BulletTrain fires off for the first time: Elkhart fair's new ride

GOSHEN, Ind. - There’s a new ride in town at the Elkhart County Fair—the BulletTrain! ABC 57’s Jess Arnold takes you on a test ride.

It’s replacing the Crazy Mouse as the ‘adult coaster’ this year.

It travels about 35 miles per hour, along 350 meters of track, with the ride taking less than two minutes.

“This is the brand new roller coaster from North America Midway Entertainment. It’s called the BulletTrain. It’s 33 feet tall. It’s the first time it’s in the state of Indiana. It’s only the second time it’s been set up in the country,” said Bryan Blair, the Elkhart 4H Fair General Manager.

“It was at the Miami Dade County Youth Fair back in April…It’s a roller coaster, you know. Everybody always asks for something new. It’s a remake of an old classic, the Zyklon roller coaster and updated safety systems and that type of stuff, but it’s a new thrill ride that we think everybody will enjoy,” said Blake Huston, unit manager for North American Midway Entertainment.

“It’s got six cars. Each car sits four people, and the four people ride up to close to 40 feet up and then it drops and it turns and spins, and it’s fast, and it’s pretty, pretty intense,” said Huston.

Before the bullet could be fired off, the crew had to make sure it was locked and loaded.

“There was a crew of seven guys that were here for several days last week…You know, just all the pieces of track, you know all the individual sections, and it takes a lot of time and manpower to be able to move the track pieces around,” said Huston.

“It’s a multi-million dollar ride,” said Blair.

“It moves on four semi-trucks,” said Huston.

“It was made in Italy, and it’s just something cool and different that we’ve never had before,” said Blair.

“Our surveys internally have shown that 35-40% of the people that say they come to the fair, the rides are right at the top of the list, so when you think about fairs throughout the years, the rides whether it’s the Tilt-a-Whirl or the Ferris Wheel, or the merry-go-round, it all just goes hand-in-hand,” said Blair.

The fair features 35 rides in total.