Central Line Causes Problems For Opening Ceremony Rehearsal

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 140 months ago
Central Line Causes Problems For Opening Ceremony Rehearsal

So. Walking among us are thousands of people who know what the Olympic opening ceremony will be like. They were at last night's rehearsal, but have been urged to keep the details secret (you may have seen people using #savethesurprise on Twitter). We saw a few photos from inside the stadium that people thought wouldn't give the game away, but by and large Danny Boyle's secrets seem to be safe. Dave Hill also has a few insights into what it's like attending an event at the Olympic park.

The secret-keeping goodwill is impressive given that many attendees had to sprint to get to the stadium on time because of Central line and Overground problems, and left to much the same. A track fault at St Paul's meant the middle section of the Central line was suspended all evening with severe delays on the rest of the line, meaning huge queues at Stratford. The Standard's headline of "thousands stranded" is a bit over the top, given the number of other connections that run through the station, but Dave Hill reports that conflicting travel advice didn't help. In a way, this was Stratford's own technical rehearsal.

Transport for London has apologised and a mayoral investigation is under way; but if Londoners have problems figuring out alternative routes, pity the Olympic tourists should something similar happen next week.

Photo by mikekingphoto from the Londonist Flickr pool

Last Updated 24 July 2012