How will London Transport cope?

[DarloRich]

The Transport system in London coped fantastically and everyone involved should be very pleased and proud that it did so.

 

[pendolino]

First week: everything less busy than normal
Second week: everything much busier than normal

That was my perception anyway.

But yes, I think the transport system coped brilliantly. I travelled around a fair bit in London during the Games, sometimes on the way to/from Olympic events, sometimes not. I never once had to wait in queues for ages which was something I was expecting. Staff and (especially) the volunteers were helpful and friendly. It was a great effort by all involved, well done London.

 

[tbtc]

The Transport system in London coped fantastically and everyone involved should be very pleased and proud that it did so.

This.

For all the predictions of doom (Unions on strike, "unfit" trains being brought back into service, "inevitable" tube failures, terrorism...), things seemed to manage pretty fantastically - I'm sure a few journalists had their "travel nightmare" stories have written before the Opening Ceremony, but the truth is that we aren't the shambles of a country that we think we are.

Well done to everyone involved.

 

[YorkshireBear]

This.

For all the predictions of doom (Unions on strike, "unfit" trains being brought back into service, "inevitable" tube failures, terrorism...), things seemed to manage pretty fantastically - I'm sure a few journalists had their "travel nightmare" stories have written before the Opening Ceremony, but the truth is that we aren't the shambles of a country that we think we are.

Well done to everyone involved.

Yeah i think (hope...) that this instills a bit of confidence into the country, we did a fantastic job and the world seemed to enjoy it.

The transport did fantastic and everyone involved with that deserves HUGE credit for the way it was handled. Who impressed me most? Greater Anglia, hats off to them. I was very sceptical about the whole olympics a month a go, couldn't have been more wrong, i have been enthralled.

As i say well done. And anyone involved who is on here yuo deserve a lot of credit.

 

[tbtc]

Yeah i think (hope...) that this instills a bit of confidence into the country, we did a fantastic job and the world seemed to enjoy it.

The transport did fantastic and everyone involved with that deserves HUGE credit for the way it was handled. Who impressed me most? Greater Anglia, hats off to them. I was very sceptical about the whole olympics a month a go, couldn't have been more wrong, i have been enthralled.

As i say well done. And anyone involved who is on here yuo deserve a lot of credit.

I agree - for all our cynical pessimistic self-depreciation maybe we should give ourselves a bit more credit in our abilities.

Hopefully Greater Anglia can now concentrate on their "bread and butter" - it must have been a real baptism of fire to have to deal with the Olympics after only a few months of the franchise but if they can cope with that (despite an elderly fleet of EMUs) then hopefully the same positive approach can work on the rest of the franchise.

 

[GodAtum]

I think the transport system coped brilliantly so credit to TFL! No queues for Javelin services nor Jubilee trains and no queues at London bridge for Southern services.

I have to admit to being pessimistic but was pleasantly surprised, even the bankers on the Jubilee line looked happy!

 

[philabos]

On this side of the pond our newspaper this morning declared this the "Happy and Glorious" Olympics. The may not be quite as aware of NR and TFL's contributions, but did say the predicted transport mayhem turned out to be a non issue.
Congratulations to all in the UK - you are getting a standing ovation from the rest of the world!

 

[monty9120]

am i the only one that thinks the transport network worked better then it does on our normal commute lol

 

[D1009]

On this side of the pond our newspaper this morning declared this the "Happy and Glorious" Olympics.!

That was a direct quote from Jacques Rogge's speech at the closing ceremony.
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- you are getting a standing ovation from the rest of the world!

Except France !

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Very good effort all round - especially with TfL doing 25%+ extra all day passenger loadings and running till after 0230am. Much , much effort.

Advance tickets for longer distance bookings were a bit sluggish - and VWT (from a conversation today) excelled themselves with the Coventry and Manchester football traffics by running 4 extra Man - EUS services and a load from Coventry as there were last minute tickets available. All manned by volunteer crews.

London and SE got the feel good factor , especially over the last weekend when loads of people went up for the atmosphere with excellent loadings all round.

The Javelin service (when I checked it) - performed brilliantly - measured , steady flows.

I shall miss the good atmosphere , cosmopolitan , friendly with great volunteers and police from all over the UK in attendance. Good ambassadors. Relaxed staff with 2012 badges etc etc. Lots of new traffic I reckon.

Course the media were gagging for bad news - (which they didn't get) - no doubt some media pundits were just waiting to give the "I told you so - its a broken railway" - I would quote a Withnail and I comment here about them , but would get banned.

Excellent effort by all grades and organisations. Well planned. What the railway does best.

And performance didn't suffer 92%+ some days nationally - and the odd operating incident (OLE down on WCML etc) was worked round.

 

[DarloRich]

Of course as was pointed out today by the big wigs the job is only half done.

We have to do everything again for the paralympics which, i think, will offer different challenges in that i expect more normal commuters to be back form their leave, less working form home, the schools to be back, more day trippers wanting to experience the atmosphere (this picked up noticeably as the games period went on) and perhaps an increase in the number of passengers requiring assistance.

That said the games transport worked really well and any issues were worked around with the minimum delay and inconvenience to the passengers, many of whom were guests to our country or irregular train users.

I had many comments form people saying how great the transport system was and that this wasn't the picture often portrayed by the media.

 

[CC 72100]

Honestly, I thought we could do it (transport-wise). The press have a habit of making us seem as if we lag behind everyone else in public transport (in some areas we may do?) but I always had faith, and they delivered. Bit gutted we didn't try harder to get tickets now!

 

[dk1]

Been a terrific couple of weeks on the GEML. Atmosphere has been superb. Nothing but praise for the organisation at Stratford Regional too. Will seem really dull going back to normality for the next fortnight.

 

[user15681]

The world thought London transport did so well, that the organisers of Rio 2016 have appointed TfL as their official travel advisers.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

The world thought London transport did so well, that the organisers of Rio 2016 have appointed TfL as their official travel advisers.

Excellent - and well deserved. TfL deserve a gold star (medal)

We only had the Worlds first underground rapid transit system in 1863 from Paddington to Farringdon Street. One or 2 cities have copied it since.....
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Of course as was pointed out today by the big wigs the job is only half done.



That said the games transport worked really well and any issues were worked around with the minimum delay and inconvenience to the passengers, many of whom were guests to our country or irregular train users.

I had many comments form people saying how great the transport system was and that this wasn't the picture often portrayed by the media.

Of course , professionals doing their job , and a bit more, (to say the very least) -is not news to the professional critics (who don't end up coupling units at xx o clock in sidings, working anti-social hours etc .......

Rant ....over

 

[Goldfish62]

The world thought London transport did so well, that the organisers of Rio 2016 have appointed TfL as their official travel advisers.

Completely agree with all the comments here.

Yes, our public transport in London isn't perfect, but it's a darn sight better than many places. Anyone who thinks to the contrary has not travelled abroad regularly on public transport. eg, I'm a great admirer of Berlin's public transport system, but look at the horrendous, and still ongoing, S Bahn problems, of which there has not been the merest whimper in our "wonderful" media.

 

[ert47]

am i the only one that thinks the transport network worked better then it does on our normal commute lol

Hilariously, all my trains were delayed this morning! :roll:

Bring back the Olympics, I say!!

 

[millemille]

Hilariously, all my trains were delayed this morning! :roll:

Bring back the Olympics, I say!!

I'd imagine Southern suffered the same as we (Southeastern) did with the over running of the closing ceremony. Our service ended up finishing around 3am with a lot of stock displaced and no chance for any balancing moves.

 

[jon0844]

I was impressed that GA kept its man (or woman) Tweeting information right up until the last train - which must have given a lot of reassurance to those that followed it.

As an aside, I've also noticed that GA and FCC keep Tweeting each other now! Good to see some friendly banter, although I hope those with GA only tickets don't get taken to court for daring to follow the FCC Twitter feed.

 

[telstarbox]

I'll be ensuring all my tweets are Any Permitted just to be safe

On a serious note, London's transport network and the intercity routes shift millions of people every day, for work and for big sports events like the FA Cup and the Grand National. Nothing on the scale of the Olympics will come along for many years but those who said chaos was certain were wide of the mark.