London’s ‘feel-good’ Olympic Games may have got people talking on the Tube, but how did the city’s rail network stand up to the task?
More than half of spectators, around five million people, used rail at some point to travel to and from Olympic venues, according to figures released by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). Punctuality figures were in excess of 90 per cent and 12.4 million extra seats – the most substantial increase in the railway’s 187-year history – were made available to cope with the huge demand.
Despite stories about delays on the Central Line, packed stations and suspended DLR services at the start of the event, the city has been praised for its resilience throughout what has been dubbed as the first ‘public transport Games’.
Michael Roberts, chief executive of ATOC, said: “As the world’s attention has been on Great Britain, the railway has played its part in showing that Britain can deliver an outstanding Olympic Games.
“Millions of passengers from here and abroad have been able to rely on their train to get them to their destination and home again, from early in the morning until well past midnight.
“A big thank you goes to all our passengers who planned ahead and helped the railway to run smoothly. We are also indebted to our fantastic staff and colleagues across the rail industry who with good humour have worked flat out to deliver the first truly successful public transport Olympics.
As the world’s attention has been on Great Britain, the railway has played its part in showing that Britain can deliver an outstanding Olympic Games.
“We now look forward to the Paralympics when the railway will be equally focused on helping passengers get to and from events reliably and safely. Once London 2012 is over, our plan is to use the experience of the Games to learn how we can continue improving services and delivering for passengers.”
Charles Horton, managing director of Southeastern whose Javelin trains experienced an average of 90,000 journeys a day during the Olympics, said: “The service during the Olympics was the culmination of three years of meticulous planning and working with other industry partners, to deliver the best possible service during the Games.
“We’re really proud of our employees’ efforts as they’ve pulled out all the stops, and worked around the clock to ensure spectators could get to and from events and our customers able to make their journeys.”
I used both the LOROL London Overground Rail Operations out of New Cross Gate up to DLR where we switched to Stratford and used the Stratford International Hitachi Javelin last Wed/Thur and Fri and both networks were absolutely fine. Station Staff and games makers made the Olympics. The London Underground was more than upto the task as well, used Jubillee, Victoria, Central, Hammersmith and City and all ran perfectly well
Well done to all the TOC’s, London Underground and Network Rail, lets have more of the same now the Olympics are over
I had a fantastic time using public transit to attend the regatta at Eton Doney; however being an expat Vancouverite I object to the qualification of London being “first” public transit Olympics. During the 2010 Winter Olympics all major transit, excepting the VanOC shuttle to and from Whistler, were entirely on Vancouver’s existing public transit network. We can quibble about scale and whether the winter Olympics count (UK isn’t particularly good at winter sports, so the average Brit would claim it doesn’t count), but the concept of an Olympic ticket coming with free public transit was not pioneered by London 2012.