We are not engineers or experts, but here’s some facts and myth-busting about Hyperia’s recent reliability

Today (April 2nd), Hyperia once again rolled back and stalled, with an empty train, after failing to make it over the outerbank stall inversion. This happened twice during the 2024 season. It is very unusual for non-launched roller coasters to stall, and almost unheard for one to do so multiple times.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of rumours, blame-gaming and other things going round. So here’s an opportunity to look at the facts and to also discuss why some ideas are not realistic. 

Hyperia’s Rollbacks

Hyperia first rolled back on 19th June 2024, before the park opened, during its morning tests. It failed to make it past the outerbank stall inversion, rolling back and forth between that and the previous element (the non-inverting Immelmann), before valleying at the bottom. The train was empty. The park had to set a piece of concrete next to the train, and bring in a specialist crane to remove the train, car by car, and taking it to the maintenance shed. The ride reopened, on one train, on 22nd June, and then on two on the 23rd.

Hyperia then also suffered a rollback on 2nd October 2024, in the same place, again in the morning, but this time with some water dummies also on the train. The ride reopened on 3rd October, on one train, and started running two trains again on 12th October.

Today’s rollback occurred jus after noon, with the train empty, following a shutdown.   

Why does Hyperia keep rolling back?

The simple answer here is – we don’t know. Thorpe / Mack (the ride’s manufacturer) might know, but we do not know. We can certainly make guesses, some of which are quite sensible, but we do not know.

What we can see is that Hyperia regularly struggles to go round the outerbank stall inversion when the train is empty. It also struggles in some weather conditions, such as when it’s quite windy, or colder. However, with the 3 times it has rolled back, the weather conditions have been different, and there was one instance where the train wasn’t empty. It’s also been different trains that have stalled, so it’s not a case of one train is stalling, and the other isn’t.

People will also notice that when Hyperia is loaded (either with people or dummies), it doesn’t struggle on the outerbank, but still manages to offer a brilliant amount of airtime / hangtime.

Well can’t they do *this* to fix it?

There are loads of theories on social media being discussed about how Thorpe Park can fix / prevent this from happening. These tend to be unrealistic, or lack understanding of how much they would cost. 

Can’t they just not send the ride round empty? Put water dummies in whenever they test it.

Loading (and unloading) the ride with water dummies takes a long time. They are also very heavy! If this was done every time the ride shut down and needed to run a test cycle, it could lead to very long shutdown times, which would not be good for guests. This also does not fix the problem, as a roller coaster should be able to run empty. Also, the ride has stalled with water dummies on ride, so it’s not a guaranteed fix.

Why not add a LSM launch boost to where it valleys, to push it up / allow it to get over if it stalls?

Adding on a launch system to a ride which doesn’t currently have one (as Hyperia only uses a chain lift and magnetic brakes) would require a lot of work. It could well require brand new trains, or heavy modifications to the existing ones. It may also not be something that Mack has the ability to offer. 

On top of this, it would require the addition of LSMs onto the track, plus creating a power source over there. This would take a lot of time and be very expensive.

Can they change the element? It’s stupid that it is higher than the previous element.

Hyperia was designed to have many “stall-like” moments, where you’re out of your seat for prolonged periods of time. The outerbank is taller than the previous element (which is the ride’s first element) to maximise this feeling. Mack will have done thousands of calculations and designs and have been confident it will work. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.

It is certainly possible that this element could be retracked, and made smaller, but again, this would be extremely expensive, require planning permission and take a long time. Given Hyperia’s unique and compact layout, it is also possible that this simply cannot be done.

The park remove the train – can’t they hoist it up / get a battery pack to lift it up?

The park could consider a crane and hoisting it up and over the outerbank to get it to complete the layout. However, this would be extremely difficult – getting a crane in position, with the capability to hoist such a heavy object in a very specific way, would require a huge amount of specialist skill, and be very expensive. Some sort of battery pack would likely not be strong enough.

Can’t they make the train heavier?

It’s something that might be possible, but it could change how the ride runs / require big modifications to the train. This also might not fix the issue, as the train’s weight might not be why it is stalling.

We bring these points to attention not to discredit ideas, but to show that some ideas going around on social media aren’t a quick or easy fix, and may not even be possible.

What happens now?

Unfortunately, we don’t know. 

The park have updated their website to say Hyperia is currently unavailable. Past experience tells us the ride could be back open in the coming days, but it’s unclear whether the park will want to spend longer with the ride closed to try and address the issues. After a temperamental start to the season, it’s unfortunate this has happened to Hyperia now.

We do not know why this has happened, and we do not know if there is a blame to be placed. However, we hope that Mack are working with Thorpe Park and Merlin to help figure out any underlying issue(s), and are coming up with a plan to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Then, Hyperia can revel in her full glory as the park’s Golden Goddess, and the UK’s tallest, fastest and (in our opinion!) best roller coaster!