B Read the whole text quickly.

Part 7. LOCATION

Section 1. Reading.

infrastructure DEVELOPMENT ORGANISING INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

A Questions for discussion before you read

1) Have you visited London? Describe the road and public transport systems.

2) What do you know about the history of transport in London? Share your knowledge.

3) What pressures would the Olympic Games place on the transport system? Think about people travelling to events and returning home.

4) What security measures are required when organising a high-profile international event?1. In business is bigger always better?

5) If you are looking for new management ideas, should you always look at management in companies bigger than yours?

Transport and the Olympics

Keep on moving

Jul 28th 2012, 18:27 by R.B | LONDON

Questions about how London’s transport system will hold up during the Olympics have for weeks been a running theme of the capital’s preparations and coverage of the 2012 games. In recent days at least one British paper has been sending out staff to look for traffic jams to report on. Last night, when the opening ceremony played to a packed audience of 80,000, as well as thousands of cast members, was a big test. The city’s mass transit systems passed with top marks.

Many were concerned that there would be crowds even getting to the stadium yesterday, so some guests took the precaution of travelling there hours early. That gave Transport for London some space as journeys east were staggered through the day.

Stadium entry turned out to be orderly and easy. Signage was good and unlike at many big sporting events security was tight but not oppressive; staff were helpful, polite and smiling.

One reason the Olympics is so expensive is that each one is the first of its kind. The know-how from previous games is not necessarily passed on to the next city; the problems of each new host may anyway differ from the last. There are now a group of people sometimes referred to as “Olympic gypsies” who approach a host city when it wins a bid to offer their skills.

In London for this reason many key organisers are Australian, people who worked on the successful Sydney games in 2000 and have kept on bombing around the world renting out their Olympic skills.

In London the logistics are particularly complicated because the host city has so much else going on, events are taking place throughout the capital, and existing transport systems are already heaving with local traffic at the best of times.

So it is particularly impressive when events work as well as Friday’s opening ceremony. There may have been some hiccups that have gone unreported. But in general the operation inside and outside the stadium seemed slick and efficient.

Getting out at the end of the show had been a problem in the technical rehearsal only days earlier. I am sure that some people took a while to leave even yesterday. But the trains were running as promised, most platforms and services were extremely crowded but kept going until 2.30am to get everyone home.

Some visitors new to the tube expressed surprised at how many people packed on to it. But crowds stayed calm, the next train generally did turn up 2-3 minutes later, and Stratford eventually emptied into the rest of London. Because different structures in the Olympic park will all host events, there may yet be busier days, but Friday was a busy and successful start.

If things go mostly smoothly during the Olympics, the media may forget there was ever a story that they were planning to tell. I think that would be unfair. Operating the games in London is a huge challenge. If it all keeps running then the capital’s transport systems and planners deserve plaudits. There are many more miles to go before that happens. So far they have been ready and steady.

B Read the whole text quickly.