Rapid transit
London aims for gold medal performance
This month London sees an unprecedented test of its transport infrastructure in the form of the Olympic Games. Keith Barrow examines how the city has prepared for the event.
F
OR the four million passengers who use London’s Underground network each weekday, station announcements about safety, service levels and weekend engineering works are part of the soundtrack of travel in the capital. But there’s something a little different about this one. “Hi folks!” the voice booms. “This is the mayor here. This is the greatest moment in the life of London for 50 years. We’re welcoming more than a million people a day to our city and there is going to be huge pressure on the transport network. Don’t get caught out. Get online and plan your journey at
GetAheadoftheGames.com” This is one of several messages
recorded by mayor Mr Boris Johnson urging regular rail users to change their travel habits during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It’s a reminder, if one were needed, of the massive logistical challenge that London has taken on - meeting the travel needs of spectators and the so-called ‘Olympic family’ while ensuring the disruption to normal traffic is kept to an absolute minimum. London Underground chief operating officer Mr Howard Collins describes the Olympics as “the biggest transport challenge for our organisation in 149 years.” London has pledged this will be a ‘public transport games’, and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has set the ambitious target of ensuring all 11 million ticketed spectators, together with 300,000 athletes, officials, venue staff and media, travel to the venues by public transport or by walking or cycling. This puts rail at the heart of the Olympic transport plan. The Olympic Park at Stratford is well served, with no less than 10 lines and up to 240 trains per hour providing direct services to
IRJ August 2012
The new DLR platforms at Stratford Regional station. Photo: Paul Bigland
309 stations on the metro, suburban, and mainline networks. But Stratford only accounts for around a third of spectator traffic, and is one of 15 Olympic venues across the city. Many of these are situated in the so-called River Zone, encompassing Greenwich, ExCeL, and Woolwich, with a further cluster of venues further west in the City Zone. In the run-up to the games, the ODA and its rail industry partners focused on four issues: building sufficient capacity into the system to cope with the crowds;
optimising operations to ensure maximum availability of infrastructure and rolling stock; staff preparedness; and provision of passenger information. Although the rail network was
largely complete or under construction at the time London’s bid was accepted in 2005, a number of significant investments have been made to accommodate the event.
Docklands Light Railway (DLR) will play a key role in the Games, carrying an extra three million passengers and serving the River Zone venues as well as the Olympic Park. A 2.6km extension from King George V to Woolwich Arsenal was completed in January 2009, which provides an important north- south link across the river Thames for spectators, while the line north from Canning Town
The Get Ahead of the Games journey planner shows congestion hotspots (above) and offers detailed guidance on crowding at stations (right).
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