London Banter - View Single Post - Can the Railways Cope with the Olympic Crowds?

Bruce[_2_] · June 7th 12, 01:48 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

(Jim Hague) wrote:

In article ,
CJB wrote:
Judging by the fiasco of handling the cold, wet and bedraggled crowds
in London over the last four days of the Jubilee Shen. (= shenanigan
as in alt.shenanigan) I don't think that they have a chance.

Rail in Sydney in the weeks leading up the 2000 Olympics was rather a
shambles. Trains derailing right left and centre, large delays all
over the place. It was obvious transport during the Games were going
to be a disaster.

Then, for the duration of the Games, it ran like clockwork. Crowd control was
mostly done by the Olympic volunteers, cheerfully and efficiently.
Coming out of the main stadium, for example, you were guided to the
station, and then admitted to the platform in batches via parallel
entrances and positioned. At which point a train would glide in, load in
next to no time, and depart. No delays, very efficiently done.

Is there anything London can learn from Sydney about legacy? Much was
made of the legacy that would remain after London 2012, but most of
the ideas have fallen completely flat.

For example, there has been no increase in children's participation in
sport because the run-up to the Olympics is concurrent with
significant cuts in government spending on sport. Large elements of
the Olympic park and village were supposed to have been privately
funded for profit. Instead, taxpayers' money has been used to build
these elements and even more taxpayers' money has been earmarked to
pay private firms to take these elements over.

Instead of making money for Britain, the whole shebang is going to
cost British taxpayers many billions of pounds. The original estimate
was a total cost of £2.4 billion. That isn't even going to pay for
security. The expected total cost is now in the region of £28 billion
and may rise even further.