To think the Olympics will totally fuck transport in London?

[coraltoes]

Right, I've read about the Olympic super fast route for the committee members and athletes. I've read about ambulances not being allowed on them unless blue lighting (not all urgent ambulance trips are blue light emergencies), about transplant organs being transported at night to avoid the route and congestion, and about delays at major tube stations being predicted to be approx 30 minutes.

Wat the fuck is all that about?! Did tfl not know this was coming our way?? Did they really think, oh 2012, by then we will all be flying about with pissing rocket packs?!

I cannot believe it may add an extra hour to my daily commute.

To top it off I have heard canary wharf are asking firms to reduce workforce by up to 30% during the games to ease congestion on the dlr and tube!! So companies are expected to reduce productivity so boris and Seb Coe can have their wet pant moment as the world hails London as an Olympic dream? Ugh.

Not to mention how farcical and discriminatory the ticketing system was. Oh yes, if you are well off and can risk bidding for £5k of tickets that's great. If you can only afford to risk winning £100 worth well you've a far lower chance of making it to the games mate. Welcome to the London Olympics.

Have just seen this on Inside Out London. I don't live very far from central London (about 30 miles) and thought well, maybe, the Olympics might be something for DS to see. But I soon realised it was not going to be for the people of London. Oh no, totally corporate.

It would be interesting to learn and compare how the local populations of some of the most recent Olympic cities were put upon, ordered about, shoved around and deprived of tickets. The nearest we've seen is some shots of the previous Olympic venues which were never used by the people afterwards ("Legacy" HaHa) and have fallen into disrepair.

YANBU. Furiously hacked off with all this. DS isn't school age yet: I don't want to take leave during the Olympics because it will be horrendously expensive to go away and I have 16 years to come of being chained to the school holidays. But I work in central London and it's going to be absolute hell getting there and back every day.

YANBU. If they must spend so much money on the Olympics you'd have thought a bit more of it could have gone towards avoiding disruption for everyone who happens to live in London.

YABU TfL doesn't revolve around you personally. Yep it will be a pain for a short time - but then back to congestion and cramped trains cancellations and long waits - oh hang on not much difference then. There will be a contingency plan for emergency vehicles etc

rofl @ 'pissing rocket packs'.

I called their PR team the other day so we could find out exactly how we are meant to get in and out of where we live. Nada. We have to wait until March to find out how long/which/how much the roads round us are going to be shut. So I found out nothing then they called me back twice to ask me to take part in a questionnaire about their service!

I was taking to someone very senior in Tower Hamlets Council.

She has been advised to work from work for a month around the Olympics.

All right hand turns are going to be restricted in London.

She said that basically, restocking the Olympic Village elk be the equivalent of restocking a town the size of Colechester. Every night.

They are anticipating a queue lasting THREE HOURS to get INTO Canary Wharf station. That's three hours queuing. To get into the ticket hall.

Hell don't even come close.

Llanbobl. Correct. It is here to service the whole of the capital who are ripped off daily by its fares. So for some reason it seems to think it can take a break from that duty. As for the roads...I'm sure I pay road tax. Yet I can't drive to work as per usual during the games either. S can't drive, and forced to take heavily delayed transport. Yeah great one.

And don't get me started on ambulance access. Surely they matter more than athletes?!

I heard that they would be closing Westfields at Stratford City to ease congestion.

Surely the sheer volume of visitors would be a Godsend to Westfield. I've only been once so I've no idea how it's faring, but to close it seems shortsighted.

It might just be a load of tosh though (hope so)

Three hours to get into the station?! Oh Nice. I'll leave work at lunchtime to be sure to make it to nursery for pickup!

There may well be elk at the Olympics. But I meant to type 'will'.

The contingency for emergency vehicles is a joke. However I am comforted to read that sep blatter of FIFA corruption delight will be sped aout on this Olympic superhighway. He sounds most deserving.

Forgive my ignorance, but why will everyone be queuing to get into Canary Wharf station? I live near there so have a vested interest!

Dunno. But it's close so maybe there'll be additional transport links between there and Stratford?

For the station toilets I reckon.

dh works near London Bridge and has been told he needs to work from home at least two days a week during the Olympics. I think the reality is going to be more than that.

I can't work from home sadly.

I think there might be a bit of unnecessary panic here. The main stadium has a capacity of 80,000. Wembley has a capacity of 90,000. There are events at Wembley all the time that cause a bit of extra congestion but nothing like the scenarios that are being talked about for the Olympics. I know there is more to the games than what is going on in the main stadium, but I am just trying to get this in perspective here.

Lots of firms and the civil service are setting up as many people as possible to work from home to ease things.

I think it will cause some problems but I don't think they will be of the magnitude being talked about on this thread.

I've been to two Olympics, Athens and Barcelona, and one winter Olympics, Turin, and at none of them have I experienced massive transport problems. But then I wasn't trying to get to work. Hopefully the venues being dotted around London will help a bit.

Unbelievable that sport is getting priority over health!

We can usually work from home. But it's banned during the Olympics, ad is annual leave :(

Employers are getting regular e mails advsing them to facilitate staff to work from home as much as possible.
Personally I think working from home in July and August sounds marvellous, and predict a rush on loungers and deck chairs - order yours now.
I shall be putting together a proposal as to how I can accomplish my work from the back garden home, and it will save loads of money putting DS in summer camps lots of working time and make me more efficient.

However I am outraged about the Olympic lanes and think the bid team should have told the international committee to shove it. Apparantly the demands of the officials are so exacting and high end that they can only be accommodated on the grand hotels in the W End. It is one of the basic requirements of the bid that all the officials from every country egt put in hotels with a swimming pool - and there was some quite bizarre detail which I forget - it was on the Despatches pogramme the other night.

Wembley events are not during working hours usually. So are not adding to peak time travel volume. They also do not commandeer major roads for ther sole use. That's the main bugbear for me, how can they just take over roads?!

Furthermore, there is the main stadium, the pools, the aerodrome, the bmx track thing, the equestrian in Greenwich...a lot concentrated in east London.

Oh yes. Mini bar paid for and must have a sauna and pool.

Oh and drivers must wear a hat.

Not ideal for everyone, but friends of mine who work in the City have taken 2 weeks holiday, first two weeks of August seems to be a favourite, to try and avoid some of it.