By Ian Gallagher and George Arbuthnott
Last updated at 5:19 PM on 26th February 2012
Navigating London?s transport system can be bewildering at the best of times. And the Olympics will make things more confusing still?...?especially if visitors follow advice being offered by the London 2012 organisers.
In an effort to avoid overburdening London Underground?s Jubilee Line ? the main route to the Olympic Park in Stratford ? they recommend making tortuously convoluted journeys taking up to three times longer than normal.
The routes include detours by bus, on foot and even by ferry.
Going to the Games? If you follow the 2012 chiefs' instructions, you may well miss some of the Olympic action
A journey from Gatwick Airport to the Olympic Stadium, for example, which normally takes just over an hour, will take visitors who follow official advice three hours 49 minutes.
It seems organisers are still worried about human gridlock despite the Jubilee Line?s ?80?million upgrade to enable it to cope during the Games.
While Londoners are likely to avoid the recommended routes, organisers clearly hope Olympic visitors will follow the instructions detailed on the London 2012 website.
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Rather disingenuously, the site claims visitors are being given the ?easiest possible? routes in a section of the site marked Spectator Journey Planner, which works in the same way as the route finder on the Transport for London website. Spectators are invited to type in a starting point and destination. After a few seconds, the recommended route pops up.
Imagine, for instance, you are starting your journey from Stanmore Underground station in North-West London and want to get to the Olympic Park near Stratford station.
Nightmare: Endless bus journeys to get to the various Olympic sites will not appeal to fans
As the two stations are at opposite ends of the Jubilee Line, nothing could be simpler. No changes are required and TfL estimates it?s a journey of just over an hour. But not according to the 2012 website.
It inexplicably advises leaving the Jubilee Line at Baker Street Tube? station and walking to another station ten minutes? away to catch a train to? St Pancras International. From there, it?s an 11-minute walk to the domestic? terminal at St Pancras to catch a train to Stratford. Allowing for security checks and a ten-minute walk to the Olympic Park, the total journey time is two hours 18 minutes.
The website also offers puzzling advice when travelling to the Olympic Park from Kingston in Surrey ? a distance of 18 miles that should take no longer than an hour. It would normally involve travelling by train to Waterloo and a Jubilee Line service to Stratford.
Bizarrely, the 2012 route suggests ignoring Kingston station altogether.
Instead it recommends walking to the town centre, taking a 15-minute bus ride to nearby Raynes Park, a train journey to Vauxhall, a Tube journey to King?s Cross, a walk to another station and finally a train to Stratford. In all, the trip takes two hours 41 minutes.
Transport chiefs predict the Olympics could mean hour-long queues at 29 of the capital?s Tube stations, with key Jubilee Line commuter stations ? Waterloo, London Bridge and Canary Wharf ? experiencing crowds that may have to be controlled by the police.
Millions of workers are being urged to work from home or go on holiday during the Olympics, and organisers are also asking people to walk to work from railway stations or cycle from home.
Queues of more than half an hour are expected at 53 key stations in the capital and 2012 organisers have added about? 70 minutes to predicted Olympic journey times due to ?airport-style security at the venue and unforeseen delays on the transport network?.
A London 2012 spokesman said: ?The planner suggests a variety of routes and modes of transport, avoiding some of the busier interchanges on the transport network, and incorporates extra time for ticketholders to clear security checks at venues.?
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