Derren Brown's Ghost Train

Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise Of The Demon
Exterior of DBGT:ROTD
Thorpe Park
Area	The Dock Yard
Status	Operating
Cost	£30 million
Soft opening date	1 July 2016 (2016-07-01)
Opening date	8 July 2016 (2016-07-08) (Original) 31 March 2017 (2017-03-31) (Rise of the Demon)
Replaced	The Hideaway Arena Chief Ranger's Carousel
General statistics
Attraction type	Dark ride Virtual reality Live action
Manufacturer	Inautec, Intamin, Simworx
Designer	Merlin Magic Making, Derren Brown Consultant
Model	Custom
Theme	Victorian; London Underground; Ghost train
Music	IMAscore
Site area	2,306 m2 (24,820 sq ft)
Capacity	750 riders per hour riders per hour
Vehicle type	Train Carriage North Eastern Railway clerestory bogie composite coach (Exterior) London Underground EMU Carriage (Interior)
Vehicles	3
Riders per vehicle	58
Rows	2
Riders per row	29
Participants per group	Max 58
Duration	13-15 minutes
Height restriction	140 cm (4 ft 7 in)
Fastrack available
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 is also themed around the health effects and controversy involving fracking. It first opened in July 2016.

History

Thorpe Park had not featured a large horror-themed dark ride since the closure of Phantom Fantasia (later known as "Wicked Witches Haunt") in 2000. 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'.^[1]

Merlin Magic Making, the creative division of Merlin Entertainments, designed the attraction in conjunction with Derren Brown and his 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.^[2] 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 5 October 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. On 17 January 2017 Thorpe Park confirmed that these applications were for a new ride experience named Rise of the Demon.

The attraction has not been part of a consistent "land" in the park – it was the only ride in Thorpe Junction in its opening year of 2016, and was reclassified as forming part of The Jungle in 2017. For the 2018 season it joined The Walking Dead: The Ride to create the new area The Dock Yard.

Ride experience

Guests join the queue for the ride outside the ride building, decorated as a derelict railway depot, featuring mock protest posters about fracking. During the queue, a group photo is sometimes taken.

Guests enter a dark preshow room to watch a Pepper's ghost projection of Derren Brown speaking, as he delivers a presentation on the concept of fear as entertainment. Guests then proceed to the main station room where an old North Eastern Railway train carriage is seen as if suspended from the roof in chains. Boarding the train, guests enter a modern London Underground carriage interior, hosted by uniformed staff. Guests are seated and put on HTC Vive headsets, whilst an advertisement for a fracking company called "Sub Core" is played in the background.

The train sets into motion and the ride begins. Riders watch the events 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.

Riders disembark and walk out into a derelict present day tube station, while the exterior of the carriage is now seen to be a modern London Underground train. The following show scene involves live actors, an animated train crash and smoke screen projection effect, before guests are ushered back onto the carriage. However, this scene was replaced with a strobe maze for the 2018 season.

Riders put the headsets back on and the carriage appears to move again. This second VR sequence involves the train and its passengers appearing to be attacked by a demon. Guests appear to fall out of the train, plummeting into a fiery Hell and into the mouth of the demon.

Derren Brown's voice is then heard announcing that the experience is now over, only for the demon to reappear as a jumpscare. The attraction lasts approximately 13 minutes and there are reportedly 24 virtual reality combinations available, although currently not all are active and each follows the same story.

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 resulted in many guests being unable to get tickets.^[3] 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.^[4]

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".^[5] 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 was rarely if ever operating for the full day.

See also

• HTC Vive, the VR headsets the ride uses.

References