Could the greatest threat to the smooth running of the olympics come, not from terrorists, but from farmers?

[sandyRoe]

http://www.farmersgua...timatum/48168.article
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[boxtops]

jno, I hope you're right - but having been in the crowds at Twickenham (1 event per day) the prospect of several such sizes of crowds per day, many converging back on London a.m. and p.m., does give cause for concern. The leaflet in our Olympic train timetable suggests we avoid travelling unless we have to.

[Baldric]

// Milk distribution will be seriously disrupted //
So, what are they going to do with it? the Cows have still got to be milked,
Going to pour it down the drain are they?
Can't see a Farmer cutting his own income like that.
Takes a lot of money to run Land Rovers latest luxury vehicles.
I don't recall ever meeting a POOR Farmer.

[emmie]

jno, perhaps you don't know the traffic up here, but people do drive, that's why the damn roads are almost always clogged. Add in too many buses, and when you add in the mix of major road works, where they shut off large tracts of the main routes through the capital then we get total gridlock. I remember all too well being stuck on a bus for one hour and forty minutes, going through central London, and no entreaty to the driver would make him open the doors till we got to a stop. End to end traffic. I have no choice but use the buses, as i am too wary claustrophobic on the underground. I do use it occasionally but have to grit my teeth and steel my nerves.

[emmie]

this is in no way like Twickenham or Wembley, because both those places are not central, and they don't cut off large parts of the capital for official cars only. This is a once in a lifetime games for most, so one should enjoy it, but i fear that Londoners will be under the cosh travel wise.

[jno]

em, I used to drive right across London to work (had to, as I worked outside public transport hours). But if anyone tries it in daytime during the Olympics, they probably deserve anything they get. Stratford itself isn't exactly central, a bit closer to Charing Cross than Wembley. (I think Stratford is 7 miles, Wembley is 10.) I do think people in NE London will have difficulties but I'm not certain it will paralyse the whole town, even with events scattered from Wembley to Greenwich.

Well, I hope not. It's just making the trains work that's the usual problem.

[emmie]

jno, does that include emergency workers, and people who can't stagger their hours, those who have to drive as they carry cargo, goods.
No one wants to drive in i'm sure, the cost of the congestion charge alone is prohibitive, 10 quid a day. a local business friend has no choice, as he cannot use the underground, for the same reason as me.