To be totally dreading the Olympics because I live in London

[labelwriter]

I just am! Yesterday, I went to London Bridge to get to work and there was a practice for the Olympics and the whole station was in chaos and it was really shambolic. Last week I went to St James Park and most of it and the Mall was closed. It's going to add ages on to my journey. We have been told to cycle to work if we can but the bus lanes are to be closed so the VIP cars can use them and as i am sure anyone who cycles in central London will agree, this is going to cause lots of problems. Am sure the games themselves will be brilliant but it's the trying to get about in London bit I am dreading.

Nancy66 you are obviously just shit stirring, or thick.

I live just on the other side of Victoria Park, a stone's throw from the Olympic stadium. I work in Essex so have to use Mile End and Stratford stations every single day. Someone told me there could be up to a three hour wait just to get on a sodding tube train at peak times during the Olympics We just can't imagine what it will be like until it actually happens.

I'm dreading it and have changed my hours from 9-5 to 7-3 for the 2 weeks. I'm lucky that I was able to do that,and have managed to arrange 2 work from home days too. For people who just have to travel though, it's going to be a flaming nightmare. YANBU at all OP.

And I don't give a fig about the Games. I agree with other posters who said it's all for the corporate cronies. They just want the plebs to stay out of the way. Cant' wait until it's over!

GoldClass - no, I just don't think it will be as bad as everyone is expecting and I also think it's a great think to have in the capital and am excited about it.

I'm hopeful that it won't be as bad as expected. London is a huge city. 6+ million I think. What's an extra few hundred thousand in the grand scheme of things?

Someone fell ill on the tube the other day. The carnage it caused was horrendous. All this planning is all well and good but you can't plan for delays on the tube etc and it's going to be a fecking nightmare.

That said, the party spirit, I'm hoping, will make it all worthwhile. And the fact I don't live anywhere near the place. :o

Predicted waiting times and more at Get Ahead of the games

fuck! ive agreed to house sit the first week in august in wembley! wondered why my sister was so keen to get away.

buggerying fuck.

we were going to have a holiday but sounds more like we'll be less stressed at home!

YABU - it's only for a few weeks.

Nancy66. So are you excited (page 6) or do you think it won't affect you (Page 1)?
Or maybe just like to be a voice of dissent...

YANBU at all.

Dreading it. Basically we won't be able to go anywhere over the summer holidays.

So are the bus lanes going to be used as Olympic lanes on some roads? If so that will seriously mess things up.

wimblehorse - both.

that said road cycling is going past the bottom of my road... what are the chances of being able to watch?

It says here that all of the cycling road race is free to watch apart from 2 ticketed areas.

YANBU at all, I have complete sympathy. DF commutes to London and had a work meeting where he was told the waiting time just to get on a tube at the busiest stations (Victoria and London Bridge were given as examples, but all the big ones will be awful) during peak times would be 90 minutes... I doubt it'll actually be that bad, but he is absolutely dreading it and really worried. I'm just really concerned that as soon as delays happen, the whole thing will fall apart and people will panic. The Tube is totally over-capacity at peak times anyway, I dread to think what would happen in an emergency.

@obviously yes I saw that, I'll be down at 8 with my flags, becuase I won't have to use public transport

I went to Stratford last week and already so busy there, I pity anyone who might need to get there for any reason during the Olympics. Also whoever said about hearing the Boris voice overs on the Jubilee line .... shudders

Yanbu, I don't live in London, but they've taken some of our wheelchair/buggy accessible buses 'for the Olympics' and replaced them with old ones with stairs to the driver and no space for a buggy/wheelchair. I've already had my journey disrupted twice nd they haven't even started.

My sympathies go out to anyone who has to live in London through the Olympics. What a nightmare.

Poppy, that is disgusting!

I agree. Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I am dreading the whole thing, I spend a lot of time travelling between Greenwich and Tower Hamlets.

It will be hell.

A MN flashmob bf session might clear a few carriages ...

Spare a thought for me then. I have to get 1500 people in and out of London 7 days per week all through the Olympics. And get men in and out. No choice, as we are all in business critical jobs.

I meant ME not men!

Are you a train driver?

Well thank God my neighbour's son had his kidney transplant a few months ago. Because if the kidney had become available during the enforcement of the ORN it wouldn't have arrived half as fast.

We've been told not to drive between 6am and midnight. So drive to the supermarket at your peril. The supermarkets aren't doing online deliveries for the duration. Local shops have been told they can only get deliveries (and these will be limited according to my greengrocer up the road) late at night/early in the morning. I don't think we'll starve but it might interesting!

Don't get me wrong - I'm not anti Olympic exactly. They've cleared, decontaminated and developed huge swathes of post industrial land and given a big boost to a really depressed area. Who else would have invested here? As a local resident I'm trying to see the summer of disruption as payment for a big, long term improvement to my area. But... I feel I do have a right to moan about the rather large disruption to our lives in the meantime!

And we tried for tickets, and tried again. And didn't get any! Gah.