THOUSANDS of people - believed to be more than 25,000 - took a spin on York's big wheel in its first week.

The Norwich Union Yorkshire Wheel has been a huge hit with visitors and city residents alike since making its first rotation at the National Railway Museum on Wednesday.

On Good Friday 5,110 people went for a ride on it, making it the biggest wheel attraction in Europe for that day - beating both Seville and Manchester. Andy Gray, the NRM's duty manager, said they had suffered a few teething problems with the queuing system, but had now ironed these out and waiting times were no more than 20 minutes.

He revealed museum staff had been on to the wheel with visitors to gauge their reaction and listen to suggestions on how to improve the experience.

Wheel-users have also been asked to fill out a questionnaire after their trips.

One idea has been to introduce a recorded commentary in the pods to point out the city's main features which can be seen from the top.

Mr Gray said: "It has gone absolutely brilliantly so far.

"We've virtually had no negative feedback. We will certainly look into introducing the recorded commentary."

Mr Gray said a few visitors had pressed the panic button since it opened after suffering bouts of vertigo. The procedure was to get them down as quickly and calmly as possible with operators reassuring them via an intercom on the pod.

The wheel was shut down on Thursday for more than hour after strong winds affected the monitoring equipment.

"We've been getting a lot of local people going on the wheel particularly from Leeman Road," Mr Gray said.

"People visiting the wheel have also come into the museum, which is a great thing."

The 200ft-high wheel opened a week late after being blighted by bad weather and delays due to engineering tests taking longer than expected.

Mr Gray added that there had been a good take-up on the wheel's VIP pod, which has comfy sofas and an in-built TV for a ride in style.

Updated: 09:30 Tuesday, April 18, 2006