Oyster complaints
 

In message , at 16:17:03 on
Thu, 15 Mar 2012, Bruce 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).
--
Roland Perry

Oyster complaints
 

On Mar 15, 5:51*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 16:17:03
on Thu, 15 Mar 2012, Bruce 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.

Oyster complaints
 

Mizter T wrote:


On Mar 15, 5:51*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 16:17:03
on Thu, 15 Mar 2012, Bruce 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.


If the Olympics grind to a halt because of transport problems I cannot
honestly say that I would expect to lose a moment's sleep.

Spending has already exceeded the original budget by five times, with
an expected overall outturn cost of ten times more than what was
promised when the UK lost the contest and unfortunately had to stage
the event. That's £28 billion against the original estimate of a mere
£2.8 billion.

It is only now being admitted, and reluctantly, that there was plenty
of data from previous Olympics showing that the claimed spin-off
benefits, such as increased tourism, haven't occurred in other
countries that hosted the event. So there aren't any net benefits to
the UK, just an obscenely large bill for two weeks of grossly overpaid
professional athletes prancing around in pretty colours.

If all this gets chewed up and ruined by a few transport problems, I
really could not care less.

Oyster complaints
 

In article ,
Paul Corfield wrote:
Prepare to be told that you are deluded and wrong.

Par for the course.

It is much more
cost effective to extend the Victoria Line to Leytonstone with
undefined intermediate stations.

mmm.

--
Mike Bristow

The link would definitely be used a great deal. There's nothing wrong with your suggestion - but it wasn't done!

I suggest you read my earlier post more carefully. I did not recommend the extension purely for the Olympics. It would be permanently useful for a large number of people living in Waltham Forest and Redbridge.

I'm not a train spotter. What or where is Hall Farm Curve and how would re-instating it improve transport links?

Oyster complaints
 

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

You have seen those transport "heat maps" I presume?
--
Roland Perry

Oyster complaints
 

In message , at 20:33:27 on
Thu, 15 Mar 2012, Bruce remarked:

Spending has already exceeded the original budget by five times,

It's about 3x (ie $9bn)

with an expected overall outturn cost of ten times more

What are spending the other £19bn on??

than what was promised when the UK lost the contest and unfortunately
had to stage the event. That's £28 billion against the original
estimate of a mere £2.8 billion.

The original estimate is curiously close to the cost of the actual Games
themselves. All the rest is spend on infrastructure and regeneration
which has been provided to support the games. I'm not saying that the
figures should not have been queried on that basis, btw.

£10bn is very representative of what the last half dozen Games have each
*spent*, overall. How you translate that "spend" into "cost" is another
matter. It depends how much use you get out of the legacy
infrastructure, for a start.
--
Roland Perry

Oyster complaints
 

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...)