Morning:
8°c
Games chiefs admit they can't meet travel times for athletes
Martin Bentham and Matthew Beard10 Dec 2008
LONDON Olympics chiefs have been forced to admit that it will be impossible to transport athletes around the capital as quickly as planned in a retreat from the original Games blueprint.
Under proposals set out in the bid document used to win the Games, organisers promised to set up "Zil lanes" across the capital to ferry officials and competitors at high speed to their events.
The priority routes - named after the roads reserved for Soviet era Politburo cavalcades in Moscow - will link all the key venues and will be shut to all other traffic to let users progress rapidly through London.
Problems achieving the target times have emerged as the Department of Transport launches a public consultation today on the lanes, officially called the Olympic Route Network, to be used by 55,000 athletes and VIPs.
After a more detailed assessment of the routes, however, London chiefs have been forced to tell the International Olympic Committee they were over-optimistic in their original bid document about how long journeys would take.
At a recent briefing they warned the IOC that athletes can now expect to spend considerably longer travelling to events and that it would be impractical - if not impossible - to meet the timings that were initially promised.
In the candidate file submitted to the IOC in 2004, it was claimed that the network would slash travel times on key routes. Journey times from Park Lane, where most VIPs will stay, to the equestrian events in Greenwich would be cut by 15 minutes to 22 minutes. From Park Lane to the aquatics centre in the Olympic park, the network would reduce the average journey time from 33 minutes to 20 minutes. For athletes in the Olympic village, the travel time to Wembley would be halved to 41 minutes.
It is understood that the IOC has accepted the slower journeys, but only as long as London's organisers can provide concrete evidence that athletes will be able to arrive at events on time and without unexpected traffic delays. Confirming that the "Zil lanes" will provide slower journeys than anticipated, one source said: "The timings in the original document were not realistic. The IOC has been told and appears happy with that."
Further work on how the routes will operate will now be carried out over the coming months with extensive "modelling" to be conducted next summer to assess the impact of the lanes on the flow of other traffic around London.
When the routes come into effect during the 2012 Games, a raft of temporary traffic restrictions will be imposed, including barring some left and right turns and altering traffic lights.
Reader views (16)
By VIP's I take it you refer to Coe, Jowell, et al. So they are to be given priority on London's streets whilst the poor workers (who are paying for the games) have to make do with a second rate transport system.
- R.F., Yorks, UK, 24/01/2009 13:08
Report abuse
Like everything upto now this Olympic Budget and forethought was and still is a dream.Having lived in China for a great many years,the British attitude toward the Olympics is ''laughable''.What the Chinese done was
one of National pride in so much as they had the everyday working person involved from the very start.They bought in workers from all over the country
to be in volved,including University Students.Here in the UK there are a handful of people on the Olympic Committee who are out for personal glory.Everyone predicted that Transport, Budget etc would be no problems ,well from the outset,the plan was doomed for failure,because they had ego minded in charge.Granted the economy is in ''flux'' at present,but that does not excuse the so called''boffins''in under estimating the task in the beginning.Yes, I am British and proud of it,
but where is the ''pride''that we so proudly present to the world.The Olympic Committee should sit down and reflect on what has happened,instead of blindly going forward and creating more problems that are surely to arise in the future.The one looming question that has not been properly addressed is that of Security,China from Day 1 had Security as their main priority,because every single aspect of the Olympics revolves around this,such as Transport, Athletes,Road Useage,Overseas Visitors,and this takes a great deal of money and time to establish and put into practise
- Arthur, UK, 18/12/2008 11:15
Report abuse
Given that Boris Johnson does'nt know how to transport the commuters between Waterloo and Victoria Stations then I doubt if he could manage this project.
Just bulid segregated traffic lanes which could then be used as busways and later upgraded to tram or light rail. But Boris keps cancelling projects after all the thames gateway brige could have been built as a busway with lanes for cyclists and pedestrians but east london remains devided by the river.
The regeneration is already underway as anyone who uses Stratford Station will know. While at West Ham station the overhead pylons are being removed.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 11/12/2008 17:47
Report abuse
Personally, I really don't care about the Olympics and am sure the athletes will be able to make it to their event. Like thousands of Londoners, they will just have to leave a little earlier. what is the big problem with that? Why, also, is such a fuss being made over such a simple thing as leaving a little earlier? Why, instead, isn't this fuss being made on behalf of us Londoners who use public transport every day?
- Ken Joralemon, London, UK, 11/12/2008 10:14
Report abuse
The Olympic plans call for all spectators to reach the Olympic Park on foot, using pedal power or public transport. So what's with the Zil Lanes? Let the Olympic Family use Oyster cards like the rest of us. Jacques Rogge can be loaned a bike - a good one, of course.
- Maureen Evans, Stroud Green, 11/12/2008 10:09
Report abuse
No, no that surely can't be right - LOCOG told us in person at the Indigo last week that because it is meant to be The "Compact" Games everyone was staying in Stratford so they could get to Greenwich in 20 minutes through the Blackwall Tunnel - and Cllr Roberts said TFL would be sorting it all out - and that's why the Equestrian Events and modern Pentathlon HAD to be in Greenwich - and nobody was going to stay anywhere near West London - and that's why it's all going to be so "Fantastic"....!!!!
- Sue, London, 10/12/2008 19:03
Report abuse
IOC bigwigs should not be given any priority over ordinary Londoners. If they want to minimise their journey times, they should stay in hotels near the venues, not in Park Lane.
- Oliver Chettle, Bedford, 10/12/2008 17:09
Report abuse
Will someone in authority please have the courage to stand up and say we must urgently consider our competence and financial ability to proceed with this Olympic event. If you multiply the Dome fiasco a billion times we can understand where this dangerous project is going to take us.
World wide humiliation and National Bankruptcy await the UK, common sense (Don't hear those words much nowadays) dictates the Bejing's magnificent Olympic infrastructure should host the 2012 Olympics.
With the UK economy in freefall and our on record inability to deliver any publicly funded project properly or to budget we have to accept this is not for the UK as it has so sadly become.
One day maybe but 2012 - a disaster.
- Mark, Bournemouth England, 10/12/2008 16:14
Report abuse
Presumably they can go from Park Lane etc to Marble Arch take the Central Line to Liverpool St then get the overground train to the stadium. I am sure that two trains can be appointed as Olympic specials that do not stop atthe other stations.
So much cheaper to do than stopping off roads, more efficient, certanly eco friendly and will not disrupt the day to day workers movements.
Wake up and get real, this is a practical solution for a City like London. Alternativly the officials could of course stay at the stadium - Anybody like to tell me why that is not possible ????
- Train Sport, London, England, 10/12/2008 15:51
Report abuse
Gosh - there is a surprise. Like everything to do with the bid, the travel times, like the budget were works of fiction and fantasy. Those responsible for that work of fiction should at the very least be fired for landing us taxpayers and London Council Tax payers with an expensive white elephant we can ill afford.
- Jeremy E, London, 10/12/2008 15:03
Report abuse
Someone appears to have misled the IOC about budget and about transport. What else have they been misled about ? And they don't seem to care; of course not as long as some mug is picking up the tab every four years, why should they ?
- Peter Haldane, London, 10/12/2008 14:45
Report abuse
Why can't those so-called VIPs stay in Docklands or Stratford?
Or take the Javelin to St Pancras where are are so many hotels.
- Alex Mckenna, Manchester, 10/12/2008 14:01
Report abuse
How about buying a ZIL or two and trying it out ? Alternatively, a "Chaika" or a Tatra Soviet-era limo would do (there's a Tatra here in the Surrey countryside near Guildford who I am sure could be persuaded into hiring out his Big Black Soviet Limo.)
- David, guildford, uk, 10/12/2008 13:51
Report abuse
The word "over-optimistic" appears quite frequently when referring to the Olympic bid and these games in general. Although a supporter, given the mess London will be in whilst the games are being hosted, I think I'll rent out the house and escape to somewhere where I can watch them on TV, whilst enjoying a stress-free life.
- Matthew, london, 10/12/2008 13:48
Report abuse
is anyone surprised that a bid for which the current Labour Government was cheerleader should have contaiend untruths and exaggerations?
And the fact the VIPs (whoever they are) will be staying in Park Lane when the events they are coming to see take place in East London tells us a lot about the IOC, the people who did the bid, and the "VIPs" themselves.
- Peter Dempsey, Greenwich, UK, 10/12/2008 13:21
Report abuse
And what an awful mess these VIP traffic lanes are going to make for normal people trying to go about their daily business.
- Robin, Brentford, UK, 10/12/2008 11:38
Report abuse
