Olympics railway station ready for action

Rail chiefs today showed off a completed international station in east London which will play a key part in the transportation of thousands of spectators to the Olympic Games in 2012.

The £210 million Stratford International station is close to the main Olympic site at Stratford.

For the Games, passengers will be able to reach Stratford from St Pancras station in central London in just seven minutes and 25,000 people will pour into the station every hour during the Olympics.

The station will open next year when the second, and final, part of the Channel Tunnel Rail link is completed.

Then, in 2009, high-speed domestic services will join the Channel Tunnel Eurostar trains in using the rail link.

Today, the International Olympic Committee's co-ordination commission was visiting the new station.

Rob Holden, chief executive of the rail link builder, London & Continental Railways (LCR), said today: "The link is already an immensely significant project and an outstanding engineering feat.

"We at LCR are proud, not only of the progress we have made to keep the link project on schedule and within budget, but also of our contribution to a successful Games in 2012 and the Games' legacy."

Jack Lemley, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, said: "This is an important achievement by LCR - the delivery of perhaps the most significant piece of transport infrastructure needed for the Games.

"Following the completion of the Docklands Light Railway City Airport extension and capacity improvement on the (Tube's) Jubilee line, LCR and our transport partners are maintaining an excellent record on our promises to the international Olympic Committee."

The new Stratford station spans a "box" which houses the high-speed rail line.

This box is big enough to accommodate three QE2 liners.

Work began on the station in May 2004 and it will accommodate 2.5 million passengers a year and many more than this in 2012.

Copyright Press Association 2006.