Varney released a public statement stating:. We have a very strong record of safe operation of our rides here at Alton Towers and it is our priority. I would like to express my sincerest regret and apology to everyone who suffered injury and distress today and to their families. The ride eventually reopened on 19 March for the start of the season with additional safety features. A key feature of the ride is the large spider-like structure that serves as a centrepoint for the coaster track.
It is also equipped with a wraparound screen, which displays graphics and video relating to the theme of the ride. The roller coaster intertwines within the structure causing greater interaction with riders to enhance the experience. The track is divided into 5 block sections, permitting up to 5 trains to operate on the ride at once, which would create a theoretical capacity of people per hour pph.
The train dispatches from the station and immediately enters into a sweeping drop degrees to the left. Partway through this drop, riders encounter a heartline roll, the ride's first inversion. The train then comes to a stop on block brakes, before ascending the first lift hill. Upon reaching the top, the train drops into another degree right turn before banking into the second inversion, a downward corkscrew. The train drops straight down into the next two inversions — two consecutive dive loops — before travelling over an airtime hill into a third Dive loop.
Upon exiting the dive loop, the train traverses a sidewinder before entering a reverse sidewinder, which has the same track configuration as a sidewinder, however the trains travel through it in the opposite direction. The ride then travels through another corkscrew before reaching the second set of block brakes.
After a brief pause, the train ascends the second lift hill known as a vertical lift hill. The train then enters another drop, degrees to the left, banking into a downward corkscrew. Riders here experience a large amount of ejector airtime before the train reaches a cobra roll element.
Upon exiting the cobra roll, the train hits two consecutive corkscrews before a degree left turn into the final brake run. Marketing for The Smiler started around the same time as construction when, on 11 April , a minisite was launched allowing visitors to register for updates on the ride's progress. A competition to be the first to ride the rollercoaster, at this time codenamed "SW7", started in July.
To enter guests were invited to scan a QR Code with their smartphone, which subsequently redirected to Alton Towers Official The Smiler Minisite where guests entered their details. In September , the park began the second stage of advertisement through the overnight spray painting of a stencil logo which resemble a smiling face all over the park.
This was followed in October with new boards around the park, new 'subliminal' advertising on different sections of the main Alton Towers website, and a countdown timer on the Alton Towers mini-site. The countdown timer initially gave a scheduled opening date of 16 March , but was removed however on 4 January , as the ride hit delays. More overt advertising started in January , when the "Smile" logo was used in various forms across the country. Including billboards in London; ticket barriers at Leeds railway station; projected onto various buildings including Big Ben; and sprayed onto flocks of sheep in areas including Leicestershire, Devon and Perthshire.
The name of the roller coaster, The Smiler, was revealed on 21 January , the Metro newspaper, and the opening date was set as May previously it was 16 March.
Please create an account to start editing! The Smiler is a steel roller coaster located at Alton Towers , opened in May The ride is manufactured by Gerstlauer and is a prototype Infinity Coaster.
The ride is positioned where the Black Hole was formerly located, opposite Oblivion. The ride is the first roller coaster with fourteen inversions. Due to "teething problems", the coaster did not open on the planned date of 23 May. The ride opened on 31 May Plans were submitted for SW7 in late December Documents were later revealed showing that it was a custom Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster.
Planning permission was granted on 15 March , despite opposition from both Alton and Farley Parish councils. The structure that previously housed the Black Hole was dismantled in April. Merlin Entertainments filed a trademark for the name "The Smiler" in November In January, an advertising and social media campaign was launched that saw the smiling face logo projected on to various buildings and photographs circulated of the logo spray-painted on the side of sheep.
On 20 January, posters appeared in London with "The Smiler", and this name was confirmed via a newspaper article the following day. The ride was originally scheduled to open for the start of the season on 16 March , however due to the ride falling behind schedule the opening was pushed back to May. The ride's track was completed in April and a new opening date of 23 May was announced.
However, the day before the planned opening, Alton Towers announced that due to "unforeseen teething problems", the opening had been pushed back again. The Smiler finally opened to the public on 31 May The Smiler starts with a small drop out of the station into an enclosed building which contains the first inversion, a heartline roll.
The degree chain lift follows before heading into a small declined turnaround into a corkscrew , before a drop, followed by the only double dive loop in the world. As we previously reported , things over the past few weeks have been moving very slowly in regards to The Smiler. A few weeks ago, the countdown clock was removed from the Alton Towers website and since then construction of the ride has moved very slowly. Since reporting that information, the country has been gripped by cold weather and this has probably slowed construction even further.
What this means for those who have already booked park tickets and hotel rooms expecting the ride to be open is unclear. We also do not know if there will be an official opening date or if the park will trial some soft openings across the month. They had the following response:.
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