Russell Square traffic closures to start three weeks before Olympics

12 April 2012

Russell Square will be closed for five weeks during next summer's Olympics to become a giant 24-hour coach station.

Residents and businesses are braced for huge disruption after the area was designated the official transport hub for 5,000 international journalists, with up to 70 coaches an hour departing for Games venues from 6am to 10am, and from 6pm to 10pm.

Olympics organiser Locog will requisition adjoining Malet Street, Cardington Street and Montague Street to serve as 24-hour parking bays for the official coach fleet. Most of the restrictions will come into force three weeks before the Games, despite official assurances that road closures would be last-minute.

The Games run from July 27 to August 12, but access to the square will be severely limited from July 10 for the installation of bus stops and checkpoints. Local access at peak times will be through checkpoints, and motorists may need special permits.

Priority during peak hours will be given to accredited media arriving at the north side of the square from their Bloomsbury hotels. The details were revealed in Locog's planning application to Camden council.

Russell Square forms part of a series of road closures that are not included in the 109-mile Olympic Route Network and do not show up in official statistics. Locog has also requisitioned roads from Wembley to Wimbledon and Mayfair to Greenwich. The full extent of the impact on roads will not be clear until publication of a long-delayed plan detailing closures around the sports venues.

Organisers want to close three sides of the square to general traffic and to designate the fourth, Southampton Row, as an Olympics-only lane linking to all the venues.

In its application, Locog said: "Shuttle buses will travel to and from the Olympic venues and accommodation at regular intervals, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The media transport hub will be managed by London 2012 team members... Exact operational details will be confirmed nearer the time."

Tony Travers, director of the Greater London group at the London School of Economics, said: "We are 10 months away from the start of these closures and still people are being kept in the dark."

Your say: Russell Square traffic closures

Serkan Emin, 27, owner of the Snack and Coffee Bar, said: "I didn't realise this was going to happen. Small businesses up and down the street rely on passing trade and the tourists who stay in the hotels.

"But the hotels will be designated for the media who will spend all their time at the Games site, so I doubt I'll be able to rely on the journalists for custom. It's like the organisers think we don't matter."

Denise Dikmen, who runs Denise's French restaurant, said: "If tourists aren't going to be able to get here we're definitely going to lose trade. I pay local business rates - I'm shocked the council hasn't told us about this."

Taxi driver Jim Ford, 62, of Kilburn, said: "Taxi drivers are already being denied going into specific lanes, but to shut down such an important part of the city for weeks is unbelievable. There is going to be a mass exodus of cabbies for the duration. It's just going to be a nightmare."

Ali Emin, 47, who has run Euro Food and Wine in Woburn Place for 10 years, said:
"If they close this street to the public so that no one can walk on it, then I will have to close my shop down as well. It's as simple as that.
"I've not been told anything about this. We're not being given any information. "

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