Transportation: A Games Legacy

The Olympic flame has moved on, which allows for the review of the relative degrees of London’s 2012 transportation success, how it was done and with what lasting effects. All of the Olympic events looked great and ran smoothly and were enjoyed worldwide as a sporting spectacle. But what about the transportation elements that were such a cause for concern in the build up to the 2012 Olympics? The London organizers’ aim for the first public transport games has been vindicated. Spectators reached the Olympic Park in East London and many of the other main competition venues by train, bus, metro, light rail and underground rail services. No reports emerged of competitors being held up or failing to reach their events due to transport failures or traffic problems. Media reports featured photographs of Olympic athletes spotted queuing at bus stops or snapped wearing their medals on London’s Tube trains. This does not mean there were no breakdowns in transportation or congestion on London’s roads this summer. There were reports of occasional delays to train services for reasons of infrastructure failures or security alerts, which is normal. Background noise of delays on motorways and principal roads due to numerous accidents and breakdowns occurred, but these hardly troubled spectators and the staging of the Olympic events.