Travel preparations for the Olympics have been facing problems recently with just days to go until the opening ceremony.
Motorists faced long queues today on routes where pre-Olympics modifications have been made to road layouts.
There were delays of up to an hour on the A13 between the Canning Town Flyover and the A1261 East India Dock Link Tunnel junction in east London.
There were also jams on the A12 southbound in Leyton in east London while there were 45-minute hold-ups on the A40 Western Avenue in west London.
The delays were less severe at these spots than they had been yesterday, suggesting that drivers were heeding the warnings by Transport for London to avoid driving in London in the run-up to, and during, the Games.
The road changes have been made ahead of the full introduction tomorrow of 30 miles of Olympic traffic-only Games Lanes in London as part of the 109-mile Olympic Route Network.
London Underground services were running without delays today, but Monday saw a series of problems, including routes that will serve the Olympic site at Stratford in east London.
Heathrow is also feeling the impact of the Olympics today with its busiest day for Olympics arrivals. The airport will handle around 1,200 athletes and coaches flying into the west London airport as well as more than 3,000 other Games-related arrivals.
The Olympic flame will ride the London Underground today as it continues its week-long journey through each of the host city's 33 boroughs.
Service operator John Light, 64, will carry the torch along the District line from Wimbledon to Wimbledon Park in the driver's cab of the train, while Olympic rings will adorn the front and first carriage.
Mr Light, who has worked for London Underground since 1963, said: "Transporting the Olympic flame is a once in a lifetime experience. I feel really privileged to have been given this opportunity to be part of the Games in this way.
"I've worked for London Underground for 49 years so to be able to hold the flame on its Tube journey is a huge honour for me and a moment I will treasure for the rest of my life."
A total of 144 torchbearers, including rower James Cracknell, skeleton racer Adam Pengilly, skier Chemmy Alcott and cyclist Eileen Gray, will carry the flame as it travels 43 miles across the capital.
Source: www.itn.co.uk
Olympic torch: Flame rides on London Underground Tube - BBC News
Service Operator John Light, 64, took the flame along the District Line from Wimbledon to Wimbledon Park
The Olympic flame has ridden on the London Underground as it travels from Kingston to Ealing.
Signalman John Light took the flame from Wimbledon to Wimbledon Park on the District Line at 07:15 BST - in a train adorned with the Olympic rings.
The flame is also visiting Kew Gardens, Brunel University, Richmond, Ealing's Northala Fields and Walpole Park.
Torchbearers include James Cracknell, skeleton racer Adam Pengilly, skier Chemmy Alcott and cyclist Eileen Gray.
A total of 144 torchbearers are carrying the flame on day 67 of the relay as it travels 43 miles through the London boroughs of Kingston upon Thames, Richmond, Hounslow, Hillingdon and Ealing.
Cycling legend
Double Olympic gold medallist and adventurer Cracknell, 40, started the day's relay when he carried the flame at Hook Community Centre in Kingston shortly after 08:20.
Double Olympian Pengilly, who won silver at the 2009 world championships and was elected by his fellow Olympic athletes to the International Olympic Committee Athletes Commission, carried the flame in Kingston.
Also running with the torch in Kingston was 92-year-old Eileen Gray CBE, a former mayor of Kingston who pioneered women's cycling in Great Britain, being one of the first three women to cycle for Britain.
At Kew Gardens around 11:00, Oli Golding carried the flame from the Palm House to the Orangery and the Olympic Rings flower display.
The 18-year-old from East Twickenham was the youngest junior British number one tennis player, the 2011 US Open Boys' champion, and is a Youth Olympic Games gold medallist.
Shortly before 1400, BBC world affairs producer Stuart Hughes will run with the torch in Hillingdon using his Oscar Pisthorius-style carbon-fibre blade.
He lost part of his right leg after stepping on a landmine while covering the war in Iraq in 2003, and is now a campaigner against the use of landmines.
At around 14:45, singer Katy B and Grammy and Brit-award winning producer Mark Ronson will carry the flame at Brunel University.
Shortly before 16:00, Michael Vaughan - statistically England's most successful cricket captain of the modern era - will carry the flame to the front steps of Hillingdon Leisure Centre.
Thirty-year-old Alcott - a triple Olympian and seven-time competitor in World Championships, will carry the Olympic torch in Ealing, shortly after German tennis star Boris Becker takes the torch at Northala Fields.
Tuesday is the fourth day of the flame's week-long circuit of the capital, during which time it will pass through each of the city's 33 local authority areas before finishing at the opening ceremony on 27 July.
About two million people are expected to line the torch route in London, taking the total who have seen the flame's journey to 11 million.
A team of students from Brentside High School, Ealing will carry the flame through Ealing on its penultimate leg before it reaches the Walpole Park celebration stage in Ealing.
Then at around 18:50, the day's last torchbearer, Thomas Thacker, 30, from Southall, will light a celebration cauldron on stage.
Loick Essien and street dance troupe Twist and Pulse are set to provide the entertainment at the cauldron-lighting ceremony.
A total of 8,000 people will carry the flame during its 8,000 mile, 70-day journey to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London on 27 July.
On Monday, the Olympic torch was carried by Billy Mitchell, played by Perry Fenwick, in a special episode of EastEnders.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Essex fire strikes: Union calls off two dates (From Echo) - echo-news.co.uk
Essex fire strikes: Union calls off two dates
8:38am Tuesday 24th July 2012 in Local News
ESSEX firefighters have called off their strike which would have clashed with the Olympic biking event at Hadleigh .
Members of the Fire Brigades Union had planned action on August 11 and 12. The action has now been cancelled by the union.
General secretary Matt Wrack said the action was called off after the union received “sensitive information” about fire service planning for the biking event.
He said: “The other industrial action short of a strike and the other short periods of strike action announced last week remain in place, but I remain ever-hopeful a breakthrough in negotiations will come sooner.”
Strikes are planned for Thursday, the night of August 11, September 5 and October 18.
Threats of further Olympic strikes by rail workers also appear to be dwindling after a vote by the RMT union was called off. Union members working for Greater Anglia, which runs services into London Liverpool Street, had been due to vote on Thursday about whether to strike over Olympic bonuses.
Other operators have offered additional payments and extra pay for working on rest days and doing additional late-night shifts.
But the union has called off the vote, citing the threat of legal action by the train operators. Any action now seems unlikely to be until after the Games.
Source: www.echo-news.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: three days to go - live blog - The Guardian
Hello and welcome to today’s Olympics live blog.
Coming up today:
• The OIympic torch is travelling through south and west London from Kingston to Ealing, and is due to ride on the London underground at some point. The first torchbearer of the day was Olympic gold-medal-winning rower James Cracknell, with musicians Katie B and Mark Ronson later on. Send your pictures to paul.owen@guardian.co.uk or tweet me @paultowen.
James Cracknell sets off with the torch #olympictorch #olympics @lbc973 twitter.com/charlie_girlin…
— Charlie Girling (@charlie_girling) July 24, 2012
• There will be a welcoming ceremony in the international zone of the athletes’ village tonight. The village will be opened by Nick Clegg today. The deputy prime minister will also meet Team GB (presumably not all of them).
• At 1.30pm Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, James Brokenshire, the security minister, Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison of the Metropolitan police and Peter Hendy of Transport for London will be giving a briefing on Olympic security.
Today’s Olympics news so far:
• Spectators who attended a sneak preview of the Olympic opening ceremony were urged not to spoil the surprise for the rest of the world by keeping details of the eagerly anticipated curtain raiser under wraps. Games organisers last night asked thousands of people who were invited to a technical dress rehearsal of the £27m spectacular to try and refrain from circulating any revealing pictures or videos taken inside the Olympic Stadium. More on this shortly.
• Motorists faced long queues this morning on routes where pre-Olympics modifications have been made to road layouts. There were delays of up to an hour on the A13 between the Canning Town flyover and the A1261 East India Dock link tunnel junction in east London. There were also jams on the A12 southbound in Leyton, east London, while there were 45-minute hold-ups on the A40 Western Avenue in west London. The delays were less severe at these spots than they had been yesterday, suggesting that drivers were heeding the warnings by Transport for London to avoid driving in London in the runup to, and during, the Games.
• London Underground employees are to stage a work-to-rule from Friday in an Olympics-related dispute. The RMT union, which represents thousands of tube staff, said it was in dispute over implementing an Olympics pay deal, as well as the use of casual workers. The union also announced a strike by cleaners on the underground and Docklands Light Railway from Friday morning until Sunday, the first weekend of the Games. LU said the action would have no impact on services. RMT members at South West trains are also going to work to rule from Friday throughout the Games, while RMT Boris bike workers will strike for 48 hours from Friday morning and back office Transport for London staff will strike from 24 hours on Friday. Border staff are due to strike on Thursday.
• The British Olympic Association has asked triple jumper Phillips Idowu to produce medical records relating to his hip injury after he said he would not join the Team GB training camp in Portugal, according to the Daily Mail.
• The credibility of the Olympic security operation being run by G4S is called into further question by claims that scores of trainees are being allowed to "cheat" their way through tests for the x-ray machines that detect homemade bombs and other weapons.
• The “secret security guard” – due to join G4S's security team for the Olympics – reveals in a Guardian column fears that training for the job is far from sufficient.
• Britain is fairly equally split into gold, silver and bronze levels of excitement about the Olympics, but those with no interest at all are in a small minority – according to a Guardian/ICM poll.
• Here’s Owen Gibson’s full story on yesterday’s CoSport ticketing fiasco.
• David Cameron is convening a total of 17 summits in London over the next month, as the government seeks to exploit the presence of scores of heads of government and state for the Olympics to raise at least £1bn of inward investment.
• Sir Chris Hoy, who will carry the flag and lead out the British team at the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday, has said that the success of Bradley Wiggins in overturning more than a century of history would inspire GB athletes to greater feats in London.
• How Wiggins and Mark Cavendish can maintain Olympic form: Dave Brailsford says cyclists are different from other athletes in that they are ready to race again within days of a big event.
• Anticipation is rising, and so are the nerves, but I'm not buzzing in the final days before London 2012, explains rower Zac Purchase.
• Donald MacRae talks to 10km open-water swimmer Keri-Anne Payne, who has overcome panic attacks and funding cuts to take part in this year’s Olympics.
All this and more here throughout the day.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
London mayor Boris Johnson committed to Wrightbus bus order - BBC News
The mayor of London has said he hopes a Ballymena bus company can provide buses for the city over the next four years.
In a letter to DUP MP Ian Paisley, Boris Johnson said he remains committed to "the roll-out of 600 production vehicles between now and 2016".
Mr Johnson said the deal marked "good news for manufacturing jobs in NI and for travellers in London".
There are currently eight prototype buses being used across the streets of London, built by firm Wrightbus.
If the trials go well, staff at the County Antrim company hope a substantial order will be placed.
Discussions are ongoing between Wrightbus and Transport for London, the organisation which has responsibility for public transport in London.
Wrightbus was originally awarded the contract in January 2010 to design a new bus for London.
It was the first time in 50 years that a new bus has been designed for London commuters.
A team of engineers at the factory's plant at Galgorm outside Ballymena came up with a design for the double decker which has three entrances and a double staircase.
The design is similar to the classic Routemaster bus which was withdrawn in 2005.
Mr Johnson, who has long campaigned for a new bus for London, visited Wrightbus last November and described the design as a piece of "world class technology".
Mr Johnson, now in his second stint as mayor of London, made his comments in a letter to the North Antrim MP earlier this month.
He said: "I remain committed to the rollouts of 600 production vehicles between now and 2016."
Mr Paisley said he was pleased by Mr Johnson's endorsement.
He said he was "delighted the mayor of London had responded in a positive way".
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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