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Transport for 2012 on track

Posted: 23 June 2006 | Hugh Sumner, Director of Transport, Olympic Delivery Authority | No comments yet

A year on from London being awarded the Games, the UK transport industry has already made impressive progress.

Every year is important in a host city’s cycle of preparations for the world’s largest sporting event but a good start is crucial. In a busy first year for the London 2012 team there have been an encouraging number of key milestones reached from the creation of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to the progress and completion of a range of transport construction projects.

A year on from London being awarded the Games, the UK transport industry has already made impressive progress. Every year is important in a host city’s cycle of preparations for the world’s largest sporting event but a good start is crucial. In a busy first year for the London 2012 team there have been an encouraging number of key milestones reached from the creation of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to the progress and completion of a range of transport construction projects.

A year on from London being awarded the Games, the UK transport industry has already made impressive progress.

Every year is important in a host city’s cycle of preparations for the world’s largest sporting event but a good start is crucial. In a busy first year for the London 2012 team there have been an encouraging number of key milestones reached from the creation of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to the progress and completion of a range of transport construction projects.

Sebastian Coe promised in his final presentation to the IOC in Singapore that if London was awarded the 2012 Games, the team would hit the ground running. We have lived up to that promise. In the first month the initial draft of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act was put before Parliament whilst the Mayor of London had instructed the London Development Agency (LDA) and my team at Transport for London (TfL) to continue our respective work and to form an interim Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).

In November the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport appointed Jack Lemley and David Higgins as Chairman and CEO of the ODA, both having apposite experience. Jack was the Chief Executive of Transmanche-Link, the Anglo-French consortium that built the Channel Tunnel, and David was MD of the Lend Lease Company, the Australian property company who built the Olympic Village and Aquatic Centre for Sydney 2000 and then from 2003 was Chief Executive of English Partnerships.

In April the ODA was formally created. The continuation of the cross party political support that had been so important during the bid ensured the record passage of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act. This was followed by the confirmation of the ODA Board drawn from across the public and private sectors to provide the expertise, experience and knowledge necessary to guide the task of completing the facilities required for 2012.

Two members from the transport sector Barry Camfield, Assistant General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union and Christopher Garnett, Chairman and Chief Executive of Great North Eastern Railway, together with Dr Stephen Duckworth as the specialist on disability issues, will provide the ODA transport team with critical expertise.

As the statutory body responsible for building the infrastructure necessary for the Games and ensuring there is a sustainable legacy post 2012, the work of the ODA is of course the focus of intense interest and regular scrutiny. The first reports on our progress have been encouraging, with the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee concluding its initial inquiry into the Games preparations in March.

The Committee made a number of recommendations. These included ensuring the resilience of systems such as the Olympic Javelin high speed rail shuttle service that will serve the Olympic Park and making sure that the accessibility of transport services be given due priority in our planning. The report also expressed belief in the ability of the ODA and our partners to meet these and other challenges and recognised the successes to date.

On a visit to London in April, the IOC’s Co-ordination Commission team praised the early momentum maintained since July 2005 in realising London’s “ambitious and visionary plans”. Denis Oswald, Chairman of the Commission, recognised the opportunity that London has developed to “transform the [London] landscape physically, socially and economically”. As well as conducting site visits to the Olympic Park, the completion of the main construction of the Stratford International Station building provided a timely demonstration of our transport delivery partners’ ability to deliver major projects on time and to schedule. Jack Lemley praised LCR’s record in delivering a scheme was in it infancy whilst he was at Transmarche.

The transport industry is now playing a leading role in both delivering for the Games and putting in place a lasting legacy for London and the country. In the last year the ODA has been formalising relationships with our transport delivery partners, the existing operators and authorities such as TfL, Network Rail, London and Continental Railways (LCR) and the other organisations through whom the ODA will commission the services and additional transport infrastructure that will be required to host the Games.

The ODA transport team and our delivery partners are now finalising the second iteration of the Olympic Transport Plan first submitted to the IOC as part of London’s Candidate File. This looks in more detail at the arrangements for transporting the expected 55,000 athletes, officials, members of the media, sponsors and the 500,000 daily spectators and at the ways in which we will minimise the impact on London’s everyday public transport users during the Games.

Collectively we are already making strong progress but the challenges ahead will require the full range of skills and talent that the UK industry has to offer. With such a good start behind us, we are confident that the ODA and our partners will remain vigilant to ensure that the London Games are the best ever in a magnificent summer of 2012.

Progress of key transport infrastructure projects

The guarantees given to the IOC in London’s host city contract promise a legacy of a better transport that is already being delivered. TfL’s £10bn 5 Year Investment Programme was well under way by the time the Games were awarded, making the improvements to the transport system that will be needed both to host the Games and to meet the needs of our growing city over the next 20 years. This is part of more than £17bn of spending on transport that the Department for Transport anticipates will be made by 2012.

  • In the last year improvements across London Underground have included a 17% capacity increase with the addition of a new additional seventh carriage on Jubilee Line trains which are now carrying an extra 90,000 passengers a day – the capacity of the new Wembley Stadium – whilst the expansion of the station at Wembley Park has also been completed in preparation for the new stadium. In April the Western Ticket Hall of the Tube station at Kings Cross was completed improving the accessibility for wheelchair users and reliving peak time congestion and in Infraco Tubelines refurbished another ten stations as the programme to modernise all 275 stations remained on target to complete by 2010.
  • In December and again on time the £140m 4.4km Docklands Light Railway London City Airport extension opened providing a direct connection in to the DLR network from an airport that will be operational during the Games. Tunneling under the River Thames began in March for the DLR Woolwich Arsenal extension and the Public Inquiry for the Stratford International Station extension has completed with a positive outcome expected and the scheme on schedule to complete in 2010.
  • An enhancement scheme on the DLR’s busiest route, which runs from Bank / Tower Gateway to Lewisham has now been approved by Government and will see an extra car added to DLR trains and boost capacity by 50% by 2009.
  • TfL also completed the conversion of the entire 8,000-strong London bus fleet to fully wheel chair accessible in January.
  • LCR remain on target to complete Phase 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) in 2007 having reached the latest milestone the finishing of the main construction of the Stratford International Terminal to coincide with the with the visit of the IOC Co-ordination Commission to London in April.
  • In February the DfT confirmed £50m funding for the fit out of a new Thameslink rail station underneath St Pancras mainline rail station. The project will complete in 2007 providing an excellent interchange between Thameslink and national and international services with better access to passengers who will use the Olympic Javelin service from St Pancras to Stratford during the 2012 Games.

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