Alton Towers is the UK’s biggest theme
park. In 2021, despite restrictions, the park attracted roughly 2.3 million visitors,
making it one of the busiest in Europe. What sets this theme park apart however is its unique
setting. Alton Towers sits neatly within the quiet countryside of Staffordshire, amongst the
ruins of a once-used stately home. That’s right, a stately home, it’s not quite
a castle like at Magic Kingdom, but unlike everything at Magic
Kingdom, it’s real. The whole grounds, including the extensive gardens, once belonged
to the Earl of Shrewsbury in the early 1800s. Like any good theme park, Alton Towers has rides
- lots of them. The park is home to over 40 rides, including a collection of 10 roller coasters.
Since opening in 1980, it has accumulated a unique selection of roller coasters, including ones rare
to the continent. Alton Towers has Galactica, one of only two large-scale flying coasters within
Europe, allowing you to soar above the ground like Superman. And even Rita, one of the world’s
increasingly rare hydraulic launch coasters, which accelerates you from 0 to
100kmh, 60mph in just 2.5 seconds. One of the things all Alton Towers rides
have in common is their height, or really, their lack of it. The park has a height
problem, oh and that roller coaster problem we’re getting to. Due to laws conserving
the views of the surrounding countryside, they can’t build rides higher than the treeline.
This means that, in theory, it shouldn’t be possible to see any attraction from outside of
the park. To deal with this, the creative and engineering teams at Alton Towers have come
up with a range of solutions over the years. No solution could beat the one they employed
during the 1990s. To make exciting roller coasters, despite the short building height,
the park used a two-step strategy. First, find the tallest tree in the area you want
to build your new ride. That point becomes the top of your lift hill. Step two? Dig
down - as far as you need to, to get the ride you want. For both Nemesis and Oblivion,
Alton Towers used this strategy to perfection. Nemesis opened in 1994 as Europe’s
first inverted coaster. When it debuted, there was nothing like it. The vast majority
of the ride takes place within a large, purpose-built pit. The park used explosives to
carve out a very specific hole in the ground, a hole that the ride would follow. Nemesis climbs
high into the trees, before dipping in and out of the ground below. This enables the layout of
the ride to follow an untraditional flow. The inverted coasters prior to Nemesis often used an
almost cookie-cutter layout - a vertical loop, followed by a zero-g roll, then another loop and
two corkscrews. Nemesis begins with a corkscrew, then flies over the station with the zero-g
roll, dives into the loop placed within the pit, and ends with a second corkscrew. It’s thanks
to this, and the unique terrain, that Nemesis still remains one of the best-inverted
coasters in the world 30 years later. Oblivion has a similar story. It opened in 1998
as the world’s first vertical drop roller coaster, allowing you to plummet near-vertically
towards the ground. Known as a dive coaster, these rides are all about the drop. Due to the
restriction, Alton Towers had to dig down to create the same kick - so they did. Roughly half
of Oblivion’s 55m, 180ft drop is below the ground, beneath your feet. This creates one hell of
a visual spectacle. The ride vehicles for Oblivion simply vanish into the hole whilst
dropping near vertically. It’s a sensation no other dive coaster around the world has
managed to replicate to the same degree, yet. That’s not to say Alton Towers don’t use
this approach anymore. The park’s latest two major roller coasters, The Smiler and
Wicker Man, both received substantial terrain manipulation and follow the park’s natural hills.
It’s just that Nemesis and Oblivion take this concept to the extreme. Terrain is great because
it creates bespoke rides, ones which couldn’t be replicated elsewhere because the landscape is
unique. Well, unless you’ve got a big hill that just so happens to be the right size for Oblivion
- it still looks a bit wrong though, I’m talking about you Diving Machine G5. The problem with this
incredibly bespoke terrain approach comes when you need to replace the ride. How do you put a new
ride in a hole designed for something else? Hence: Alton Towers has a roller coaster problem. Sadly, roller coasters don’t last forever, they
have shelf lives. The amount of time an individual ride can last depends on a whole range of
factors, including maintenance costs, popularity, and how many cycles it has completed. More complex
rides require more maintenance. at some point, a theme park might not be willing to spend the
money to maintain a ride any longer. This goes hand-in-hand with popularity - why spend money
to keep an attraction no one is riding? Finally, some theme parks are open all year
round. Rides at these parks will be ridden more than their counterparts at
theme parks which close over winter. This means they’re subject to more wear and
tear, leading to a shorter shelf life. I’m not sure there are really any hard and fast
rules regarding the life span of roller coasters. I’ve heard figures like 25 years be thrown around,
especially for rides produced by Swiss roller coaster manufacturer, Bolliger and Mabillard,
more commonly known as B&M. Both Nemesis and Oblivion were designed by B&M and it's safe to
say, they’re getting old. As of 2023, Nemesis is 29 years old and Oblivion is 25! Ultimately,
neither ride has been designed to last forever. For your average theme park, this isn’t a problem.
They tear down the old ride and replace it with a brand new one. Simple. Alton Towers have
done that in the past. Thirteen replaced the park’s first-ever roller coaster, Corkscrew,
which operated between 1980 and 2008. Whilst the Smiler replaced the Black Hole, Alton
Towers' previous indoor roller coaster, which was around between 1983 and 2005. The
difference here is that these two old rides were the opposite of bespoke. Corkscrew
and the Black Hole were mass-produced. They featured no permanent foundations.
Instead, they sat on a large steel frame, often known as a "base frame", which are
most commonly found on travelling roller coasters. The Black Hole in particular was one
of 50 Jet Star rides designed by Schwarzkopf for mass installation by theme parks across the
world. Except this one was inside a tent. Cool! The same demolish and replace solution can’t
be applied to Nemesis and Oblivion. How can you design a new roller coaster to fill a hole
specifically built for a different one? Well, I guess in theory you could. Though I
expect the end result would be a ride that doesn’t feel as integrated as the one it
replaced. So, what are the other solutions? Tear it down and do nothing? Tear it down and
fill in the pit? Tear it down and fill the pit with water to make a nice lake? Or; keep
the same ride. Extend the lifespan of the original roller coaster by refurbishing it.
In the world of roller coasters, this often involves fabricating new like-for-like
pieces of track to replace the older, worn ones. Thus keeping the same
ride, now with double the lifespan. I had the idea to make this video over
two years ago. If I’d have made it then, the video would have ended with this prediction: “Due to everything I’ve explained, I predict that
Alton Towers will refurbish Nemesis. They’ll give it new track with the intention of keeping
it around for many years to come”. Except, it’s now 2023. Nemesis is closed. New pieces of
track are currently being swung into place as I speak. A prediction doesn’t hit the same if
it comes after the fact, does it? The all-new Nemesis will open in 2024. It’ll feature black
track, instead of the old white, probably to aid in marketing it as a ‘new and improved’ version -
Nemesis 2.0 if you will. Nevertheless, the fate of Nemesis is decided. Perhaps it’ll stick around
for another 30 years, check back here in 2053. But what about Oblivion? Well, its fate is much
more complicated. A considerable proportion of the ride's track is effectively locked underground.
How do you replace that? Dig up the hole, remove the old track, put new pieces in, and
cover it back over? Or maybe slowly fish each piece out of the small tunnel, to then carefully
put the new ones back in? Both of these scenarios seem unlikely. Perhaps Alton Towers will do
what they can to maintain the ride without replacing entire sections of track. That is
until the cost of maintaining the aging ride outweighs the benefit of keeping it alive. If
they do close the ride and cover up the hole, does that mean they’re officially
burying parts of Oblivion? RIP. This alone is a problem for the park. However,
to add to this, Alton Towers is running out of undeveloped space. From the outside, it looks like
they have too much space, the park grounds are huge. In reality, the vast majority is protected
from development. Previous long-term development plans published by the park have outlined a few
areas for new rides. This included replacing the old flume ride, with what would eventually become
Wicker Man. The potential for the development of an area of the park known as coaster corner, which
is currently the future site of the new-for-2025 indoor ride codenamed Project Horizon. There’s
also the area behind Thirteen in the Dark Forest, proposed for the development of the insane idea
of building a cross-valley roller coaster. Yeah, that’s the one that dives through
the gardens to the Forbidden Valley, only to dive back the other way. Sure, like that’s
going to happen. And finally, there’s the plot of land behind Galactica, out side of the existing
park, which is currently used for parking. You’ll notice that some of these
areas have already been used, are currently in the process of being
used, or are stupidly unlikely to be used. What happens when there’s no more space to build
new rides? You remove the old ones. Alton Towers has done this before, like Corkscrew for Thirteen,
the Blackhole for the Smiler, and The Flume for Wicker Man. These were all ageing rides,
however. If Nemesis and Oblivion, two of the park’s oldest attractions, are immovable - what
major roller coaster is first to go? Galactica, the third oldest coaster, built in 2002; or what
about Rita, the fourth oldest, built in 2005? In my mind, there’s the most potential with
Galactica. The ride fills a large and relatively vague plot of land, with the option for expansion
right next door. Galactica does use the terrain, but it isn’t defined by it either. When Project
Horizon opens in 2025, the world’s first B&M flying coaster will be 23 years old. We are
yet to see how well these flying coasters age, but they’re complex machines, far more
complex than other roller coasters out there. Alton Towers is in a unique position. They’re
bound by a complex set of rules to protect the local landscape; have a limited amount of space
and a finite amount of money. Historically, it’s been fairly simple for the park to expand.
Older, previous rides were mass-produced glorified fairground attractions. It’s not really a
difficult decision to remove a ride that has been replicated many times across the
globe. Today, it’s different. Alton Towers is full of unique additions, ones which have
become an iconic part of the park’s history. The next decade will be extremely interesting.
It’s becoming complicated for Alton Towers to expand their portfolio of rides, and it’s only
going to get worse. By 2033, who knows what will have happened? Oblivion could be 35 years
old, Galactica 31 years old, Rita 28 years old, and Thirteen 23 years old! Which of the ‘big
seven’ will close first? Only time will tell. Thank you for watching, subscribe if you
enjoyed it, and, we’ll see you all next time.
