I had to attend a meeting yesterday very close to London Bridge Station – where huge crowds were forecast – and started my journey in north London, near one of the Olympic venues. I also had to meet a colleague outside Tate Modern, and whilst there were a lot of people about, it was not unbearable.

So how bad was it? Not at all bad!

Clearly the combined effect of warnings about how busy it would be, the kids being on holiday and people planning their journeys led to the roads and trains/tubes being quieter than normal. So, the message is – do not believe the doom mongers, it hasn’t happened yet.

Transport for London are providing daily bulletins online here and you can arrange to have them emailed to you daily.

 

Other issues

My initial observations are that the organisers seem to be trying to fix problems as soon as they occur – shame they didn’t foresee them, but I suppose we are where we are. They are adding more drinking fountains and food where it seems to have run out. They are selling more tickets to deal with the empty seats we have seen on TV. After the triumph of the Opening Ceremony it does seem a little bit of a let down. In addition, the poor performance of the UK Team is not adding to sense of national joy many were expecting.