POSTED: January 11th 2012
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JOHN GOODBODY: Transport is a key problem for the London 2012 Olympics
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LONDON: The city of London celebrated the fact there were 200 days to go until the flame is lit in the Olympic stadium with the Government holding a cabinet meeting in the handball arena.
All the ministers, officials and media got quickly and safely in and out of the Park in Stratford and organisers of the Games just hope that the same will occur in the 16 days from July 27, when the biggest sporting event in the world takes place in a capital city not renowned for its ease of transport.
When the International Olympic Committee ranked the candidate cities in May 2004, London not only came third but was savagely criticised for its infrastructure.
The railways were described as ”often obsolete and considerable investments must be made to upgrade the existing system in terms of capacity and safety.”
It added that “urban expressways and main arterial road facilities lack the capacity to provide reasonable travel times” and that claims of average bus speeds of 35 mph “appear unrealistic”.
It was true that one key aspect had not been understood by the IOC working party – the plan to have a shuttle service using the Channel Tunnel rail link from central London out to the main Olympic site in east London. The journey is to take seven minutes.
A total of more than $20 billion had been scheduled to be invested in the city’s transport by 2012.
There have certainly been major changes in London’s infrastructure in the last eight years but it remains, together with security, one of the leading problems for the organisers, whose work otherwise can hardly be praised highly enough.
On August 3, the busiest day in the Games, more than 800,000 spectators are expected to use public transport and that is on a normal working day for Londoners, with many employees using similar routes to those going to events.
Transport for London (TfL) is assuming a 20 percent reduction in usage during the Games, with many people taking holidays, working from home or altering their usual schedules.
London has one particular advantage compared to many other host cities.
There are many different underground and overground lines going close to the Olympic Park, so if there is a problem on one line, it will be possible to use others.
In Sydney, for instance, there was just one main line going out to the Park. Fortunately, there were no problems in 2000.
I have always thought a greater problem might well be with the road transport, although spectators have been urged not to take their cars.
The comparative narrowness of many London streets was something that no one could do anything about and every haulage company in the country is to receive letters, advising them about the facility to be able to make deliveries 24 hours a day during the Games.
The 109-mile Olympic Route Network, about a third of which will be used for the exclusive lanes for more than 80,000 officials, competitors, sponsors and other members of the Olympic family, will further restrict ease of movement.
The breakdown of any vehicles could cause massive problems, while the closure for safety reasons of fly-overs or tunnels would bring chaos, as it has done recently 400 yards from my home with the closure of one flyover on the main road into the capital from Heathrow Airport. We have been told it will be open again in time for the Olympics.
Londoners themselves are sceptical that the transport will work. But Peter Hendy, the TFL commissioner, is quietly confident. “I think we have a lot to do but we are in reasonable shape.”
** JOHN GOODBODY covered the 2008 Olympics for The Sunday Times, his 11th successive Summer Games and is the author of the audio book A History of the Olympics, read by Barry Davies, the BBC commentator. He was Sports News Correspondent of The Times 1986-2007, for whom he received journalistic awards in all three decades on the paper, including Sports Reporter of The Year in 2001.
Keywords · London 2012 · John Goodbody · Olympics
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