Olympic Queuing Rehearsals at London Stations

Today, 10th July 2012, there will "simulated queuing" and other passenger diversions in place at four railway stations in practice for the Olympic Games. You're being advised to treat Victoria, Cannon Street, Charing Cross and London Bridge as normal, so that the Olympic tests are not invalid.  The idea of "simulated queuing" fills me with much joy and dread at the same time.

If there was an  Olympic sport us Londoners would be good at, queuing at London's stations would be one of them.  In fact many of us would qualify for Gold medals for queuing at Victoria station quite naturally, so why it needs to be "simulated" God only knows.

How one "simulates" queuing also puzzles me.  Are there going to be staff at the station moving the normal queues around so that they form different patterns? Are we being asked to queue in an unorderly fashion to see what happens?

At least the "passenger diversions" are explained.  At London Bridge, Network Rail will be testing procedures to avoid a "major crush" between Olympic equestrian fans returning from Greenwich Park and city workers heading home in the other direction. Passengers leaving incoming trains will be sent on a diversion around the station before they can enter the Tube network.

Apparently London Bridge is seen as the “Achilles heel” of the network and will become exit-only on at least one day during the Games.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “During the Games, some of our stations will be extremely busy at certain times of day — nowhere more so than London Bridge.

“We have plans to help manage crowds and keep people moving. Tuesday’s test events will give commuters the chance to get used to the way some of our busiest stations will work during the Games and allows us to make sure the plans we have in place are right.  While commuters should continue to use London Bridge station as normal in the run-up to the Games, our advice is to avoid the station if possible at Games time.”

If you get involved in simulated queuing or passenger diversions at any of the test stations today, do let me know.  I want to hone up my queuing skills as I'm slightly worried that they might not be up to scratch for the Olympics.

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