On 16/03/2012 10:56, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
, at
11:56:21 on Thu, 15 Mar 2012, Mizter remarked:

Oh yes, it would really have been worth spending more £ billions just
to ensure that those Olympics will run smoothly for a couple of weeks.

Ask again after the Olympics.

I see increasing panic about the transport arrangements. For example the
wifi announcement today which was hilariously conflated with talk of
travel "hotspots" where they think there's going to be half-hour queues
to get on a train, even if they can get spectators to stagger their
journeys. (And make regular travellers stay at home, of course).

I think people who are wanting to see panic about it - e.g. yourself -
are seeing just that.

The Indy report about the Virgin wifi said (and I'm now pretty convinced
this is a cut-and-paste error when a journalist Googled "Tube Hotspot":

"Spreading passengers widely over the network and avoiding
bottlenecks at significant hotspots (sic) is a crucial part of
TfL's plans for the Games.

"If people are not persuaded to stay out later, work from home
or take more roundabout routes to get to venues, hotspots
including London Bridge, Canary Wharf and Bond Street will
suffer severe disruption.

"Even if all goes according to plan, waiting times of more than
half an hour to board the Tube are expected at the busiest
stations on the busiest days of the Games.

Well I didn't read the report in the Indy, and didn't notice any other
news reports that lashed together the Tube wi-fi announcement and
Olympic Games Tube congestion concerns (that's not to say there weren't
any others).

The Games weren't mentioned in either the Virgin Media press release, or
that from the Mayor of London - the latter instead managed to jimmy in
this reference:
"[...] US-based Yammer Inc, provider of enterprise social networks, that
it has chosen London over New York as the location for its first
developer centre outside the States [...]"

(Spot the logical inconsistency!)

http://www.london.gov.uk/media/press_releases_mayoral/mayor-announces-digital-first-virgin-media-selected-offer-wi-fi-tube-stations
or via http://preview.tinyurl.com/7fajlaw

(No separate TfL press release re the wifi, as least not as of yet.)


You have seen those transport "heat maps" I presume?

Yes. That doesn't count as 'panic' to me, that counts as preparation.
The whole "Get Ahead Of The Games" information campaign (being led by
TfL), for instance, is about informing and preparing people, businesses
and organisations.
http://www.getaheadofthegames.com/

FWIW, Tessa Jowell, ex-Olympics minister, made the following comment in
response to concerns that London might 'grind to a halt' during the Games:
"I’m prepared to bet my house that that will [prove to] be apocalyptic
nonsense."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/-7547121.html

(Here comes Bruce's torrent of righteousness...)