The chance to visit the newly reopened London Transport Museum in Covent Garden powerfully reminded me just how public transport has helped shape the city of London and indeed our transport plans for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
It was the Victorians who sorted out the fundamentals. Firstly, it was the national railway network, followed by specific London transport modes, such as middle-class horse buses, working-class horse trams and underground railways.
The Edwardians then invested in the deeper level tube lines, which 100 years on, have given us a 408km-long tube network that serves 275 stations! The tube will help get the 80 per cent of Games spectators who are expected to travel by rail to the Games.
And yes, 'motor buses' have replaced 'horse buses' and also the trolleybuses, which were electric buses that were powered by two overhead wires and would have been used during the 1948 Olympic Games.
However, as the old maps around the museum showed, the Central London Railway – now the Central Line – still performs the same function today as what it was designed to perform a century ago.
A London Trolleybus in action shortly before the London 1948 Olympic Games:
And moving the masses to sporting events is not new for London either; the museum’s superb poster and photo libraries show public transport plans for numerous sporting events around the capital, including the London1948 Olympic Games.
London 2012 is now building on this core infrastructure and strong sporting past to create a new piece of transport history. We are investing in the transport system now to not only help spectators get to the Games, but to better prepare London for the future.
Perhaps one day, visitors to the London Transport Museum will be looking at how the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games helped contributed to a new part of London’s transport history.
Comments for this post:
21 Dec 2007, 13:01PM, themanwithaplan said:
All that sounds fine for moving people to and from the completed site, but I would like to see a more proactive approach to sustainable transport during the construction phase.
I am sure I read that at least 50% of materials needed for construction should be transported by water. Is anyone actively pursuing that goal?
For example, are existing canal haulage undertakings being invited to tender for any delivery contracts? Are any road hauliers prepared to invest in the vessels needed to help meet the target? (And has anyone asked them?)
It is one thing to have a strategy to move the transport of materials off the roads, it's another to deliver on that strategy.
31 Dec 2007, 13:01PM, themanwithaplan said:
All that sounds fine for moving people to and from the completed site, but I would like to see a more proactive approach to sustainable transport during the construction phase.
I am sure I read that at least 50% of materials needed for construction should be transported by water. Is anyone actively pursuing that goal?
For example, are existing canal haulage undertakings being invited to tender for any delivery contracts? Are any road hauliers prepared to invest in the vessels needed to help meet the target? (And has anyone asked them?)
It is one thing to have a strategy to move the transport of materials off the roads, it's another to deliver on that strategy.
17 Jan 2008, 18:42PM, AlanJi said:
Man with a plan, you need to find time to look at the plans already published by other two-legged creatures.
Those cranes north of the District Line between West Ham and Bromley-by-Bow are building a lock in the Prescott Channel precisely so that lots of stuff can arrivein the Olympic Park by water.
The Lock will come on quite handy after September 2012 as well..