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Sheer volume of passengers caused Kings X Underground station to be shut briefly this morning. Just a normal commuter Tuesday I would have thought. How will it be during great sportfest one wonders?
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As someone who used to commute into London daily, I still can't get my head around how the transport side of things will cope with the Olympics. London's transport network already creaks to near breaking point on a normal working day.
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I can never understand why either, all it takes is an underground failure at the Olympics (which will happen) and the entire system will descent into chaos.
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and what with BAA showing adverts to NOT fly anywhere while the Olympics are on, will just add even more pain and suffering.
Fortunately I do not have to travel to London any more but if I were, id try and work from home or change jobs !
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Is the Olympics going to cause much concentrated extra demand?
Some of the events are spread around, spread over a couple of weeks, and spectator numbers at each event are relatively low.
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I seem to remember that King's Cross tube is always heavy going at busy times, right up there with Piccadilly Circus. Driving through King's Cross even at busy times is a doddle by comparison.
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Judging by the number of unsold tickets, some events will be a disaster.
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The Main Olympic Park will be hosting
Athletics
Diving( Not the football kind)
Swimming
Hockey
Handball
Cycling
BMX
Modern Penthtathalon
Opening and Closing Fests
That looks a lot of stuff every day. KX will be the terminus for people coming into London from the North (East Coast and and First Capital Connect) and C2C from Welwyn and Hertford. Those Passengers will have to go Northen line to Bank and change to Central or take Metropolitan, Circle or Hammersmith and City to Liverpool Street and change there to Central. It isn't going to be fun.
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It isn't going to be that much fun. But then, talking to people who've lived in previous host cities, most of the population has gone on holiday - so in fact the city has been quieter than normal.
Plenty of hotel rooms available in London for not much more than normal rates.
Not sure about madf's "disaster". Don't think there are that many still around, or at least the Press don't.
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I agree with what you say re who is going be where during the Games. I think the difference is that most other host cities haven't got an 80 year old Underground system which is already running close to capacity, especially at the peak morning and late afternoon travel times
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Are you telling me that these athletes will be starting what passes in their lives for "work" at 8.30/9am?
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 15:54
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Closure of underground stations, albeit usually fairly briefly, is pretty much a daily thing. I no longer really clock the announcemets at Euston but it's common to see the gates at say Holborn pulled shut. Even a short service hiatus soon overcrowds platforms etc.
I'm not too optimistic about TfL's abiilty to cope with Olympics. OTOH as already observed most events are outside the City/West end commuter zone. Schools will have finished by then and the holiday season will be under way. The Civil Service has been asked to reduce travel by non-frontline staff who are encouraged to work remotely or re-jig/'re-mode' their travel. Other large employers may have done same with their 'back rooms'.
It everything works they'll probably cope. A couple of badly placed persons under and a co-incident breakdown is all that's needed have the lot backed up for miles.
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No, they will be living in the area of stadium in their purpose built accommodation and won't have to travel, much
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>> Not sure about madf's "disaster". Don't think there are that many still around, or at
>> least the Press don't.
>>
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18345874
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madf, that was the article I was reading in order to come up with my own position!
Of a total of about 9m tickets (according to the Guardian) www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/08/london-2012-olympics-tickets-sale the BBC claims about 0.5m remaining. So a smidgen over 5%.
(Not including Olympic football, or (don't laugh) the Paralysed-lympics.)
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 17:06
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>> The Main Olympic Park will be hosting
>>
>> Athletics
>> Diving( Not the football kind)
>> Swimming
>> Hockey
>> Handball
>> Cycling
>> BMX
>> Modern Penthtathalon
>> Opening and Closing Fests
>>
>> That looks a lot of stuff every day. KX will be the terminus for people
>> coming into London from the North (East Coast and and First Capital Connect) and C2C
>> from Welwyn and Hertford. Those Passengers will have to go Northen line to Bank and
>> change to Central or take Metropolitan, Circle or Hammersmith and City to Liverpool Street and
>> change there to Central. It isn't going to be fun.
But they are not all going to be trundling in to see the events at 8:30 in the morning nor are they all going to be leaving at 5:30 in the evening. Nor will they all be coming through kings cross.
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There is also a shuttle service on HS1 from St Pancras to Stratford using the Javelin in a mere 7 minutes which reduce the pressure on the Underground for those making the journey frm the North as you describe.
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>> Judging by the number of unsold tickets, some events will be a disaster.
I don't think 8 million tickets sold is a disaster.
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about 10 million.
the ones that are left are those priced at ridiculous prices, int he hundreds of pounds each category.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 16:17
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A large number of people will avoid London during the games. So extra visitors will probably balance the load on infrastructure.
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My goodness, most of you are a grumpy lot - at least when it comes to the Olympics.
I remember the doom and gloom and predictions that things wouldn't be ready - but they are! I don't buy the theory that the transport system is going to break under some imagined strain, either.
If you don't like the Games, then just ignore them. I've no interest in them myself, to be honest, but I hope that those people who are looking forward to the Olympics thoroughly enjoy themselves, and that we get good weather for the open air events.
Last edited by: Londoner on Tue 10 Jul 12 at 16:47
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>> If you don't like the Games, then just ignore them. >>
Why should I? They took my money to pay for them!
If they had just taken the money from people who were in favour, I wouldn't have minded.
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Quite right Londoner. We are a tiresomely miserablist lot in this country.
I hate sport too, but that doesn't mean I won't idle away many an hour watching bits of the games on television. There are usually a few things worth seeing at the Olympics. It would be surprising if the world's best at everything physical couldn't put on a bit of spectacle.
I'm glad I'm not in London though. The authorities and all the strangers in town are sure to cause difficulties on the roads here and there. What we must hope is that bad guys don't pull any strokes and not too many British athletes will be rumbled for having more than the permitted levels of steroids and so on if randomly tested. It must be quite bad enough shortening your life with these substances - more or less compulsory it is said - just to be in the qualifying bracket, without having everyone pointing at you and the tabloids calling you a cheat.
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If there are 10m tickets, that makes a maximum of 20m tube rides (ignoring the fact that some people won't travel by tube, some of the sports aren't in London).
There are 3m journeys, on average, made each day (source: TFL). www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoftransport/londonunderground/1608.aspx
So over the three weeks of the games, in average days, there would be 63m journeys taken.
The number of trains that are actually full, normally, is probably an hour's worth a day. 15 minutes in the mornings, 45 in the evenings. We're scarcely going to notice these extra people.
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I don't do thumbs, so well said Londoner!
Pat
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I am not personally grumpy - I shall watch the excellent TV coverage and relax at home. Security isn't close to ready! 2 day old article says they are short of 9000 trained and accredited staff and are calling in retired police officers to make up numbers
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/08/olympics-2012-uksecurity?newsfeed=true
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>> calling in retired police officers to make
>> up numbers
Excelent, can't think of anyone better. As long as that grumpy old git Westpig is not called up.
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It's broke - A retired Police Officer friend on FB is going along with a good dozen friends, SIA regs are being waived by the Home Office and they're getting big bucks !
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Kings Cross Underground shut this Morning - DP
