Keeping the London Games on the move

Go to the pub. That is what London's transport commissioner, Peter Hendy, has urged the city's work force to do when the Olympics rolls into town in July. Londoners probably need little encouragement to visit a hostelry, but they weren't expecting the rallying cry to come from a leading public servant, particularly when the world's premier athletes are in situ.

Transport for London's—some might say compelling—argument is that a beer after work will spare commuters rush-hour misery. During the 16-day extravaganza, some 24 million journeys (three million more than normal) are expected daily on the city's road and public transport network. Taking a detour to sink a pint will bring much-needed relief on the congested subway in the evening. It also gives a whole new meaning to staggering your journey home.

Mr. Hendy, a plain-speaking Londoner who still occasionally gets behind the wheel of the city's famous red buses, says: "I think: 'Go for a beer' is actually a fairly simple message. It's the summer and actually if you want to see some of the Games, then big [TV] screens are the things to see it on."

He explains that his job is to go unnoticed. "People's view of you in their heads is how well you've got them into work this morning," he says. "You should never think that you are doing something grand. You are taking them into work and taking them home again."

Safely deliver the millions of athletes, international media, VIPs and spectators on time during the Games and his job will be done, right? Well, to use a transport idiom, hold your horses. The Olympic stadium may be located in East London, but non-track and field events are also taking place around the maze of streets in the center of town. Combine that with a cramped subway that Londoners like to moan about just as much as throwing back beer and you have a potential recipe for a PR disaster. 

Mr. Hendy is determined that a transport gridlock won't become part of this summer's Olympic story. But as someone who earned £348,444 ($554,230) in 2010/11—more than twice Prime Minister David Cameron's £142,500 annual salary—he is bound to come under intense pressure should things start to go wrong. 

"Central London is particularly difficult," he says at TfL's headquarters in central London. He then corrects himself: " 'Difficult' is the wrong word. It is a particular issue about management, because there is so much going on the central area itself."

Traffic management is something London has had plenty of practice with, most recently successfully welcoming a million people on the streets for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton last April.

TfL is leaving no stone unturned as it plans to deal with an influx of Olympic foreign visitors. Some £8.8 million is being spent on a promotional campaign, which includes a website—getaheadofthegames.com—that pinpoints expected travel hot spots. Daily "heat maps" will tell business users which areas to avoid. The site will also lead visitors through to a journey planner that explains how long a journey to a venue or site is likely to take.

Mr. Hendy firmly believes the logistical adjustment businesses are undertaking will deliver another unexpected legacy. 

"If we manage to change some behavior, if we can get more stuff delivered at night and if we can persuade more people to work at off-peak times and we get more home-working, actually we'll make a permanent change in the way the city works. And that is a really interesting thing to be trying to do."

That also applies to the City of London, the capital's financial district, into which tens of thousands of commuters pour each day.

"You can't run a trading floor from home, but you can run the back office stuff from home," Mr. Hendy says. "We know several businesses where people are going to get [employees] to report to different offices.

"People like the banks have got regional offices all over the place. If you can work for two weeks in Ipswich [a town about 75 miles, or 120 kilometers, away], why come to London? And, in fact, there is another legacy benefit out of this which is if all those arrangements work they might carry them on. With modern technology there is no reason [not to]," Mr. Hendy says.

"I am really interested in this because the potential to transform the transport patterns in the city are enormous and of course a lot of people will discover parts of the city they haven't been to; they'll discover things to do they didn't know about. It's good stuff."

However, Olympic visitors arriving from abroad and expecting to cruise from event to event in a spacious car could be in for a rude awakening. 

Athletes, media, officials and VIPs will have special access to "Games Lanes" on the city's Olympic Route Network (ORN). The lanes take up a third of the 109 miles of the ORN crisscrossing the British capital. This has infuriated drivers of taxis which, unlike emergency vehicles, have not been given special status. They have been banned, with local traffic, from using the designated lanes. 

Nevertheless, the expectation is that foreign spectators will mix with the locals on public transport. Commenting on whether visitors should hire a car, Mr. Hendy says he expects "very few" people to take up that option. "You'd need to have your head tested," he says.

Instead, spectators landing at Heathrow should pick up a travel map and plunge right in, he says. Mr. Hendy say he plans to put several thousand of his 27,000-strong TfL staff who usually don't come into contact with the general public on the transport network when the Games begin.

"If you haven't got a clue what you're doing, then ask," he says. "And those people will not only tell you where to go normally, but tell you some different things during the Games period."

Little sympathy is reserved for London's black cabdrivers. Mr. Hendy's face darkens when the subject is brought up. "I have given up with some of the taxi drivers now," he declares. "I tell them: if they want to go on holiday for three months, go on holiday and let their mates make all the money.

"This place is going to be absolutely full of people bursting with money, full of people coming here to have a good time. And if the taxi drivers decide to go on holiday there will just be more work for the ones that are left."

As for the drinking, Mr. Hendy still stands by this view. Asked what his message to visitors is, he says: "I'd say, get on the [Get Ahead of the Games] website and take the advice." 

With a twinkle in his eye, he adds: "Then the message to people in London is go for a beer. Going for a beer cures almost everything."