Kings Island, an amusement park near Mason, Ohio, is home to an inverted roller coaster known as Banshee. The roller coaster, which was built in April 2014, was conceived and is being produced by the Swiss firm Bolliger & Mabillard. At $24 million, Banshee was the most expensive attraction ever constructed at Kings Island. Banshee opened as the longest inverted roller coaster in the world, with a total length of 4,124 feet of track. The maximum speed of the ride is 68 miles per hour, and it features seven different inversions. With three trains and eight cars each, Banshee can carry 1,650 passengers per hour.
A wooden roller coaster called Son of Beast and a go-kart track called Thunder Alley once stood where Banshee now stands. Although the name “Banshee” had been copyrighted in April of 2013, the ride wasn’t revealed until August. The installation of the first sections of the track began in August 2013 and continued through January 2014. Within its first three months of operation, Banshee saw over a million riders. Year after year, Banshee has been named one of the world’s best steel roller coasters by Amusement Today’s Golden Ticket Awards.
Banshee replaced the troubled wooden roller coaster Son of Beast, which was torn down in 2012, and the Thunder Alley go-kart track, which closed the same year. In the waiting area of Banshee, you can find a memorial to the Son of the Beast. There was initially confusion as to what would take the place of the attractions after they were taken down.
In April 2013, work began on a brand new attraction, and the next day, a trademark application for “Banshee” was submitted. Cedar Fair, the park’s owner, explored utilizing the name for a roller coaster there before deciding on Mantis instead. On the opening day of the 2013 season, Kings Island began previewing the new attraction.
About four hundred journalists and members of the public, hailing from at least 28 different states in the United States in addition to Canada and the United Kingdom, gathered in the park at 4:00 in the morning on April 17th, 2014. The following day, the ride opened to the general public. The ride was the largest investment in Kings Island’s history, costing a total of $24 million. The introduction of Banshee on the same day that Kings Island opened for the season led to a surge in attendance at both parks. The opening weekend of 2014 was the busiest in Kings Island’s 43-year history, according to park officials. The park opened to the public on April 18th and closed on the 20th.
As of July 2014, just three months after it opened, Banshee has already drawn one million riders. Kings Island honored the ride’s millionth visitor with a special package and a plaque on that day. When it launched in 2016, Banshee was anticipated to be Kings Island’s most popular new ride in 25 years, with 2,183,642 riders experiencing the attraction in its first year. Vortex, by comparison, had offered 2,183,642 rides in its first year. In November of 2014, the trip saw its two millionth passenger.