THE famous ride at Jorvik Viking Centre in Coppergate has broken for York's Viking festival.

The tourist attraction confirmed that the hallmark ride was out of action, which coincides with the popular Viking festival - which started on Monday, February 12.

The ride is used for taking visitors through Jorvik's immersive tour, showing what the streets of a Viking-age York would look like.

Jorvik has since introduced walking tours for visitors during the festival.

Head of operations, Gareth Henry, said: "We are expecting the repairs to take more than a day or two.

"With thousands of people planning to descend on York for the JORVIK Viking Festival during half term, we will create a very exclusive opportunity for visitors to actually walk around the houses and backyards to get an up-close view of life in the Viking age."

York Press: The Battle Spectacular at the 2023 JORVIK Viking Festival, this years festival is running until February 18The Battle Spectacular at the 2023 JORVIK Viking Festival, this years festival is running until February 18 (Image: Newsquest)

Jorvik Viking centre later issued a statement to The Press, explaining the cause of the fault.

A spokesperson said: "The current issue with the ride was discovered during a routine inspection by external experts, when metal fatigue in a component was identified. 

"Our in-house technical team is working closely with ride technicians and engineers to find a solution to the problem. At no point has visitor safety been compromised.

"This time capsule version of the ride at Jorvik Viking Centre has been running for over 20 years, and has transported around eight million visitors in that time.

"This is an incredibly robust mechanism, but as components fail due to wear and tear, we have replaced parts. 

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"This includes printing consumable items on-site with 3D printers, which is far more cost-effective than having them custom-manufactured overseas, and has now become commonplace in many different industries, including aeronautics. 

"The viability of the ride is assessed every year, and it will need to be upgraded at some point. It is too early to say whether the current issue will bring forward that requirement.

"In the meantime, our team has worked incredibly hard to offer a high quality alternative to the ride in the form of walking tours of our recreation of Viking-age Coppergate."

The spokesperson added that the walking tours had "gone very well" so far, which "reassures us that we have an excellent contingency plan for as long as the ride is out of operation". 

They added: "We are hoping that we can further increase capacity as our team gets accustomed to the speed and flow, but are very pleased that we are already able to accommodate everyone who has pre-booked their visit during this particularly busy week."