Station with infinite ingress and egress times for use in transportation systems

A transportation system, comprising:

• a plurality of uncoupled roller coaster vehicles;
• a main track for guiding the vehicles along a ride path;
• a turntable rotating about a center axis;
• a station track extending about an outer edge of the turntable to define a circular loop around a periphery of the turntable, wherein the main track includes a turntable inlet that directs the vehicles toward the station track and a turntable outlet providing an exit for the vehicles away from the station track;
• a transfer guide track with an inlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the turntable inlet of the main track to the station track and with an outlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the station track to the turntable outlet of the main track;
• and
• a vehicle capture system coupling each of the vehicles arriving from the turntable inlet of the main track to the turntable, whereby the vehicles are driven in the station track by rotation of the turntable,
• wherein the vehicle capture system includes a release mechanism adapted to decouple a first set of the vehicles when in the outlet portion of the transfer guide track and to retain in a captured state a second set of the vehicles that are guided to bypass the turntable outlet, and
• wherein the inlet portion and the outlet portion each comprises a pivotable track section that is acted upon by the vehicles in the second set to rotate out of a path of the vehicles, thereby allowing each of the second set of vehicles to continue to travel in the station track without binding with the transfer guide track.

A ride system, comprising:

• a main track defining a ride path;
• a plurality of vehicles each adapted to rollably engage the main track;
• a turntable rotating in a continuous manner about a center axis while the ride system is operating;
• a station track extending about an outer edge of the turntable to define a circular loop around a periphery of the turntable and to provide one or more surfaces for vertically supporting the vehicles, wherein the main track includes a turntable inlet that directs the vehicles in the series toward the station track and a turntable outlet providing an exit for the vehicles away from the station track;
• a vehicle capture system including a vehicle-to-turntable coupling mechanism independently coupling each of the vehicles arriving from the turntable inlet of the main track to the turntable, whereby the vehicles are driven in the station track by rotation of the turntable;
• and
• a transfer guide track with an inlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the turntable inlet of the main track to the station track and with an outlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the station track to the turntable outlet of the main track,
• wherein one or more of the vehicles is guided to bypass the turntable outlet and continue to travel within the station track past the turntable inlet of the main track and back to the turntable outlet of the main track, and
• wherein the inlet portion and the outlet portion each comprises a pivotable track section that is acted upon by the one or more vehicles that are guided to bypass the turntable outlet to rotate out of a path of the one or more vehicles and to then spring back into place, thereby allowing the one or more vehicles to continue to travel in the station track without binding with the transfer guide track.