Volleyball fans will be held in pens for as long as 90 minutes

 
10 April 2012

More than 600,000 ticket holders to the Olympic volleyball tournament will have to queue in pens for up 90 minutes because of congestion around the venue, a confidential report warns.

Spectators will be corralled on the forecourt of the Earls Court exhibition centre to cope with a jam getting to the Tube station.

Traffic marshals will be unable to clear a path for them because the flow of vehicles in Warwick Road cannot be interrupted, as it is a designated
Olympic lane prioritising official vehicles.

The crowds will have to be taken across the road to the Tube via the single pedestrian crossing. Logistics around the west London arena are a major headache for Games organiser Locog.

Some 45,000 spectators will attend three daily sessions for the first 10 days, with the crowd reducing to 30,000 for the later stages of the sold-out contest.

A £300,000 pedestrian bridge across the road has been ruled out on safety grounds. A confidential "station congestion hotspots" document by Transport for London, obtained by the Standard, warns: "There will be queuing on the Earls Court forecourt opposite the Warwick Road entrance.

"Queues of around an hour can be expected, and in the pm peak it will take up to 90 minutes to clear the venue holding area."

Earl's Court station will be the main Olympic gateway, with a one-way system designed for spectators to exit on to Earl's Court Road and catch the Tube home via the Warwick Road entrance.

Nearby Brompton Road is not being advertised as a venue station. A British Volleyball spokesman said there were "concerns" about spectator flows. Teams may consider staying in local hotels rather than make the journey from the athletes' village in Stratford.

* The London runner who became the first Briton to qualify for the 2012 Olympic marathon today told of his disappointment that he would not be competing on the course originally planned. Scott Overall, 28, from Twickenham, said: "I would have preferred to finish in the Olympic stadium. It's been a compromise because the new route looks better on television."

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