ODA plans to allow parking only for the disabled and those direcly associated with the Games
The 8 million spectators of the 2012 Olympic Games will be forbidden from travelling to the Olympics by car, according to the ODA.
Details revealed by The Times of the ODA’s transport plans indicate that each of the main venues will be surrounded by a large car exclusion zone, with exceptions made for disabled visitors.
Plans for two enormous park-and-ride sites on the M25 and M11 have been shelved, with funding going towards public transport links into and around the capital.
The plans also say the construction period of the Olympic Park has been organised in such a way to minimise road use.
Building materials will be delivered by train and by barge. A new lock will be built on the River Lea to enable barges weighing up to 350 tonnes to enter the canal system.
In addition, for two months around the Games, key routes in London – including Embankment, and around Parliament Square – will have one lane reserved for the “Olympic Family”; athletes, Games officials and media.
To compensate, the ODA has planned a raft of transport initiatives including:
12 rail lines converging on Stratford with direct rail services from more than 300 stations
Capacity doubled on the North London line between Richmond and Stratford
A second branch of the Docklands Light Railway running to Woolwich Arsenal with trains lengthened from two to three carriages
Miles of cycle paths within the Olympic Park with up to 8000 secure cycle parking spaces.
Hugh Sumner, ODA transport director, said: ““We are already well under way in achieving this. Work to treble capacity at Stratford Regional Station is underway; the tunnels needed to extend the Docklands Light Railway have broken through; the first new trains to be used on the Javelin shuttle service in 2012 have arrived in the UK and the high speed rail link they will travel on, HS1, is ready. We are on track to deliver an early legacy of transformed transport links for east London.”
