London 2012: Commuters urged to avoid London Bridge station on Monday 30 July

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Commuters have been advised to avoid London Bridge station on Monday as thousands head to south-east London for an equestrian event.

Transport for London said the station would be "busy" as 50,000 spectators were expected to attend the Equestrian Cross Country at Greenwich Park.

Platforms one to six, which are used by trains bound for Kent, will be exit only from 18:00 BST until 22:00 BST.

Canary Wharf and Bank stations are also expected to be busy.

In addition to London Underground, Southeastern and First Capital Connect run overground rail services to Kent from London Bridge.

Commuters bound for Kent are being asked to board Southeastern and First Capital Connect services from stations such as Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Victoria or Blackfriars.

Transport for London (TfL^» (Transport for London - about)) and National Rail are also advising spectators to avoid London Bridge and instead take trains from Cannon Street, Victoria or Charing Cross for Greenwich or Blackheath.

Canary Wharf and Bank stations, which are on the Docklands Light Railways (DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway)) and are also served by London Underground and London Overground, will be used by Olympics spectators.

The Jubilee Tube line and the DLR, which go up to Greenwich, are also expected to be busy during the evening rush hour.

Mike Brown, London Underground's managing director, said: "After a fantastic Opening Ceremony and weekend of sport, many people will be going back to work on Monday in an Olympic City. London Bridge will be exceptionally busy and spectators going to the Equestrian event at Greenwich Park are advised to avoid the station."

In addition to the Equestrian event, Olympic events will be taking place in the Olympic Park, ExCeL, North Greenwich Arena, Royal Artillery Barracks, Horse Guards Parade, Earls Court, Lord's Cricket Ground, Wimbledon and Wembley Arena.

An extra three million journeys will be made on London's transport network every day in addition to the usual 12 million journeys, TfL said.

[IndustryInsider]

The lack of wall-to-wall coverage about nightmare train journeys gives me the impression that the rail network coped pretty well today.  This article, focussing on FGW^▸ (First Great Western), seems to confirm what I witnessed throughout the day - busy trains, but the network coping admirably.  It was a bit bizarre at 6:30am seeing the usual commuters huddling together on platforms in small groups in their usual spot looking at their watches, having to mix in with happy children waving Union Jack flags heading to Eton Dorney for the morning's rowing events.

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2012-07-30/day-one-of-the-olympic-commute/

[BerkshireBugsy]

My normal train journey (Thatcham>Reading>Reigate) does not seem to have been adversely affected by the Olympic events although I am told by a collegue, who tried to get the train to Dorking this last weekend that it was "more than a little busy" due to the local road race