One of London’s busiest railway stations will be partly closed in the evening rush hour during a key Olympic event, it emerged today.
Full details of the disruption caused by the Games was revealed by transport bosses on the website www.getaheadofthegames.com outlining operations at 88 affected rail and Underground stations.
Transport chiefs have decided that London Bridge will have to operate as an exit-only station for at least one evening peak in the summer due to fears of overcrowding — the first time ever outside of an emergency.
Rush hour commuters will be turned away from the station and told to make their way home via other mainland railway stations.
London Bridge - the Achilles heel of public transport during the Games – is among six stations including Waterloo, Charlton, Greenwich, Blackheath and Stratford that will be “exceptionally busy”, according to Network Rail which has identified 59 hotspot stations during the Games.
Commuters are advised to avoid these stations on event days unless they want to endure lengthy waits even to enter the station concourse.
London Bridge will be made exit-only for a couple of hours on the evening of Monday, 30 July. This is to cope with a sudden spike from spectators returning from the Olympic horseriding in Greenwich Park where spectator numbers triple for one day only to 55,000 for the cross country event.
There will be no trains home during these hours on Southeastern services to Kent though services to Croydon and Brighton will be unaffected. Network Rail admit that they may resort have to resort to exit only on other Olympic nights.
Rail bosses have opted to part-close the station rather than divert commuters onto the Underground which will already be under huge pressure taking Games spectators to the Olympic Park, Greenwich and the O2 Arena.
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Tens of thousands of commuters are being urged instead to use Cannon Street, Charing Cross and Victoria to make their way home.
An extra 69,000 people will pass through London bridge on the day of the cross country taking the total station users on that day to 235,000.
Peter Collins, Network Rail; head of Olympic planning, said: “The exit-only strategy hasn’t happened before but London Bridge is not designed to cope with this huge number of people, particularly at Games time when you will have people travelling at different times and in unusual directions. We are looking for a couple of hours in the evening.”
On the Tube the Jubilee, Central and Docklands Light Railway will take the brunt of the crowds.
At most stations crunch time will be between 7.30 and 9.30 am - height of the morning peak, but peak hours will run to 1am at Mile End station.
The Games runs from 27 July until 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August until 9 September.
Transport bosses warn many areas of London will be just as busy during Paralympics as they will during the Games.
Peter Hendy, the transport commissioner, said: “London is going to operate very differently this summer with the capital transforming into a giant Games-time cultural and sporting venue.”
Journeys in London could more than double to more than six millions - up to three million more on the busiest days of the Games combining with the 3.3 million who already used the Tube every day.
For some days, on the Tube map illustrated on the website shows virtually every station within central London carrying a deep red “exceptionally busy” warning.
Much of the information is already known - what the website does is bring everything together with the most up to date detail.
Bank (combined Tube and DLR,) Earl’s Court, London Bridge and Mile End are among those highlighted as being the most crowded.
