Tuesday 3 Apr 2012
TRAVEL CHAMPIONS WILL HELP YOU GET TO THE GAMES
- Region & Route:
- | Southern
More than 600 Network Rail volunteers will join their colleagues at key stations to help millions of passengers get around the capital during the Olympics and Paralympics Games.
Travel champions will be located across 13 key stations including Liverpool Street, St Pancras International, King’s Cross and Stratford International.
Dave Ward, Network Rail route managing director, said: “The Olympics is about sport, not transport. Our job during Games time is to provide smooth, seamless journeys for spectators travelling to and from Olympic and Paralympic venues, while continuing to offer the service which keeps millions of people moving across Britain each day.
"We expect 80% of spectators to travel by rail or tube, so our stations will be gateways to the Games for millions of people. At certain times, our railway will be extremely busy and these enthusiastic volunteers will be there to help make journeys as smooth as possible."
Katherine Sherval, 28, a project manager based in London who worked on the upgrade of Stratford station, said: “I’m proud of what I achieved in the day job and I’m really excited to do something different and help at the coalface during such an exciting time. Our stations will be the first thing millions of people see when they arrive in London and we only have one chance to make a good impression - I’m determined to give everyone a smile and make them feel welcome.”
To help them stand out from the crowd, Network Rail’s travel champions will be wearing the same distinctive uniforms and trilby as the Greater London Authority’s Team London Ambassadors. They will be positioned at information pods at stations to help members of the public.
Notes to editors
How many?
Network Rail has around 600 travel champions and their role is to provide passengers with up-to-date, relevant information.
What will they do? They will welcome the world to London during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, providing advice and guidance to passengers at key stations.
Where will they be? At 13 stations, for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
These are:
- Cannon Street
- Charing Cross
- Euston
- Fenchurch Street
- King's Cross
- Liverpool Street
- London Bridge
- Paddington
- Victoria
- Waterloo
- St Pancras
- Stratford International
- Ebbsfleet International
4000 more trains
Longer trains running more frequently and later into the night will help get millions of people to and from London 2012 Games venues and help keep London and Britain moving this summer.
The Olympic and Paralympic timetable, drawn up by Network Rail and train companies with input from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), includes:
• An extra 2,236 services during the Olympic Games
• An extra 1,645 services during the Paralympic Games
• Earlier starts to services
• More maximum-length trains
• Extended peak-hour periods offering more frequent trains
• Later trains leaving London to reach major cities
Disruption-free Olympic summer
So trains can run later and start earlier, Network Rail has suspended all disruptive engineering works on rail routes serving Olympic venues for almost three months. Key routes will be kept clear from the end of June to early September, starting four weeks prior to the Games through until the end of the competition. As well as lines that directly feed venues and suburban and metro routes across London, mainline rail routes across the country will be free of disruptive improvement work.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Network Rail press office - South East route
020 3357 7969
southeastroutecomms@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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