Is Travel during the Olympics Going to be a Nightmare?

[TransportGuy]

We're hearing so much about travel in London during the Olympics, I'm getting worried what it's going to be like. So I took a bit of time to try and find out a few facts.

Apparently there are going to be something like an extra half million people travelling in London each day with three million additional trips in London on the busiest day of the Games. 80% of spectators will travel by tube and rail. That's a lot of extra journeys!

Some people say that TfL are running a scaremongering campaign to keep people off the trains and roads. I'm not sure, maybe so, maybe not, but you can't have all those extra bodies without an impact. TfL say that unless people change their travel habits we can expect half hour waits for the tube at certain times of the day. London Bridge is set to be one of the most affected stations. I'm attaching an infographic with the TfL estimation of wait times at London Bridge hour by hour for each day of the games. (You can get the same thing for other stations on the GAOTG website)

So what to do? If you're like me you'll still have to travel most days. So, I'm arming myself with as much info as possible, but then I'm a transport freak! TfL have added a journey planner page to their 'Get Ahead of the Games' Website. It has links to help plan your travel and downloadable daily bulletins with detailed info about travel on each day of the Games. http://www.getaheadofthegames.com/plan-your-journey.html

That's what I'll use. The only question that remains is should I clog up my Twitter feed with the live travel bulletins from TfL on @GAOTG ?

(NB Admins, I spoke with the boss and he suggested I post this in the General category).

[Chippy Minton]

@L2012Spectators is the account on Twitter organisers have setup

[reddulwich]

If you read the Guardian, you may have seen that even if you cycle, it may not be that easy. Many routes will be blokced to cyclists, also if a cuclist strays into the VIP lanes, for example at a junction, for ease of moving off at a roundabout they'll face a fine!

Though how they propose to fine cyclists, I have no idea

[reeko]

In short - yes

[Chillaxed]

Am I right in thinking that the train to LB from ED early on a weekday morning will be more or less OK? Or will hoardes of American tourists staying in Croydon be descending on LB via train at 7.15 in the morning?

[Jeremy]

I really don't see why the ED-LB train service should be impacted that much. Although LB station itself will probably be carnage.

[garnwba]

According to the offical "olympic travel planner", the recommended route for East Dulwich to Charing Cross is:

Bus to Denmark hill, train to elephant and castle, tube to charing cross - Journey time 1.07

So if all the tourists are using that load of rubbish as guidance then us locals should be fine!

[bil]

My journey to work has already increased by 1 hour (I drive across blackheath to join the A2)..Today i drove into central London and it was a nightmare. Maybe they have re-phased the lights as a fear-inducing mechanism... I must say that it has worked.

[Lowlander]

I drove up North recently and it took almost two hours to get from ED to the start of the M1 on both occasions outside of rush hour (10.00 on a Friday and 1900 on a Thursday).

That was going through Camberwell/Oval/Vauxhall/Park Lane/Edgeware Road.

That usually takes between 45 mins and an hour.

I'm avoiding travel as much as possible although will be on the pushbike where necessary.

Will they really fine cyclists who go in the Olympics lanes?

[DulwichFox]

The Olympic Lanes ...

Are they for the Atheletes and VIP's

Or

Were they really put in place for Security & Military use.

Fox.

[Penguin68]

Zil lanes were a requirement of the Olympic apparatchiks - flowing from the problems in the (I think) Atlanta games when some athletes couldn't get to the stadia on time.

The officals also wanted to be able to speed about London seeing the best events without trouble.

Security/ Military (1) have helicopters to get about in and (2) are very able to clear lanes in traffic if they have to get anywhere in a hurry. And they will be out in force anyway.

[Loz]

Lowlander Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I drove up North recently and it took almost two

> hours to get from ED to the start of the M1 on

> both occasions outside of rush hour (10.00 on a

> Friday and 1900 on a Thursday).

>

> That was going through

> Camberwell/Oval/Vauxhall/Park Lane/Edgeware Road.

>

> That usually takes between 45 mins and an hour.

That was probably because the start of the M4 is still closed, causing loads of chaos.

>

> I'm avoiding travel as much as possible although

> will be on the pushbike where necessary.

>

> Will they really fine cyclists who go in the

> Olympics lanes?

Oh, I so hope so.

[kimblecake]

I usually get the 7.29 or 7.36 to LB in the morning and it is already feels MUCH busier than normal...

[bonniebird]

My family live in Stratford and Forest Gate, there are already road closures in place, if we want to park outside my folks house, we have to be registered on the computer or we'll get a ticket, Olympic lanes have been painted on the Blackwall tunnel approach, Westfields car parks are closed til September. My mums birthday in on the 27th we are celebrating on the 21st ;)

[Carbonara]

Will it be as bad during the Paralympics?

[catma]

Probably, because the school term starts in the middle of the paralympics...

[buntytrumpet]

cycling on the A2 is already much harder work and much slower

[Timster]

Where do the figures for 500,000 extra passengers and 3 million additional trips come from? I am a bit cynical about this and tend to think it is all scaremongering and the figures are plucked out of thin air ( why would each of these extra passengers be doing six journeys?) If you think how many commuters travel into London every day, the number of people going to the Olympic venues will be a drop in the ocean. And during the summer holidays when commuter trains are half as busy as normal.

[Chippy Minton]

TfL, the Government, bus/train/tube operators, the organisers etc - they all seem to agree. Why would they want to scaremonger?

The Olympic Stadium holds 80,000 people on its own. The games are on for 16 days - that's 1,280,000 people the vast majority of which will be going on public transport. Then there are all the other venues to consider....people that will do the tourist things on the days they aren't going to events...all the teams...all the associated infrastructure, media etc. The list is pretty endless.

Then of course comes the Paraolympics.

[Applespider]

Except that the stadium isn't used every day - 60,000 for the two Ceremonies and then 8 days of athletics at 80,000 although there are two sessions each day. There are probably another 100,000 seats in the Olympic Park and each of those also have two or three sessions which does all add up.

I think the interchanges and stations will be worse than the actual trains; and that's likely because they'll cordon bits off to get people to follow a path. But, I do think they are publicising the worse case scenario which is probably right. Get some people paranoid enough to rearrange or retime their journey which can't hurt and then if people have been told they may need to wait for an hour to board a train and it only takes 30 minutes, they'll feel better.

Cyclists can use the Games Lanes that are on the nearside. It's the ones that are on the offside that they're saying cyclists shouldn't use since they wouldn't be there in any case. Hmmm, quite a few of us prefer to filter on the offside so not a great argument but we'll see.

[Chippy Minton]

Oops..fair enough, didn't know it wasn't used everyday, but even so - 8 days of athletics, with two capacity sessions a day equals 1,280,000 spectators in the stadium alone.

[buggie]

*wrong login*

[Timster]

But not all on the same day. The original post refers to 500,000 extra travellers every day.

[Chippy Minton]

160,000 at two sessions in the Olympic Stadium

52,500 at three sessions in the Aquatics Centre

36,000 at three sessions in the Basketball Arena

6,000 at the BMX circuit

7,000 at the Copper box (handball etc)

12,000 at sessions in the Veledrome

10,000 at two sessions in the water polo arena

30,000 at three sessions at ExCel

23,000 for horse riding in Greenwich

30,000 at Wimbledon

45,000 at three sessions at Horse Guards Parade

90,000 at Wembley Stadium

6,000 at Wembley Arena

6,500 at Lords

45,000 at three sessions at Earls Court

It soon adds up. There's also people that will just have tickets for the Olympic Park. And that's just spectators at the ticketed venues - thousands more will be at the free events like the cycling and marathon.

And there's all the people working there to factor in as well.

[Lowlander]

Loz Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Lowlander Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > I drove up North recently and it took almost

> two

> > hours to get from ED to the start of the M1 on

> > both occasions outside of rush hour (10.00 on a

> > Friday and 1900 on a Thursday).

> >

> > That was going through

> > Camberwell/Oval/Vauxhall/Park Lane/Edgeware

> Road.

> >

> > That usually takes between 45 mins and an hour.

>

> That was probably because the start of the M4 is

> still closed, causing loads of chaos.

>

> >

> > I'm avoiding travel as much as possible

> although

> > will be on the pushbike where necessary.

> >

> > Will they really fine cyclists who go in the

> > Olympics lanes?

>

> Oh, I so hope so.

Ooh, someone who'll be using the lanes officially on the ED forum!

Having checked, cyclists won't be fined...