TfL Halt Weekend Engineering Works till September
And offer additional services during Olympic Games
Transport for London has suspended weekend engineering works until September. That means there will be no planned closures on the tube and rail network.
TfL says the suspension of non-essential works will maximise the efficiency and reliability of the Tube network during what will be an exceptionally busy time for the Capital, and help visitors to the city to make the most of what London has to offer.
Overnight maintenance will continue as usual during the Games period.
Although London is accustomed to playing host to frequent significant sporting and cultural events, the transport network will be exceptionally busy and TfL is therefore making a number of additional changes to the operation of the Tube network, including:
- Each day there will be enhanced services on the Tube, with last trains westbound from the Olympic Park departing at 1.30am, and all last trains on all lines running about an hour later - departing central London at around 1.30am, with trains being stabled at depots at around 2.30am
- On 27 July, opening ceremony night, last trains will leave Stratford and central London at 2.30am
- Between Friday 3 August and Sunday 12 August, when the events schedule intensifies, some parts of the Tube will operate a 'third peak', with morning and evening peaks as normal, but peak level services also running between 10pm and 11.30pm to provide additional capacity when events end
- Passengers may have already started to notice some of the 215,000 magenta signs at or near stations that are going up for the duration of the Games to guide spectators to their events
- In addition, around 3,600 TfL Travel Ambassadors, wearing distinctive magenta coloured tabards, will provide the travelling public with live, up-to-the-minute travel advice at Tube, bus, rail and DLR stations across London
- TfL has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in making the transport network more accessible in the last few years, with improvements such as new lifts, trains, raised platform humps, wide aisle gates, tactile paving and audio-visual displays
- A total of 66 Tube stations are now step-free and all Tube stations have staff trained to assist passengers. Sixteen key Tube stations will provide temporary manual boarding ramps including Earl's Court, King's Cross St. Pancras, Oxford Circus, Southfields, Stratford, West Ham, Westminster and Wimbledon, enabling easier boarding by wheelchair users
However, TfL warn that despite these changes, the Tube network will remain exceptionally busy and some stations and lines should be avoided at certain points.
Passengers should plan ahead to avoid 'hotspots' by visiting Get Ahead of the Games and following @GAOTG on Twitter. In addition, TfL's Journey Planner now warns users if their journey includes a travel hotspot.
July 20, 2012
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