves do not necessarily cause the delays in loading and unloading. Oh, sure, it would be faster if all the rides had double gates as on Millennium Force. But we see from Magnum, which has both platform gates and seat belts, that neither *must* torpedo operational efficiency. On Gemini, for instance, moving the co-dispatch button to the uptrack end of the station and having the two crew members start in the middle and work to the ends of the train *once* checking lap bars would cut the time for checking the train in half, and that would be enough to bring back the other two trains.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Not all the numbers are down:

Top Thrill Dragster:

I noticed that Demon Drop's numbers were up about 13,000 from last year. I wonder if that has anything to do with people riding it one last time before the park sells it? Although I doubt that 13,000 people are aware that it is up for sale.

No, but if you consider that Josh and I rode about 5 or 6 times in a row one night, all it takes is between 2 and 3,000 people to know. It was fun when the cars weren't rolling all the way to kicker wheels, so we got stopped at the top of the tower while a maintenance guy went out and advanced the car in front of this. That had happened while we were in line, and he just stuck around the rest of the time we were there, going out every so often to move a car that didn't make it.

It'll be a sad day when Demon Drop is gone.

I know me and my friends did that too on a couple trips last season, just in case. I guess we will have to keep doing that until it's gone. Not that I want it to be gone, but just to get the last ride in should the time come without warning.

As far a Raptor goes the numbers would increase greatly if maintenance would just repaint the actual run track. This year, when I got extra hours there, we would have to close down even if it was just sprinkling because the rust would drip down on people's clothing. It was really bad one day and these two girls were just coated from waist to shoulders with rust. I think Marcia at Park Op had to deal with their angry parents. Oh my!!!!

Actually, and not to rain on your parade Kevin, but you have to admit that the new rain policy had a detrimental effect on every ride in the park regardless of what crew was running it. Not that certain crews aren't also responsible for the drop in numbers, but the rain policy certainly had an effect.

But like Kevin said, the rain policy at Raptor has been THE SAME since 2005. Nothing at Raptor has changed in terms of rain policies, loose article bins, lift timings, or anything and yet the numbers still are down hundreds of thousands of riders. Using those things as an excuse at Magnum might be believable (I happen to believe they could have done somewhat better despite these things), but Raptor's crew just sucked. I'm sorry to be blunt.

So wait, Raptor would shut down in a light mist even in 2005 and 2006?

I don't remember that and it seems as though there would have been more talk of it if that was the case.

^ Pretty much, yes. I worked there in '05 and we definitely went down in all levels of rain.

I have to back up Kevin and MDOmnis' statements, the Raptor crews of late have just been downright slow. I do not say this to insult, because I know how hard it is to work quickly with the very crowded station and all the foot traffic due to those damn bins....but nearly stacking all three trains every cycle is simply unacceptable.

Talk about stacking up the trains, how about stacking up the cars at The Antique Cars?!? When my family was there in August me and my son got off and were out of the building while my wife and daughter, who were in the car immediately behind us, were stuck at the stop sign entering the station because the crew were so busy yapping. I had to yell something to get them moving.

I'm sure some of you have been at Kennywood, talk about slow moving crews!

I worked on Raptor in 2000 and 2001.  We had great crews both years.

We hit interval on a regular basis.

This past summer, on my one visit, it was hard to wait in line for about 45 minutes with only about half of the queue full.

They were stacking 3 trains most of the time.

Weather was not a factor.  It was a beautiful day.

I really felt like leaving my family in line and heading up to the station to assist the crew.  They were SLOW!

Back in 2000 and 2001, when it rained, we had to spiel about getting rust water on your clothing.

Ride at your own risk.  Overall, the drop in numbers doesn't bother me.

What does bother me is a slow crew.  Take some pride in operating your ride.

I was on the Raptor crew in 05 and 06. I remember working the day the rain policy went into effect in 2005. It was raining and we were sending trains (without stacking, mind you) -- then suddenly we get a phone call from park op...

Ride Op: "Raptor, this is _____."

Park Op: "Why in the hell do I have 40 people standing in Park Op right now completely covered in RUST?!"

Ride Op: "Um, because Raptor bleeds when it rains?"

Park Op: "Shut that ride down now! And in the future, you go down for even the slightest sprinkle. I'm not dealing with this again!"

(Actual conversation might have been just a little different...)

On another note, I did see a major change in the efficiency of Raptor during my two seasons. When I started, we were trained to be as fast as possible. In the beginning of 2005, we hit interval and we hit it regularly. Then throughout the next two years management changed a lot of staff policies that slowed everyone down (including spieling policies, pregrouping policies, moving around the platform, etc.). And once people lost the motivation, there was nothing that could get it back.

I remember one time when I had all six of my seats checked, and still had to wait 10-20 seconds for the first position to check their four seats. This happened a lot. If the staff doesn't realize it is a team effort to send that train out in 32 seconds, then it won't happen.

I've caught Raptor rust, and it sure does stain. Maybe it's not rust, maybe it's lubricant. It kinda sucks regardless. I think the last time I did that was pre-rail painting. Does it still do that?

I have no problems with a few rust spot stains as I'm not wearing designer clothes to CP anyway.

Park Op: "Why in the hell do I have 40 people standing in Park Op right now completely covered in RUST?!"

I wonder what they consider to be "completely covered"?

Completely covered -- as in the group of people were standing under the loop at the wrong time.

It was pretty funny to me, but not so much to the group.

When i was at CP over ( Labor day I think) Raptor was down for 2 days because of the chain. It may have been down the days before I was there to so maybe that had something to do with Ridership #s. I think they had to replace the whole chain; atleast thats what it looked like they were doing from skyride.

Ha, yeah, I have it as my signature and I didn't even think about that. Raptor did have a lot of mechanical difficulties this past summer. A heck of a lot more than I ever remember happening when I've been there. Not making excuses for the crew, because I know they were slower than past crews (sorry guys if you're reading, no offense meant), but still, there were days when they were up, and down, and up, and down. And it wasn't unusual for it to happen several times a week. Thus, my signature.