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.

I didn't realise that ifancyashandy I'm a sarf Londoner by birth... Now out in Surrey. We have the cycling road race around here which will be hellish, but hopefully it's just the one day.

Nah Headfairy, Statford isn't City. But the knock on effects will affect us as well travel wise (work near you do I think)

I drive from Redhill to white city via the M25 and A40... I can honestly say I haven't a clue how my journey will be affected.

It's going to be a challenge/nightmare! Tfl can barely cope on an average day.

Stratford is not central London! Seems very comparable to Athens and Sydney locations to me.

I thought it might improve cycling but not if roads are closed. More working from home sounds good, it could even increase the number of people who do it regularly and reduce commuting time.

I'm obviously in a minority about being excited about it despite living walking/cycling distance from most venues and only getting 1 crap pair of tickets. I think the 'buzz' will be great all over the uk, esp London.

I live 50 miles south of London (about an hours drive tops).

The transport planner tells me I need to leave at 11.00 pm Sat to get to see the wrestling on Sunday morning.

Thanks

I also think it's totally unreasonable that black cabs are being restricted... My cabbie a while ago said he had been told he "wasn't allowed to take fares to the Olympic Village, if you ignore that you will not be permitted to take a return fare away from the Olympic Village, and black cabs will not be allowed to use the fast routes".

It's madness for anyone to want to have the meter in a cab running to sit in a traffic jam for hours, but equally it is London. Black cabs and red buses are what people associate with London transport.

I hate the Olympics. And I have to take DP to the sodding football at Old Trafford.

I really do fear the knock on effects as as soon as various parts of the network get overcrowded/shut down, it really will affect the busiest lines all the way accross the network.

I do love the article I read in the Standard a few weeks ago, whee Locog (Ithink?) were suggesting that if you finished work at 5pm, then to stop for a pint or two to avpid the rush....

Gonna pay for a pint a night (in London prices!) for everyone to delay their commute home Locog?

Nope, didn't think so....

Bloody Olympics I'm really hoping that the disruption is being massively overegged in advance so that we'll be relieved when they're only a nuisance rather than an utter nightmare.

Actually what I am dreading even more than the transport hassle is the acres of fawning media coverage. Obscure people running in circles watched by repulsively wealthy corporate types, at a cost to taxpayers of £10 billion - really, why on earth is this supposed to be exciting?

that one got right on my tits, val. Because none of us have anything more pressing to do, like pick up children from after school club or childminders, do we? Feckers. Feckers swanning about in their VIP lanes while mere ambulances and vehicles carrying organs for transplant are stuck in traffic.

All this thread confirms is that Londoners are a miserable, complaining bunch. I remember the Manchester Commonwealth Games from a few years back. Yes, there was more traffic for a short time but the locals were generally enthusiastic about the opportunity to show off the region, welcomed visitors and just got on with it.

I am bloody dreading it. I go back to work before Olympics & I have no idea how I'll get to & from work. Nightmare.

Possibly because the Manchester games didn't piss quite so much money down the toilet in the middle of a bloody recession. possibly because Manchester wasn't trying to move and extra three million people on its transport network which already struggles with the current volume. Possibly because it wasn't of the same scale and duration. Possibly because mancunians were made to feel more involved than londoners have.

It feels very much like the city is hosting something for other people, not for it's own.

It feels very much like the city is hosting something for other people, not for it's own

Exactly that.

It's going to be grim. I'm getting married on the last day of the Olympics, and deeply regret the fact that we couldn't get a date at our venue in July rather than August so we could be out of the country on honeymoon for as much of it as possible.

Cogito - you're damn right Londoners are miserable complaining gits. It's part of the fun of living here

Im actually part of the olympic planning board at my company, we are in a location where we are smack bang in the middle of several events and have been 'lucky' enough to have a tfl olympics advisor assisting us. He has shown us various horrific photos of the Atlanta Olympics, where people queued 8 hours to get on a train.
They have also produced station impact guides and I can tell you it is going to be London wide chaos, tube stations such as Holborn, Oxford Circus, Waterloo, London Bridge, Canary Wharf, Charing Cross etc are going to be manic. This will spill on to other lines and stations where people try to avoid the mayhem.
He has advised us to stagger working hours, so 7am until 3pm for example and get staff to work from home where possible.

I do hope that having gone through the tortuous process of getting tickets for some of the events that we will not miss them because we are in an 8 hour transport jam

Mrshannigan - is the chaos predicted to be as bad for the paralympics?

Don't really care. Don't live in London. Didn't get any tickets for the Olympics, despite a modest request (ie no opening ceremony, no 100m final). Think we might go abroad instead.

Blu, its predicted that it will be more manageable for the Paralympics.

I commute into Liverpool Street (via Stratford) from Essex and the train service is pretty dire on a daily basis let alone when the Olympics is here. Trains are already overcrowded and running late most days. Thankfully I go on maternity leave in 6 weeks.

Here speaks a massive olympics fan, who would normally back up the 'wondeful event, fabulous memories, once in a lifetime' argument - BOLLOCKS TO THAT this time around.

I watched the Dispaches programme last week about the potential utter madness that will quite simply be hell for 'normal' Londoners and people that work there. The closure of a lane of traffic for twattish knobheads 'VIPs' (and those who can afford £50k for a week of events) is totally unfeasble and will be a royal pain in the arse. I live up North and the Manchester games, as someone has said, was welcomed and we were made to feel part of things and it all ran smoothly with little disruption to normal people's lives.

Smacks of Those Who Can Afford and Those Who Can't. This year's Olympics has been severely tainted for me, and I am a huge fan. Just leaves a bad taste. You all have my sympathy down there!

VonHerrBurton - thank you! There are other ramifications (not all restreicted to London). The Lambeth Country Show - a fabulous event amidst one of the most disadvantaged local communities in the country, where people can relax, have fun and see things they could never afford to go to the country to see like sheep dog trials and falconry, has been cancelled because the Olympics has put such a strain on police availablity, fencing and toilets for hire, etc etc. Glastonbury has gone the same way. But the Lambeth Country Show makes an enormous local difference.

I have tickets for paralympic events, and am hugely looking forward to those events. The regeneration of parts of E London will pay dividends, I am sure, but all this could have been achieved without the shocking removel of the rights of British people (not just Londoners) to have fair access to the games we paid for. I am disgusted that LOCOG is a private company with no obligations under the FoI act, and has all our public money. Shocking.

Lambeth Country Show sounded lovely, Blu I didn't know about that! YY to LOCOG and the Freedom of Information farce. More fab organisation and another big two fingers up to everyone except the super rich by the lovely Seb Coe.

Enjoy the paralympics Blu, my parents are heading down for them also.

YANBU. Bloody ridiculous idea to host Olympics in London!

I commute in from SE to Charing Cross.
Then walk to Soho. I work in publishing - ie we have to meet exact deadlines! So a lot of people need to be there AT THE SAME TIME AS EACH OTHER.

What cracks me up is the endless surveys they have made us fill in at work
Are you planning to take a holiday during the olympics
Stay in England and use your holiday allowance?
Will you cycle to work?
Would you be willing to walk to work? (12 miles wtf?)
Can you work from home ? (only if stupid company give employees remote access)

It's like the survey is trying to persuade you not to go to work.

Personally though, I am kinda looking forward to the working from home scenario. My company is full of dinosaurs who refuse pretty much all flexible working requests on return from maternity.
I reckon their hand is going to be forced because of the Olympics.
Bring that on!

No Lambeth country fair??!!

That really sucks!