Front Seat POV©
The Big Apple Coaster (formerly Manhattan Express and The Roller Coaster) is a steel TOGO hyper roller coaster at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The ride's trains are themed to New York City taxicabs. It is the only roller coaster by TOGO still operating in North America.
The ride, originally called the Manhattan Express, was built by TOGO, and was one of only two roller coasters in the world to feature a heartline roll and dive. The ride was conceived by Gary Primm, owner of Primadonna Resorts, which co-developed New York-New York.
The ride cost $18 million to build. It opened along with New York-New York on January 3, 1997. Within two months, 500,000 people had ridden it. In March 1997, Clark County building officials shut down the Manhattan Express over safety issues, which the resort failed to report to the county. The ride contained 250 steel tension rods. Approximately 40 of the rods had snapped, and the resort was cited for continuing to operate the ride despite the breakages. Repairs were made, and the ride reopened and closed several times that month, as more rods broke. The initial 40 broken rods had been replaced using stronger material, which strained the weaker rods and caused them to snap. The strain also created fine cracks in the coaster track.
The Manhattan Express reopened in April 1997, after two weeks of repairs and safety improvements. Further rod breakages occurred on several occasions later in the year. The rods were repaired as they broke, and the county deemed the ride safe despite the frequent breakages.
The coaster had its one-millionth rider in July 1997.
It had a reputation in the past for being a rough roller coaster. Some riders have gotten bruised on the shoulders from the old trains due to the roughness of the ride and negative G-forces. In 2004 Premier Rides installed magnetic brakes on the ride. In August 2006, Premier also installed new trains to replace the original TOGO trains. Since the Premier train installation, the ride has been noticeably smoother, as opposed to when the TOGO trains were in use.
The ride was renamed as The Roller Coaster in 2007, and as the Big Apple Coaster in 2013.
In February 2018, the ride introduced a virtual reality coaster option.
For the 2021 season, the ride received another set of new trains from Premier Rides; a more modern variant that were first seen on the Sky Rocket II models. These consist of more open-air seating and can hold up to 18 riders, thus increasing the coaster's capacity. Testing began in December 2020, with the ride slated to reopen in February 2021. However, an accident occurred in mid-December, where the middle car of one of the new trains derailed on the lift hill, causing severe damage to part of the catwalk. The ride reopened on January 30th, 2021.
The ride travels on a 4,777 ft (1,456 m) track. The ride begins with a 180-foot (55 m) lift and a 76-foot (23 m) drop, followed by a hill and a 144-foot (44 m) drop. The train then traverses two inversions, a standard vertical loop and a dive loop (twist and dive element), where the train performs a 180-degree spiral and then performs a half-loop maneuver. This element is found on another coaster: the "Mega Coaster" at Hamanako Pal Pal Park in Japan. The rest of the ride is executed on the roof of the casino, and features small hills and a helix into the brakes. The ride's station is themed to a New York City Subway station.
Currently, the ride costs $19 per individual ticket and $10 for a re-ride. An all-day pass can be bought for $35. Las Vegas residents with valid ID, and military personnel also receive discounts.