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On your marks, get set… go!

Posted: 19 September 2005 | Bob Kiley, London’s Transport Commissioner | No comments yet

Transport for London gears up for the best ever connected games.

Following on from the summer issue of Intelligent Transport in which Hugh Sumner – Transport for London’s Director of Olympic Transport – relished the prospect of presenting the Capital’s public transportation plan on behalf of the UK bid team to the IOC in Singapore, it is only fitting that we bring matters up to date in this issue. Hugh’s compelling pitch revealed the ambitious vision of a totally integrated transport system, capable of responding to the needs of many hundreds of athletes and their entourages, tens of thousands of spectators and the world’s massed media amounting to an estimated half-a-million extra visitors from overseas, all of whom would be descending on the capital in unprecedented numbers. Furthermore, London’s public transport will be free to all Olympic spectators; from dusk till dawn, those with a valid ticket to any Games event in London can travel on London’s public transport for free.

Transport for London gears up for the best ever connected games. Following on from the summer issue of Intelligent Transport in which Hugh Sumner – Transport for London’s Director of Olympic Transport – relished the prospect of presenting the Capital’s public transportation plan on behalf of the UK bid team to the IOC in Singapore, it is only fitting that we bring matters up to date in this issue. Hugh’s compelling pitch revealed the ambitious vision of a totally integrated transport system, capable of responding to the needs of many hundreds of athletes and their entourages, tens of thousands of spectators and the world’s massed media amounting to an estimated half-a-million extra visitors from overseas, all of whom would be descending on the capital in unprecedented numbers. Furthermore, London’s public transport will be free to all Olympic spectators; from dusk till dawn, those with a valid ticket to any Games event in London can travel on London’s public transport for free.

Transport for London gears up for the best ever connected games.

Following on from the summer issue of Intelligent Transport in which Hugh Sumner – Transport for London’s Director of Olympic Transport – relished the prospect of presenting the Capital’s public transportation plan on behalf of the UK bid team to the IOC in Singapore, it is only fitting that we bring matters up to date in this issue. Hugh’s compelling pitch revealed the ambitious vision of a totally integrated transport system, capable of responding to the needs of many hundreds of athletes and their entourages, tens of thousands of spectators and the world’s massed media amounting to an estimated half-a-million extra visitors from overseas, all of whom would be descending on the capital in unprecedented numbers. Furthermore, London’s public transport will be free to all Olympic spectators; from dusk till dawn, those with a valid ticket to any Games event in London can travel on London’s public transport for free.

With less than seven years to go until the opening ceremony of the Olympic and Paralympic games in Stratford, East London, construction of the infrastructure is already well underway with some £17 billion-worth of spend earmarked for transport in the Capital. Hugh pledged that “…modern, reliable, safe and cost-effectively transport for the Games will be in place well before twenty-twelve. We need cost-effective solutions while at the same time looking at what London needs in the long run. Olympic transport is always a challenge, but we are confident, though not complacent, that London can deliver a spectacular Games.”

As it turned out, Hugh’s presentation proved not only to be a key element of the UK team’s successful bid, but even the decisive element that swung it London’s way.

As Bob Kiley, London’s Transport Commissioner, said: “I am delighted that London has been given the honour of hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and that the IOC recognised that the city can and will provide the transport to host an outstanding four-week festival of sport. I congratulate the Mayor, and the entire 2012 bid team, in their efforts to bring the Games back to London. Our spending plan on transport in London includes long-term funding agreed by Government which enabled the Mayor and Transport for London to embark on a £10billion five-year investment in the Capital’s infrastructure and accelerate projects such as the East London Line extensions to be ready well before 2012. Work is well underway to deliver this and other major transport improvements on budget and on time, including the Docklands Light Railway airport extension, due to open by December 2005, a seventh carriage on the Jubilee Line carrying an extra 3,000 people per hour by January 2006 and Europe’s biggest engineering project, the £5.2billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link, operational by Spring 2007.”

Following the announcement of the successful UK bid, Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, issued a statutory direction to TfL and the London Development Agency (LDA) to do everything necessary to proceed will all early preparations for the London Games. The main purpose of the direction is to allow both TfL and the LDA to begin crucial work on preparations for the Games prior to the establishment of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), under whose supervision it has been agreed with all stakeholders the project will be delivered.

In summing up on how London is set be become the best connected international city in the world, Hugh Sumner said: “Having led the development of a winning Olympic Transport Strategy, the team here will keep a sharp focus on the delivery of the transport needed for 2012. TfL is also building the transport team that will transfer to the ODA which will ensure that work goes on uninterrupted.”

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