Date :
25/06/2014
From 23 July until 3 August, the Commonwealth Games will transform Glasgow into a sporting hub for the Commonwealth’s elite athletes. Glasgow is expected to see around 1 million more people visit the city. Inevitably that puts Glasgow’s transport infrastructure under pressure.
In anticipation of this, Glasgow City Council has teamed up with transport providers and Transport Scotland to make sure the 11 days of Games run smoothly. GCC has gathered together all the information you need to know and pass on to your customers.
Transport hotspots
As expected, there will be pressure, not just around the main venues but also the transport hubs. There will be high concentrations of visitors coming in and out of the city, e.g. in and out of the main stations. Forecasts predict that Merchant City will see around 9,000 visitors per day over the weekends, while Glasgow Green will have around 25,000 people going through it each day on their way to venues.
Road travel
Advice is, leave the car at home and avoid all but essential journeys into central Glasgow. Some roads have already been converted to temporary one-way systems and some will be closed for major events, for instance the cycling road races and marathon. Find out about scheduled street closures on the Glasgow 2014 website. The legislation.gov.uk website show maps of all of the event zones affected by road closures or restrictions.
Get Ready Glasgow has details of parking plans if you really have to take the car.
Leave plenty of time for travel
The pressure will be on public transport to get people into and around the city, and both rail and bus services will be increased to cope with the extra customers, including late night transport. To be safe, add an hour to your journey time.
In addition to the Games, bear in mind there’s also the Merchant City Festival at the same time.
Your business
As well as your visitors’ movements, it could also affect deliveries and day-to-day business, so remember to plan further ahead and see if you can receive deliveries in the evenings when some road restrictions are relaxed. The Travel Advice for Business (TAB) team has put together some great guides to help you plan ahead. Glasgow businesses are urged to avoid arranging meetings in Glasgow and minimise travel over the 11 days if possible.
Some other tips in coping with the potential congestion are:
- Encourage your staff to consider how they usually travel to work, and to identify alternative travel arrangements in case there are any issues with their usual transport.
- Consider if your staff can alter their working patterns (start/finish earlier and later), where appropriate, to reduce the amount of traffic on the transport network at busy times during the Games.
Keep informed
Make sure you have all the means of finding out the very latest travel arrangements and disruptions for your visitors to hand, and keep checking for updates.
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