Derren Brown's Ghost Train

Derren Brown's Ghost Train
Thorpe Park
Area	Thorpe Junction
Status	Operating
Cost	£40,000,000
Opening date	July 8, 2016
Replaced	The Hideaway Arena Chief Ranger's Carousel
General statistics
Attraction type	Dark ride - Virtual reality - Live action- Multi-sensory
Manufacturer	Intamin, Simworx & Severn Lamb
Designer	Merlin Magic Making, Derren Brown.
Model	Custom Design
Theme	Victorian; post-apocalyptic
Music	IMAscore
Site area	2,306 m2 (24,820 sq ft)
Vehicle type	Train
Vehicles	3
Riders per vehicle	58
Rows	2
Riders per row	29
Duration	13-15 minutes
Height restriction	140 cm (4 ft 7 in)
Fastrack currently unavailable
Wheelchair accessible

Derren Brown's Ghost Train is a dark ride at Thorpe Park in Surrey, England. The attraction incorporates virtual reality, motion simulation and illusions designed in collaboration with British mentalist Derren Brown. It is themed as an abandoned Victorian train depot and opened in July 2016.

History

From 1983, Thorpe Park featured the large haunted dark ride Phantom Fantasia, created by famous UK attraction design company of the time Sparks Creative Services.^[1] It featured an animatronic hunchback swinging from a bone chandelier, life sized vampire bats, a working torture chamber, Henry VIII having his wife beheaded, a wizard brewing a potion, a ballroom full of waltzing zombies, and a band of skeleton musicians.^[2] The ride was re-themed to Wicked Witches Haunt in 1994.^[3] The ride was destroyed by fire in 2000, and Thorpe Park was left without a ghost train until 2015.^[4]

Derren Brown's Ghost Train was first teased on 8 July 2015 after three years in the planning stage, during which it was referred to as 'WC16'.^[5]

Merlin Magic Making, the creative division of Merlin Entertainments, designed the attraction in conjunction with Derren Brown's team. The ride was produced as a Simworx simulated dark ride, while the virtual reality content & delivery was by Figment Productions. Severn Lamb and Intamin engineered the transit system that takes riders from one scene to another within the building. Scenic design for the ride was produced by Birmingham-based studio Scruffy Dog Ltd and the music produced by IMA Score in Germany.

Shortly before its scheduled opening on 6 May 2016, Thorpe Park announced that the ride would not be completed in time to open as scheduled. A further delay was announced on 24 May stating the ride would not open at the end of the month as planned. On 18 June, the ride began previews for hotel guests and select groups. During this period, guests were made to sign a non disclosure form before riding to prevent any content from the ride being shared online or on social media. This was followed on 30 June when the ride opened for technical rehearsals.

Derren Brown's Ghost Train officially opened on 8 July 2016, with an official press and celebrity night taking place on 21 July. The ride continues to experience problems with its operation.

The project altogether was reported in the Financial Times as having a cost of £13 million.^[6] Due to its complex operation, Derren Brown's Ghost Train features the longest list of guest restrictions ever necessitated for a ride operated by Merlin Entertainments, a fact that was repeatedly utilised in the ride's advertising. Guests under the age of 13 are not recommended to ride because of what Thorpe Park claims as the "extreme psychological nature" of the experience.

On October 5, 2016, Thorpe Park put up posters advertising the addition of a "terrifying new destination" to the ride for 2017. These were later followed by the park filing for planning permission to extend the attraction's building.

Ride experience

Guests join the queue for the ride outside an old Victorian train depot, which is covered in various posters including protests on fracking. During the queue, a group photo and individual photo are taken.

After storing loose belongings in the Luggage area, guests enter the preshow room to watch a Pepper's ghost projection of Derren Brown speaking, as he delivers a presentation on the concept of fear for entertainment. Guests then enter the main station area where a Victorian train carriage is seen to be suspended from the floor in chains, using a mirror illusion. The doors open, revealing the modern interior of a London Underground train hosted by uniformed staff. Guests are seated before putting on HTC Vive headsets, whilst an advertisement for a fracking company called SubCore is played in the background.

The train sets into motion and the ride sequence begins. Riders follow the story through virtual reality, involving a passenger on the train discussing the consequences of a fracking disaster and an infected passenger appearing to attack the rider. Following the scene of a train crash, guests are instructed to leave their seats and exit the carriage into a show scene.

Upon disembarking riders find themselves in a different location to where the ride began, while the exterior of the carriage is now seen to be a modern London Underground train. The show sequence starts involving live actors, a train crash animation and projection effect, before guests are ushered back on to the carriage.

Riders put the headsets back on before setting back into motion. The final virtual reality sequence involves the train being attacked by demons, before Derren Brown's voice is heard explaining the experience is now over. The attraction lasts approximately 13 minutes and there are reportedly 24 virtual reality combinations available, although currently not all are active in the ride.

Controversy

In anticipation of the new attraction, Thorpe Park began a "Get In For A Bob" promotion, where 1871 people would be able to purchase a ticket into the resort for the modern day equivalent of a shilling in Victorian times - 12p. The promotion required the public to find a code (DBGT1871), scattered in various related articles across the web, to then enter it (along with some personal details) into the dedicated website on 25 March 2016. The website was published earlier than the scheduled time which resorted in many guests being unable to get the tickets.^[7] This caused mass outrage on the resort's major social media platforms, with some members of the public demanding their personal details removed from the resort's systems. The resort soon offered a compromise, in which those who registered their name before the website closed would be entered into a raffle, where a further 4000 12p tickets would be allocated at random.^[8]

The attraction was originally set to open on 6 May 2016, as announced on their social networks. However one week before the attraction was set to open, the resort announced the attraction would not be ready due to "some illusions not working as anticipated".^[9] At this stage TV adverts were stating the ride would open in the end of May. However, only days before 31 May, the resort announced the attraction would still not be ready in time and the attractions opening date was changed to "coming soon". The attraction finally opened on 8 July 2016, but has suffered ongoing repeated technical problems and is rarely if ever operating for the full day.

See also

• HTC Vive, the VR headsets that the ride uses.

References