Stagnant UK Coaster Situation

[Howie]

I think there is space in the market for a large, American style Park in the UK...but where the hell do you put it?

Actually I can think of several places in the UK that would be perfect for a large US style amusement park. Port Talbot and **** immediately spring to mind. Think about it - UK steel industry on its arse, right? Plant closures, job losses, dereliction, dirty great big steelworks being left to rot. Who in their right mind would complain if they were bulldozed and replaced with a shiny new theme park? New jobs, new business from tourism, house prices boosted, road & rail infrastructures already in place etc... and best of all... no precious marshland or green countryside jeopordised, therefore no hippies kicking up a fuss about some sort of rare spider that lives there.

Then there's all those coal-fired power stations that are closing down. Even a Fury 325 or a Kingda Ka is not gonna be as visually imposing as 4 or 5 massive, concrete cooling towers.
It's a no brainer. I just don't get why nobody has done it yet.

EDIT: Ha ha ^ clearly the swear-filter doesn't recognise place names.
It says Scun-thorpe.

 

[Pokemaniac]

EDIT: Ha ha ^ clearly the swear-filter doesn't recognise place names.
It says Scun-thorpe.

Funnily enough, Scunhi!thorpe is the actual poster child of that problem. It's common enough to have its own page at TVTropes, named after the town. I tried to link to it here, but it turns out impossible as the word "Scunby the way, trying to circumvent the censor is an offense in here. Please don't ban me?thorpe" is blocked even in URLs.

To stay on topic, the rumours and speculation in the BPB thread seems to indicate that something good is on its way to the UK. It's promising, if nothing else!


I'm also becoming gradually more convinced that coaster engineering is starting to overcome the traditional limitations for building great rides. Computers aid design of modern coasters in ways that were unthinkable a few years ago. Many large coaster companies have started to build up decades of experience with the complex shaping of modern coasters. The track itself is given more of a load-bearing function, allowing the designers to cut the amount of supports (and hence, expensive footers) needed. And most importantly, launches have been increasingly popular and reliable, and are now seen as a way to eliminate the need for a large hill to get a coaster up to speed. That means we can see compact, ground-hugging rides of increasingly great quality and smoothness. If rides like Taron become a success, I think we will see more coasters of its type all over the world. Fast, quick and forceful, but also relatively quiet and without a huge impact on the park's skyline. Of course, non-coaster rides are growing in popularity, complexity and quality too. The park of the future will certainly find ways to deliver very thrilling rides without the need for huge lift hills or tall buildings. The industry is learning to do the best work possible within strict constraints, something I think will benefit UK parks greatly. You might not get scores of Giga Coasters any time soon, but rides like Taron or Maverick, or the ubiquitous simulator rides at Universal Studios in Florida might find their way to the island of Britannia within a few years.

 

[jackdude101]

Speaking of weather, I recently added weather data to one of my spreadsheets, which includes 868 separate locations for fun things (roller coasters, steam trains, carousels, etc.) throughout the Anglosphere countries. The results are listed below. Those places that have an average annual temp. closest to 72 degrees F (22.2 degrees C) and a total annual rainfall closest to 31.50 inches (800 mm), got the highest scores.

 

[jackdude101]

^...and here's the same data broken out by subnational entity with the Top 30 listed below. It looks like I was wrong before about England having less-than-stellar weather. Per my data, it actually is about average compared to other places. BTW, the places with the worst weather were the North American Pacific Northwest Coast, Alaska, the interior Canadian provinces, and the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

Also, the biggest oddball place out of all of them was Queensland, Australia. If you sort it even further by city, the top three are all along the southern coast of Queensland; however, Queensland also has three cities in the Bottom 30, which are all along its northern coast. This has to do with the sudden transition from a temperate climate to a tropical climate once you reach the halfway mark up the Queensland coast.