Soothing words on Olympic transport goals

By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) - The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) sought to allay fears over its transport plans for the London 2012 Games in a report published on Thursday.

The ODA's draft Olympic Transport Plan drew criticism from Parliament's Transport Committee in February, being labelled too vague and lacking in urgency.

The ODA, set up to oversee the building of venues and infrastructure for the 2012 Olympics, will publish its final transport plan later this year.

"Our delivery progress to date includes a blend of projects that are tailored to meet underlying, long-term demand after the Games have finished and meet the needs of the 2012 Games," the ODA response stated.

It said work to improve the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) was already going on at Stratford, the hub station for the Olympic Park, and capacity on the DLR line from the City to the Olympic Park would be increased by 50 percent by 2012.

The ODA played down the Transport Committee's fears that contingency plans to cope with major systems failures during the Games -- such as power failures or security alerts -- were little developed.

It said that, unlike Sydney, there would be multiple transport links into the heart of the Games venues.

"There is a significant built-in capacity to continue to provide a range of high-capacity rail links, with extensive interchange opportunities, even if one system or corridor is temporarily unavailable."