Opening Ceremony transport

["Russell Norton" <russelln@iprimus.com.au>]

I went to the Olympics opening ceremony last night, and even though my train
trip was short, I have to give congratulations to CityRail for a job well
done.

I drove to Lidcombe, and parked in the parking station behind the Railway
Hotel. An Olympic Park train was just pulling up as we reached the platform.
Straight on (wasn't very crowded), and arrived at OP several minutes later.
No real queues to speak of (considering the great amount of people there),
and plenty of volunteers and CityRail staff to ensure people knew where to
go.

Departing the stadium, as you would expect, was a lot more crowded as
everyone was leaving at the same time. However, the staff volunteers made
sure everyone knew where to go. There was a fairly lengthy queue for city
bound trains, but for people going west it was a straight walk to the
platform.

>From my observations, and the CityRail staff I spoke to, about 70% of people
were catching the city bound trains, and around 30% were going to Lidcombe
or west. People going to the city, instead of queuing, would probably have
been better off catching a train to Lidcombe, and then catching a city bound
service from there.

The first Lidcombe train pulled up about 2 minutes after we reached the OP
platform. Plenty of (Grant Goldman) announcements about train running, and
also advising trains will be arriving every 5 minutes. Didn't bother
catching the first train due to the crowd that boarded it. We could have
crammed in, but it wasn't worth it. The next train arrived immediately after
the first one left, straight to Lidcombe and then home in the car.

Overall, a great ceremony, great crowd, and a great, efficient and organised
transport system.

Russ.