First the stats and superlatives: Europe’s longest launch coaster opened on 26 April at Liseberg in Gothenburg (Göteborg), Sweden, and features 1.38km of track. During the 2 minute and 10 second journey, passengers experience two launches sequences, reaching speeds of up to 100km/h. Each of the ride’s 20-seater trains races through seven inversions, providing three moments of airtime and forces of up to 4.3g. Building Helix on the hilly terrain that runs along the left-hand side of the park was not easy. Running like a snake over mountain and trees, the Mack Rides monster also winds its way around several other existing structures, recording a difference in altitude of 52m. But such choreography is what adds to the ride’s appeal, making the SEK 200 million ($30m/€22m) attraction more than just a sum of its parts. Here Liseberg CEO Andreas Andersen tells us how Helix came to be.
parkworld-online.com HELIX
Liseberg unleashes Europe’s longest launch coaster
Liseberg’s coaster
collection With the addition of Helix, Sweden’s biggest amusement park now boasts six rollercoasters, with a further five rides gone but not forgotten. Here’s the full Liseberg
line-up, past and present: • Helix, 2014
• Stampbanan, 2013 (Preston & Barbieri Family Coaster) • Rabalder, 2009 (Zierer family coaster) • Kanonen, 2005 (Intamin launch coaster) • Balder, 2003 (Intamin wooden coaster)
• Lisebergbanan, 1987 (Schwarzkopf steel coaster – pictured above)
• Bergbahn, 1923-1987 (scenic wooden coaster) • Super 8, 1966-1979 (Schwarzkopf Looping Star) • Cirkusexpressen, 1977-2008 (Zierer Tivoli coaster) • Lisebergsloopen, 1980 (Schwarzkopf Looping Star) • Hang Over, 1996-2002 (Vekoma Inverted Boomerang)
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upside-down to create a world-class coaster. There were several parameters at play in designing the attraction. We wanted to build a looping ride with broad appeal, but also an attraction that would integrate well into mountain without taking it over. That’s why we chose the LSM launch technology, which is flexible and pretty quiet. We liked what Mack had done with Blue Fire at Europa-Park [Germany]; it met all our parameters but we wanted to take it to the next level with the location and the layout at Liseberg. We went to Europa-Park and took with us a number of maps. I would say we did maybe 80% of the layout for Helix at that workshop; the final product is pretty close to what we drew up two-and- a-half years ago. There are a few elements that you will find on Blue Fire, like the heartline roll, but the rest is completely new or different.
H
There are many highlights of the ride. Before the second launch the train flips to the left, and that is very weird because you have airtime in that flip. I think that is probably my favourite part because it takes you completely by surprise. For most of the ride, the corkscrews felt like a corkscrew, the pretzel loop felt like I want a pretzel loop to feel and the heartline roll felt exactly as I hoped it would, but that flip element really blew me away.
A different kind of launch coaster Yes, we already have a launch coaster at the park, but Helix is different. Kanonen is very much about the
elix simply has more of everything! It is both longer and faster than all the other attractions in the park and we have turned all the rules
launch, it’s short, intense and really gives you a kick in the behind. I would not say that you don’t feel the two launches on Helix, because you do, but they are running launches that are there to give the train energy to do all this other fun stuff that goes on in the ride. It’s amazing they way the ride interacts with other structures, including Lisebergbanan, the flume ride and all the trees. It’s quite interesting because a couple months ago it really looked like a war zone up there, but now all the trees are green it looks like the ride has always been part of the scenery. It was really complicated to do the foundation work. It is one thing to build a rollercoaster on a flat surface, but to build a coaster on a mountain, you have to have a very high degree of precision. We had to blow quite a bit of the mountain away to make the foundations, so that part was very complicated and also very expensive, but apart from that I have to say everything has gone very smooth and we were quite lucky with the weather this winter. I wouldn’t say Helix is a themed ride as such, but it has a look. I think coasters generally are very hard rides to theme. The colour scheme was chosen because we wanted it to blend in with everything on the mountain. We gave the train a certain shape and also there are also lights in the cars which has a nice effect after dark. You can say that the station building has a little bit of a sci-fi/biometric kind of feel. We wanted a name for the ride that was quite short and would work in both English and Swedish. You know and I know that a helix is a rollercoaster element, but the general public does not.
JUNE 2014
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