The event kicked off with talks given by Sales and Marketing Director Morwenna Angove and later by John Wardley. As well as talking about past and current attractions such as Nemesis and Th13teen, the park also touched on what we’re likely to see in future. We’ve listed a lowdown of the main points which were discussed:

Th13teen

    • The planning of Th13teen was extremely complex as the ride and it’s foundations needed to carefully negotiate trees and their roots around the ride’s footprint.
    • The ride’s drop was fully built and tested under complete secrecy in Budapest. A video was also shown showing senior team members from Alton Towers testing the drop before it was dismantled and shipped to the UK.
    • The ride was always intended to be a family ride, with no aim to create a ride solely for the thrill market.
    • The ride’s recent issues with lifthill stoppages was confirmed to be due to the varying weights of the trains, resulting in the trim brakes being installed.
    • Th13teen’s current capacity is hitting 1440 people per hour.
    • And finally, putting to bed recent rumours since the ride opened, the park has confirmed that no further effects are to be added to the vault.

Cross Valley Wooden Coaster

Some readers may remember the plans for a cross valley wooden coaster. These were submitted but later withdrawn by the park. There were various rumours circulating about what had happened to the plans.

    • From a marketing perspective, a wooden coaster was determined to be unsuitable for the park. Surveys have shown that a large number of people perceive these rides to seem unsafe, therefore any wooden coaster at the park is considered to be highly unlikely.
    • Should the ride have been built, it would have had the highest drops of a wooden coaster anywhere in the world.
    • The park are always looking at the possibility of utilising the valley, even with a steel coaster. However, planning problems would be a major issue.

Future Attractions

    • Initial planning for SW7 is set to kick off in three weeks time, with an aim for the attraction opening in 2013 or most likely 2014.
    • 2011 will be a year where Alton Towers will concentrate on Families, however there was no confirmation on what new attractions (if any) this would involve.
    • The park are looking at the possibility of an attraction in the Black Hole tend in 2012. If this is not possible, then any additions would be unlikely until after SW7.
  • It was also confirmed that contrary to recent rumours circulating, Nemesis is currently at no risk of leaving the park any time soon.

Attendees of the event are also being given behind the scenes guided tours of Hex behind the scenes, and later of Th13teen.

Stay tuned to TowersTimes for further information as we receive it, and don’t forget you can discuss this news article as well as all things Alton Towers on our forum.

A massive thanks goes to team member Astrodan for providing the information for this article.