by Inspired by the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, Graham looks back at some of the transport aspects of London’s very successful 2012 edition
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was essentially responsible for making transport work during the Olympics and Paralympics – not just for spectators but for everyone who might be affected in London and in the other locations with venues. An enormous amount of work was needed, including infrastructure schemes, temporary arrangements and a lot of planning, operational and management aspects. Much of it was delivered by the existing transport operators and authorities (TfL, boroughs, the rail industry, etc) with funding and coordination by the ODA.
There’s more about the ODA and the transport approach to the Games in this ICE Proceedings paper. Another paper covers the travel demand forecasting aspects. Both of these are free to access. There are other papers covering other aspects but you’ll need a subscription to see those.
Looking back, it’s remarkable how much was achieved – and how successful the Games were in transport terms – in such a complicated delivery environment. There was no ‘Olympic takeover’ of London (though it might have felt like that to some!) and aspects such as the Olympic Route Network (ORN) and Paralympic Route Network (PRN) (of which more anon) involved a lot of stakeholder engagement, negotiations, compromises and changes.
The ODA itself had the advantage of powers, funding, a clearly-defined task, and an immutable deadline to concentrate the mind. It also had some really good people, political ‘weight’, and pragmatism. The Boroughs, transport operators and other authorities were vital to delivery and had a lot of people working on getting ready for the Games. There was also a big pool of engineering consultant staff available for the wave of planning and design work. The timing was handy as this was soon after the 2008-9 financial crisis and the Games work kept some people’s jobs going. The company I was working for at the time had over a hundred people working on Olympic transport at the busiest period… often working late into the evening to hit deadlines. We were all very proud. I still treasure my Olympic Transport Planner ID badge!
The next couple of posts will cover some specific aspects of Games transport. In the meantime, do add your own memories in the comments.
Next in this series: part 2: The Olympic and Paralympic Route Networks
