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Queue Behavior — Why do they stop?

I personally love SFMM's strategy, they never assign you a row on any of the coasters, they simply let in 50-60 people, let them choose whatever row they want and then once there's only a train or two of people left, they let in some more. It's actually quite brilliant, and with extended queues for the front and back row, the station's tend to not get overly congested (excluding Tatsu) and I wish every park would do that
 
@kenny cook That is actually just Flash Pass keeping the station under control. They let a certain number of the FP queue in, then a bit of the main line, then waits to clear the station a bit. All Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks(as far as I know of) have that in some way. SFMM just doesn't have a grouper in the station.
 
I see this at Thorpe Park all the time, especially on SWARM and Inferno. I think it's mainly because a lot of rides have a batcher but these 2 don't. Well, Inferno does sometimes but not very often. They're waiting for someone to direct them until generally someone tells them to move on.
 
It's a funny one. On Air it happened all the time when there wasn't a bayloader. It can cause anxiety for the station staff when they have empty rows and a train is coming in.

I think alot of it is down to nerves! Most guests are almost at that "point of no return" at this point and their minds are elsewhere, focusing of the fear of boarding the coaster, and some guests try and delay getting on as much as possible! bless them. Happens alot with larger groups who want to ride together too who can't see if there is enough seats for them and would rather wait for the next ride so everyone is together, even if there are enough seats, it can be hard to see in a busy station.

To be honest, from a staff point of view, it's more desirable behaviour as it allows you to take more control of the station, rather than the guests swamping into the platform.
 
Visit Kings Island sometime - they are more than happy to stop you at the station entrance and assign you a seat. ;)

I'm fine with stopping at the station entrance and not entering, so long as there is someone in line for every queue row. It frees up space, and ultimately doesn't increase nor decrease your own wait time. The ideal station to me had moderate crowd control to avoid a crowded station, while also allowing riders to pick which queue they'd like to wait in.
 
Speaking of ride ops batching guests, yesterday I was marathoning Renegade (great coaster), and there was a ride op standing right in that gap we’re talking about, holding up the general line and then periodically allowing another trainful of people to enter the station and file into the row lines. However, the ride op was quite strict about the number allowed in (generally just one trainful at a time and no more, so that backup lines might form for the first and last rows, but rarely in any other rows), AND the ride op was inattentive about what he was doing, mostly standing with his back to the row lines and at times chatting to other ride ops.

The result? All day and night I watched as I’d say every other train left the station with an empty row or two — this while there was a twenty-minute line for most of the day. Once I even pointed out that there were still two empty rows and the ride op just gave me a “What’reyougonnado?” shrug.

I can’t complain as the ride ops let me just ride over and over without getting out at the end of the night, for which I love them, but I was amazed at the unnecessary inefficiency for most of the day.
 
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