When things “go terribly wrong” on a theme park ride, that’s typically intentional. Designers use that story gimmick all the time to create a sense of danger and suspense for guests.
Yet now and then, something really does go very wrong on a theme park ride, requiring an extensive refurbishment or even a redesign. Ultimately, roller coasters and other theme park thrill rides are machinery, and even the best designed and maintained machines eventually reach the end of their useful life.
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Some theme park rides are a modern-day Ship of Theseus, with almost all their original parts replaced at some point over the years. But some rides, especially innovative roller coasters, show their problems early. Several parks around the world are facing that challenge right now, with prominent coasters in the midst of rebuilds.
Most prominent might be Cedar Point’s Top Thrill 2, which barely finished its media preview before closing in May. That Zamperla coaster was an attempt to redesign the park’s Top Thrill Dragster, an Intamin Accelerator that suffered a major accident in 2021.
Knott’s Berry Farm’s Xcelerator is a smaller version of Top Thrill Dragster and has suffered its own extensive downtimes and rebuilds over the years. The king of all Intamin Accelerators — Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s fastest roller coaster — closed indefinitely earlier this year with its own technical difficulties.
There is an inherent mechanical challenge in trying to launch thousands of pounds of people and roller coaster train to speeds in excess of 100 mph — 149 mph in the case of Formula Rossa — and to do that every minute or so, every day, for years. Yet that is what parks are trying to do with their high-speed launch attractions.
The Steel Curtain roller coaster at the Kennywood theme park in Pennsylvania is currently closed for track renovations. (Photo by Keith Srakocic ,The Associated Press)
In Pennsylvania, Kennywood closed its Steel Curtain roller coaster last year. The problem there was not a high-speed launch, but track support. With more inversions than any other roller coaster in the United States, the twisting S&S production was going to present an engineering challenge on any site. Kennywood is located on the banks of the Monongahela River in the hills outside Pittsburgh, creating even more adversity for designers. Kennywood is now pouring foundations for new support columns for Steel Curtain (new curtain rods?), with the plan to have the coaster back in operation next year.
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Cedar Point also is aiming for a 2025 return for Top Thrill 2. We have yet to hear Ferrari World’s plans for Formula Rossa, with the park only saying publicly that the ride is “closed until further notice.”
The process of building a world-class roller coaster can be as wild and unpredictable as the rides themselves. Knott’s Berry Farm fans still are awaiting the return of Montezooma’s Revenge, the classic Schwarzkopf flywheel launch shuttle coaster that closed in 2022 and now is set for a return next year, following a redesign and rebuild.
When testing the limits of roller coaster innovation, a lot can go off the rails as designers and engineers work to ensure that these coasters always stay on theirs.