The city’s largest mall and biggest tourist attraction is installing the replacement for its signature amusement park ride. Crews at West Edmonton Mall have been working to assemble the track for the roller coaster that’s replacing the Mindbender, the ride that the shopping destination closed in early 2023 after 37 years of running in its 15-storey indoor space inside Galaxyland, since mid-June. Work continued inside the amusement park on Friday morning, with its three entrances tarped off before the gates opened at 11 a.m. for shoppers and park-goers, and mixer trucks pouring fresh concrete via a large access door into the roller-coaster space. Some sections of the future track, hued several different colours, have been installed. CTV News Edmonton has asked mall representatives for more information regarding the work on the new roller coaster but hasn’t yet gotten a reply. West Edmonton Mall acknowledged work to replace the iconic roller coaster in October last year when parts of the new ride were spotted in a west-end industrial yard, with Lori Bethel, the mall’s vice president of parks and attractions, saying in response that staff are “thrilled to see the excitement from fans and the community around our upcoming rollercoaster” and promised “to unveil full details as we get closer to opening.” Roller-coaster enthusiasts have determined the manufacturer of the new track is Vekoma, a Dutch amusement ride manufacturing firm. The mall recently unveiled the new Mr. Monopoly Flight of Fortune ride, a refreshed version of the original Swing of the Century, part of the amusement park when it opened in 1983. West Edmonton Mall closed the Mindbender in January 2023 after 37 years of service. At the time, the looping roller coaster that reached speeds of 96.5 km/h on its 1,280-metre-long track had been closed for four months for maintenance. Tragedy struck six months after it opened when three people died and one man was seriously injured after they were thrown from the ride in June 1986. After an investigation and changes to the ride’s trains, it reopened the following January. West Edmonton Mall has been a trailblazing retail destination since it opened in 1981. The Ghermizian family, which built and owns the mall along with two of the biggest shopping centres in the U.S., rapidly expanded it over the 1980s and 1990s to offer several attractions and rides to shoppers in addition to a large slate of stores. The city’s top tourist and retail destination is home to more than 800 stores, more than 100 restaurants and food vendors, and two hotels. The mall says it attracts an average of 30.8-million visitors each year. Galaxyland has been sponsored by toy-and-games company Hasbro for the last six years. Most of the park’s attractions sport names taken from the company’s toys and games.
