AP News, February 20th, 2007
Plans for transporting spectators to and from venues during the 2012 Olympics are "vague" and lack urgency, a British parliamentary committee said Tuesday.
The body responsible for building the venues and infrastructure for the games is behind in implementing the transit project, a report from the Transport Committee said.
"Urgency ought to be the clarion call of the Olympics at this moment and we could not see much evidence of it," said Gwyneth Dunwoody, chair of the 11-person committee.
"If your transport plan is not in place and not working long before people begin to arrive at the Olympic site, then none of it will work."
While the report praised work done since London won the Olympic bid in 2005, it expressed concern that "the plans for delivery across most of the modes remain vague."
The Olympic Delivery Authority said it was confident in its preparations and had reached every milestone so far. Having an Olympic transport plan six years before the games was "unprecedented," the ODA said.
"We are not complacent, of course there will be challenges ahead, but we have no doubt we will deliver a world-class transport system for the games," ODA transport director Hugh Sumner said.
The committee's report said "crucial" issues had not been addressed, including contingency plans if the rail network is affected. London 2012 organizers plan to rely on rail links to transport 80 percent of Olympic spectators and the work force to and from the games.
The committee described contingency planning for power cuts, security alerts, defective trains and signaling problems, as "embryonic."
"This is hardly reassuring," it said. "It is crucial that the transport systems put into place are robust enough to allow for major failures in parts of the system without the entire system collapsing."
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On The Net:
Transport Committee Report: ttp://http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtran.htm
