Rapid transit


to Stratford International, which uses a former heavy-rail alignment, opened in September 2011. Bombardier has supplied 55 new B07 trains, allowing three-unit operation on most of the driverless network, a project Transport for London (TfL) has brought forward with the aid of funding from the ODA. Platform lengthening on the Beckton and Woolwich lines was also funded from the Olympic budget. DLR will carry 500,000 passengers on the busiest day of the Games. Stratford Regional station is a key hub on the edge of the Olympic site where the main lines from London Liverpool Street to eastern England intersect with the Overground, DLR, and London Underground’s Central and Jubilee lines. The station has been expanded to 17 platforms and refurbished in a £120.5m project funded by the ODA. On the Underground, operating hours will be extended by about an hour, meaning the last trains from some venues will depart as late as 01.30. Services will also start an hour earlier on Sundays, and London Underground will run additional trains to cope with spikes in demand when events finish in the evening. London Underground has pledged to operate “every train it can find at the maximum possible length.” In order to sustain this level of service,


TfL has carried out a programme of preventative asset maintenance, and focused operational teams on avoiding small disruptions that can develop into major delays. This includes work to improve train door reliability, improving incident response times, and installing equipment to prevent accidental activation of passenger alarms. TfL’s huge programme of infrastructure upgrades has been adjusted to complete works before the games and ensure there are no line or station closures on critical parts of the network during the event.


“Day 1-6 is the soft start for us, and


the real test begins on day seven when the stadium opens,” says Collins. “We will effectively be operating an extra peak period service in the late evening, and we’ll be running the infrastructure pretty hard during this period.” The recent completion of the Victoria Line upgrade has allowed a 21% increase in peak capacity, while on the Jubilee Line, which links central London with Greenwich and Stratford, capacity has been boosted by 33% following the completion of resignalling. The London Overground network will allow spectators to reach the


28


East London to St Pancras


Stratford


Dalston Junction


International Stratford Barking


to Ebbsfleet and Paris


West Ham Mile End


Liverpool Street


Bank Shadwell Poplar Canary Wharf City Airport


London Bridge


N Cutty Sark 01 km New Cross


New Cross Gate


Lewisham IRJ


to Crystal Palace


Olympic Park and other venues without travelling through central London. During the Games trains will run later each night and earlier on Sunday mornings, and there will be extra off- peak services on the former North and West London lines. Mainline operators will also step up their services to meet the additional peaks in demand. The flagship Olympic service is the 200km/h Javelin shuttle, which operates on High Speed One from St Pancras to Stratford International and Ebbsfleet, using Hitachi class 395 emus. Southeastern is operating up to 12 Javelin services per hour to provide capacity for up to 25,000 passengers per hour. The shuttle operates 24 hours a day between St Pancras and Stratford with a journey time of seven minutes. August is traditionally a quiet period for London’s rail network due to the school summer holiday, yet reducing background demand is still essential to accommodating Olympic traffic. Senior figures have pleaded with commuters to avoid travelling if possible, but it is recognised that even in the most optimistic scenario, working from home is unlikely to be an option for many rail users. “Traffic demand management is the biggest challenge,” says Collins. “We’ve worked with major employers in the city, asking them if they can keep their staff away from London.” TfL expects at least 20% of regular


Greenwich


Network Rail lines High Speed 1 DLR lines open Underground lines Overground lines open Overground line under construction Olympic stations


Underground users will change their travel plans during the Games, and is encouraging passengers not to travel or to use alternative routes. This makes the role of passenger information even more critical. An advertising campaign entitled Get Ahead of the Games has encouraged rail users to consider alternative routes for their journeys, and even alternative modes, to avoid the most congested areas. The website has an interactive map with a slider control allowing users to see where and when congestion is expected on the Underground network. It also offers more detailed information on crowding at individual stations at different times of the day, with a colour-coded grid giving predicted traffic levels. An Olympic Transport Coordination


Centre (TCC) opened last month, bringing together all of Britain’s key transport operators and authorities alongside Games organisers to coordinate incident response and manage passenger information and advice. The £9m TCC will remain in operation after the Olympics to improve coordination and communication. The Olympics could be seen as the ultimate test of London’s rail network, and the city’s rail operators will undoubtedly learn some valuable lessons from the world’s largest sporting event. IRJ


IRJ August 2012 DOCKLANDS Canada Water North Greenwich River Thames Woolwich Arsenal King George V Whitechapel Canning Town Beckton Custom House/ExCeL


North London Line


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