Colossus

In November 2022, Thorpe Park showed that Colossus was undergoing a substantial refurbishment. The Intamin coaster, opened in 2002 and famous for its ten inversions, had been partly dismantled because sections of track needed replacing after two decades of operation.

The park shared few technical details, but a TikTok video made clear that this was more than cosmetic work. Thorpe Park did not want to retire Colossus and brought in a specialist company to manufacture new track pieces. That choice kept the 850-metre, 30-metre-high coaster on course for a 2023 return.

For visitors and coaster fans, the news mattered because Colossus is one of Thorpe Park’s signature thrill rides. Its tight layout and sequence of inversions helped define the park’s modern thrill identity. The project also put Colossus in the same wider British context as other major coaster renewals, such as Nemesis at Alton Towers, showing that parks were prepared to invest in ageing icons rather than replace them too quickly.

The refurbishment reinforced the ride’s historical value: Colossus once drew attention for its inversion count, and twenty years later it earned a new chapter through targeted structural renewal.

In June 2017, Thorpe Park appeared in British media because of an incident at Colossus that was not about technology, but about visitor behaviour. According to Looopings, a one-year-old baby was left unattended in a pushchair near the entrance to the coaster while the parents were queueing for the ride.

A 22-year-old visitor noticed the situation and raised the alarm when nobody had returned after about fifteen minutes. Security staff then contacted the police. The parents arrived later with three other children, and police informed child protection services so they could assess whether further action was needed.

For visitors, the incident highlighted how broad safety awareness in theme parks has to be. It is not limited to restraints, ride systems or trains; busy queue areas also need attention, especially around headline thrill rides where people can become focused on getting on board. Colossus was the recognisable setting here: a major Thorpe Park coaster with queues and a strong thrill identity.

This was not a technical milestone in the ride’s history, but it remains a notable visitor-flow and safety incident around one of the park’s best-known roller coasters.