Olympics athletes ride trains back home to Europe

[John Ashworth]

From track to tracks: Olympics athletes ride trains back home to Europe

Washington Post
By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, August 13, 5:42 PM

LONDON — Athletes from France, Belgium and the Netherlands have crowded into London’s St. Pancras train station as they wait for Eurostar services to take them home from the Olympics.

Specially chartered services are taking more than 200 competitors though the Channel tunnel and into mainland Europe as teams start to leave the summer games.

Athletes were serenaded by a Beatles tribute act at the station Monday as they waited for their trains to depart, and cheered by a crowd of fans as they finally pulled away.

Epke Zonderland, a 26-year-old gold medal winning gymnast from the Netherlands, praised organizers for taking care of athletes’ needs.

“Besides training hard and preparing and doing well, it felt a little bit like a holiday,” he said, before boarding a train.

Has London’s rail network coped with the Olympics?

August 13th 2012 RailwayPeople.com

London’s ‘feel-good’ Olympic Games may have got people talking on the Tube, but how did the city’s rail network stand up to the task?

More than half of spectators, around five million people, used rail at some point to travel to and from Olympic venues, according to figures released by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). Punctuality figures were in excess of 90 per cent and 12.4 million extra seats – the most substantial increase in the railway’s 187-year history – were made available to cope with the huge demand.

Despite stories about delays on the Central Line, packed stations and suspended DLR services at the start of the event, the city has been praised for its resilience throughout what has been dubbed as the first ‘public transport Games’.

Michael Roberts, chief executive of ATOC, said: “As the world’s attention has been on Great Britain, the railway has played its part in showing that Britain can deliver an outstanding Olympic Games.

“Millions of passengers from here and abroad have been able to rely on their train to get them to their destination and home again, from early in the morning until well past midnight.

“A big thank you goes to all our passengers who planned ahead and helped the railway to run smoothly. We are also indebted to our fantastic staff and colleagues across the rail industry who with good humour have worked flat out to deliver the first truly successful public transport Olympics.

As the world’s attention has been on Great Britain, the railway has played its part in showing that Britain can deliver an outstanding Olympic Games.

“We now look forward to the Paralympics when the railway will be equally focused on helping passengers get to and from events reliably and safely. Once London 2012 is over, our plan is to use the experience of the Games to learn how we can continue improving services and delivering for passengers.”

Charles Horton, managing director of Southeastern whose Javelin trains experienced an average of 90,000 journeys a day during the Olympics, said: “The service during the Olympics was the culmination of three years of meticulous planning and working with other industry partners, to deliver the best possible service during the Games.

“We’re really proud of our employees’ efforts as they’ve pulled out all the stops, and worked around the clock to ensure spectators could get to and from events and our customers able to make their journeys.”