Tomorrow (Tuesday) could be the biggest test yet for deliveries in London during the Olympics, when the Men’s Triathlon closes key roads in the West End.
Athletes will complete a cycle circuit that takes in Buckingham Palace and the Wellington Arch. This will result in the close of roads around Hyde Park Corner and Constitution Hill as well as The Mall and Birdcage Walk.
This event will start at 11:30 and finish at around 14:00. Roads for the event will start to close at 2am with Hyde Park Corner closing at 6am, reopening again as soon as it is safe to do so. The Piccadilly underpass will remain open throughout.
[asset_ref id=”1783″] Hyde Park Corner
Roads were closed around the capital for events over the weekend, but this will be the first major closure on a working day.
So far, logistics operators have found ways around the disruption. London’s transport commissioner Peter Hendy said: “I’ve also been tremendously impressed with the response from both businesses and the freight and distribution industry. Their planning has ensured that London’s restaurants, bars and businesses have had bread in their shops and beer in their pumps, and we thank them for the way they have responded to the Olympic-sized challenge.”
The pressure of London’s transport infrastructure is clear from the fact that the tube carried 4.4 million passengers on Friday 3rd August – more than any other day in its history.
The Docklands Light Railway carried half a million passengers for the first time on the same day. London Overground carried 2.86m passengers during the first week of the Olympics – another record.
TfL also said there were more than one million hires of “Boris Bikes”, the cycle hire scheme, for the first month ever in July.
Transport for London has created a web site giving details of the affected routes. Click here for more details.
