Described as ‘the country’s largest peacetime logistical operation’, The Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the UK’s largest celebration of sporting excellence, taking place over 27 days with over 200 nations participating. The large number of events being staged across London is expected to generate disruption to roads and transport in the Capital with increased commuting volumes caused by Games participants, guests and supporters, in addition to the normal traffic.

To cope with this, Transport for London (TFL) is implementing a number of restrictions to roads across London. The Olympic Route Network (ORN) and Paralympic Route Network (PRN) are the routes TFL has selected to enable participants and officials prompt access to and from events. To allow free movement of authorised traffic along the ORN and PRN, these roads will be closed to normal traffic and pedestrians. In addition, the restrictions imposed by TFL will affect all street work across these parts of London from as early as March, through to September.

At AboveNet, we are working hard to analyse potential impacts to all of our backbone networks. With experience of previous international events including Olympics, World Cups and Royal Weddings, coupled with discussions with our customers and suppliers we are confident in our preparation. The location being London itself will make for some practical and logistical challenges, but with capacity pre-provisioning and the fact our next generation WDM based networks allow such scalability without the need to access restricted locations; we are very much looking forward to helping our customers get the most out of this unique event.

We continue to work closely with all relevant local authorities, Transport for London and Clearway as they formulate plans to cope with the demands of the Olympics. We hope this helps answer any queries you may have, but should you have further questions or experience any difficulties, please do not hesitate to email us on gameenquiries@above.net