With only 175 wooden coasters operating and with only 10 currently in construction, is the wooden rollercoaster breed dieing out, for most theme parks the choice between a wooden rollercoaster and a steel rollercoaster is fairly simple, as a steel rollercoaster could theoretically last a lot longer than a wooden rollercoaster. Since 2000 the Wooden coaster count has been plummeting dramatically, as it is more viable for parks to construct a steel coaster.
As enthusiast we know that steel rollercoasters and wooden rollercoasters are equally safe, but the general public wouldn't normally agree, this is one of the huge reasons, why one of europes leading theme park operators Merlin hasn't invested in a wooden coaster, because of the fears that the general public would view them as not safe as a steel coaster.
Marketing, a wooden rollercoaster, would be possibly harder to draw the attention of a market, their can be exceptions to this rule like with Outlaw Run (Silver Dollar City), and one of my highly annticpated coasters for 2016, Wildfire (Kolmården) but these are fairly few and far between.
Do you think in today's Theme Park climate that the Wooden Rollercoasters can survive or do you think they will soon become extinct? Would a future of Steel/Wood hybrid coasters like Iron Rattler be the last chance of saving the wooden coaster breed?Statistics: Posted by Simba — Tue Feb 17, 2015 8:46 pm
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