Six Flags New England, or SFNE, is an amusement park in the Six Flags chain of parks, named for the New England region in which it is located. Six Flags New England is located in Agawam, Massachusetts, near Springfield, Massachusetts. It is so close to the state border that some of the park is actually in the state of Connecticut. Like most other Six Flags parks, Six Flags New England is divided into two sections: the amusement park, which includes major attractions such as "Superman: The Ride of Steel", "Mind Eraser" and "Batman: The Dark Knight", and the water park, which doubled its size for the 2002 season. For the year 2005 season, the park is introducing two new rides: the roller coaster "Mr. Six's Pandemonium" and a water coaster named "Typhoon".

Throughout most of the 20th century, the park was known as Riverside. It started out as a picnic grove called Gallops Grove in 1840. It eventually was renamed to Riverside Grove, then Riverside Park. In the early 1940s, the park acquired its first ride, a wooden roller coaster called the Thunderbolt which still operates today. In 1996, the Carrol family - who had owned Riverside Park for many years - sold the park to Premier Parks . For two years, the park became known as "Riverside, The Great Escape". When Premier Parks purchased Six Flags from Time Warner in 1998, Riverside became rebranded as "Six Flags New England". The main street running through the park was renamed "Carrol Drive" in honor of the family which had owned it for so long.

For many years, Riverside was home to a NASCAR race track called Riverside Park Speedway. In 1999, after the Six Flags rebranding, the speedway was removed, and that area is now taken up partly by the Superman: Ride of Steel roller coaster.

Six Flags New England offers a FastLane system (not to be confused with the Massachusetts Turnpike Fast Lane system), that allows riders to use a "Q-Bot" to wait in one line for them while they wait in another line. Unlike similar systems at parks such as those in Walt Disney World Resort, the FastLane system requires an additional fee beyond that charged to enter the park.

External links

• Six Flags New England official website
• Six Flags New England central
• Six Flags New England at About.com