TfL will come under pressure during London 2012 as parts of the tube network require a reduction in normal usage of up to 60 per cent to cope with demand.

More than three million extra journeys could be carried out during the busiest days of the Games, according to TfL, and though they say that two thirds of stations will be unaffected, this means there will be areas particularly badly affected.

"It's important to realise that it's vitally important the tube remains reliable during the Games which is why we have invested in reliability, in particular on the Jubilee line," said Evers during a grilling here by the London Assembly's Transport Committee.

"We're on track for its most reliable year since the extension to the [Jubilee] line [in 1999]," he added in response to questioning over the reliability of the line, which will be the main route serving the Olympic Park, along with the central London.

The London Assembly pointed out that between March and November 2011 no line had a worse record of poor service due to infrastructure problems than the Jubilee Line.

However, during the recent diving test event at the Olympic Park, problems on the Jubilee line did not prevent spectators getting to the Aquatics Centre in time for the start of the day's action.

"We work actively on preventative maintenance and during the Games we will have rapid response teams throughout the network," Evers insisted.

"If a situation does arise we can solve that very quickly.

"The Olympic Park is served by 10 lines and three stations.

"In particular, when you look at the Jubilee line there are a number of things we can do there if there were to be an incident, but the nature of the contingency response depends on how much we anticipate.

"The O2 Arena [to be renamed the North Greenwich Arena for the duration of the Games], has the capacity to hold people for a bit of time to hold them in restaurants and bars.

"If it looks like it is a long delay we can [also] take advantage of buses.

"[There will be] additional river services on during the Games if it is going to be a bit longer until the service is up and we can run shuttle services on the Jubilee line.

"We are confident that we will be resilient during the Games."

Evers reiterated many of the messages already given by TfL, including encouraging commuters to find alternative routes during the Games to avoid the busiest parts of the tube network.


London 2012 in January unveiled a campaign, Get Ahead of the Games, which includes adverts around London to make tube users aware of the problems they will face during the Olympics.

They also have a website which the public can use to identify the busiest times and places that could cause delays during London 2012.

Richard George, London 2012's director for transport, also insisted that lessons learned from the test events had been useful, but that they would learn more in May.

That is when a number of test events will take place at the Olympic Park, including the athletics at the Olympic Stadium, water polo and hockey.

"A number of the events we have run have been extremely useful and we get lots of lessons from that in terms of how we operate the venue," said George.

"Most sports test events we have run this year at the Velodrome and the Aquatics Centre haven't been major tests of transport.

"The transport aspect of the Games will be tested in early May when there are a major cluster of test events and the (FA) Cup final."

Evers also sounded an optimistic note about the prospect of industrial action during the Olympics, with threats having been made to strike during the Games.

"I think it's helpful to look at strikes in recent years and when it has occurred we have managed to run a significant proportion of the underground network," Evers pointed out.

"We've carried a significant number of people and we'd ensure that happened again during the Games."

Evers also said that TfL would today be knocking on doors on the route that will be used during the cycling time trial and road race, where motorists will be restricted in their movements at certain times, to raise awareness of this ahead of the Games.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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