WHAT’S BEARABLE FOR LONDON MAY NOT BE BEARABLE FOR THE OLYMPICS! by Sabrina Lewis

As my jam packed East Anglia train pulled into Stratford and 60pc of the passengers scurry towards the doors I shake my head - as one of them – thinking how on earth is Transport for London going to cope in five months’ time when the Olympics come to the South East, with nine million spectators, 300,000 athletes, officials, media and workers as well as having to cope with the commuters that already pack the trains like sardines on a daily basis. On the Tubes busiest day, 9th December 2011, it carried 4.2million people, however, TFL’s commissioner Peter Hendy predicts that will reach 4.5million on the busiest Olympic days… again, how on earth will central transportation cope, the additional travellers do not seem to match the influx of people in the country during that time, a classic case of supply not meeting demand. Something has got to give and that will come in the form of us, the commuters. Transport Minister Norman Baker has essentially asked commuters to get creative and get with it, “It’s time to oil the creaking bike, dig out the walking boots, work out how to use the video conferencing equipment, and fire up the laptop gathering dust at the back of the cupboard” as an alternative to using the Tube to try and get into work, this is in a bid to collectively reduce the ‘non-Olympic’ demand by at least 30pc. However, we may be reassured by our Government, who insisted that ‘the transport network would be able to cope with demand after £6.5 billion of upgrades and extension work on the transport network’, so not only will commuters have to do some forward planning of travelling and working around this 17 day period of the games but they will also feel it in their pockets, as we have already experience the 5.9% fare increase from 2nd January this year. It is quite contrived how the £6.5 billion is exactly the amount that passengers contribute to the running of the railways already, not including the remaining £4 billion that is picked up by the taxpayer. It would, however, seem much wasted if Tube unions decide to strike during this period, although Hendy has somewhat addressed this issue by saying “I don’t think they’ll do it. They’re better people than that” which does not seem too convincing a response despite how confident its delivery. Of course such news causes the rolling of eyes and sighs of commuters such as myself. Nevertheless, we must remember to keep in the spirit of the Olympics, what a privilege it is to have such talent in London, in such a relatively short period of time and it is for just over two weeks that we will have to put up with inconveniencing ourselves for our true moment in history, as a nation and even if you are not one too concerned with the Olympics, we will be able to bask in the vast improvements to our current transportation system for years to come, even if that does mean that, like that of Vancouver, our children may still be paying off for the event.