Commuters and football fans travelling around Newcastle during this summer's Olympic Football matches at St James’ Park are being urged to plan their journeys.
Between Thursday 26 July and Tuesday 7 August, Newcastle United’s 52,000+ seater stadium is staging six Olympic Football events, featuring nine matches in all.
The full programme for the football at St James’ Park is as follows:
Highways Agency engineers in Leeds and the Highways Agency’s Traffic Officer Service at Wakefield have been working with their contractors over the last year to plan for these matches and help the events run smoothly.
Extra Traffic Officer patrols as well as vehicle recovery operators will be deployed at strategic points across the road network on match days. Their colleagues in the North East Regional Control Centre (RCC) will be monitoring traffic conditions and setting electronic variable message signs to give advice to drivers. We are also suspending planned roadworks immediately before, during and after the matches.
The London Olympics Games Organising Committee (LOCOG) has been working hard to encourage people buying tickets for the games to use public transport. Ticket holders for the events at St James’ Park are being directed to park and ride or walk and ride facilities to get to the stadium rather than add to traffic around Newcastle city centre.
Mid-week afternoon kick-offs at St James’ Park are unusual and the Highways Agency is reminding visitors to the football and commuters alike that they have a role in planning their journeys on match days.
Highways Agency Emergency Planning Manager Officer Guy Huckle said: "We will be playing our part in making the events at St James’ Park run smoothly. We ask that match goers and commuters plan their journeys and checking driving conditions before they set out. There is a potential for extra congestion at times if people don’t think about the journeys they are making into and around the city.”
Dedicated Olympics travel advice and information is available at www.getaheadofthegames.com – the official Olympic Games journey planning website complete with social media links – and at:
The Highways Agency provides live traffic information for the whole of the strategic road network via its website www.highways.gov.uk, local and national radio travel bulletins, electronic road signs and mobile platforms, such as the iPhone. Live traffic information is also provided through twitter – with @HAtraffic_neast serving North east routes.
Road users can also call the Highways Agency Information Line (0300 123 5000) to keep up to date with road conditions - providing it is safe to do so.
Extra bus and Metro services will be in operation for the London 2012 Olympic Football Tournament at St James’ Park in Newcastle, which kicks off this week.
Nexus and Newcastle City Council have worked alongside Games organisers to provide extra transport and fast connections for visitors and local people, with thousands of park-and-ride spaces opened up.
Special Metro and bus park-and-ride will take people from car parks close to main roads and motorways around Newcastle into the city centre for Olympic football in around 20 minutes or less.
There are more than 2,000 free park-and-ride spaces on Metro, with recommended stations close to trunk roads into Newcastle at Callerton, Kingston Park , Northumberland Park , Four Lane Ends and Heworth.
All these stations are less than 20 minutes from the city centre, with trains every six-12 minutes throughout the day until midnight, and extra trains around Olympic events.
Two special park-and-ride bus services will run on the dates of events at St James’ Park, from the Metrocentre coach park in Gateshead and Great Park, north of Newcastle, where there are hundreds more spaces.
Both these large car parks are close to the A1 and A69 trunk roads with the transfer time to the city centre about 20 minutes.
In the city centre Newcastle Ambassadors and Metro and Nexus Bus Station staff will make sure visitors find their way easily and quickly to St James Park.
People going to London 2012 events should remember to leave plenty of time before the start of matches to pass through the security checks. Park and ride services are timed to allow for this.
Director of Customer Services for Nexus, Tobyn Hughes, said: “The Olympic organisers have stressed they want public transport to play a key role and we have worked closely with our partners to ensure this happens.
“There will be extra Metros and bus services running into the centre of Newcastle when the games are on. Public transport is the easiest option, with some road closures in the city centre and the hassle of trying to find somewhere to park.”
There are also frequent direct bus, Metro and trains from across North East England to Newcastle city centre; for information on routes near you call 0191 202 0747 or go to www.nexus.org.uk.
There will be traffic management issues when the football is on. Roads close to St James Park will be closed to traffic or subject to parking restrictions on match days. There is information on http://www.northeastfor2012games.com/visitors/road-closures.
Page last updated: 25 July, 2012
