In message , at 13:31:10 on
Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Recliner remarked:

the fact remains that it's our most depressed industry and needs the
work (perhaps the Olympics work helped keep some companies afloat).

Odd then, that the construction of Crossrail was apparently delayed
deliberately to after the Olympics, because trying to do it before would
have over-stretched the construction industry.
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 05:58:33 -0700 (PDT), Stephen Furley
wrote:

On Aug 13, 10:43*am, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:26:41 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 18:32:48 on Sun, 12 Aug
2012, tim..... remarked:

The one blot was the awful "empty seats".

There were lots of empty seats visible towards the end of the Closing
Ceremony. Was that people leaving to catch the last train home, or was
it like that all the way through?

Given the BBC were assuming it would be finished by 2315 and it
actually finished about midnight I am not entirely surprised some
people were nervous about last trains given ti was Sunday service.
There was a TfL Travel Alert to advise Tube, DLR and Overground
services would run later with times of last departures. I didn't see
an equivalent notice from National Rail.
--
Paul C

I caught the last 45 minutes or so on the BBC website; it was just
about 00:20 when coverage closed but I think events in the stadium may
have finished a minute or two earlier.

Yes, it over-ran quite a bit, just like the opening. Apparently the
main delay with the closing ceremony is that the thousands of athletes
took much longer to file into the stadium than anticipated -- they
were gazing around the stadium and taking pictures while dawdling
along, instead of the brisk jog that the organisers had perhaps
expected of athletes.

In message
, at
05:58:33 on Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Stephen Furley
remarked:

I caught the last 45 minutes or so on the BBC website; it was just
about 00:20 when coverage closed but I think events in the stadium may
have finished a minute or two earlier.

The TV pictures towards the end showed about a quarter of the seats
empty. Which is why I'm more inclined to think it's people leaving early
to catch a train, rather than never having turned up at all.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 14:20:46 on
Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Recliner remarked:

Apparently the main delay with the closing ceremony is that the
thousands of athletes took much longer to file into the stadium than
anticipated

No-one involved in the ceremony seemed to have any ID showing. Did they
have some sort of screening that assumed that once people were judged
safe to be inside the perimeter, you could trust them to behave
themselves where they went afterwards?
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:16:08 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 13:31:10 on
Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Recliner remarked:

the fact remains that it's our most depressed industry and needs the
work (perhaps the Olympics work helped keep some companies afloat).

Odd then, that the construction of Crossrail was apparently delayed
deliberately to after the Olympics, because trying to do it before would
have over-stretched the construction industry.

Quite -- we need one major project at a time, not zero or two. That's
probably why HS2 is planned for after Crossrail. Incidentally, the
paucity of other work probably kept the Olympic construction costs
down and reduced the risks of strikes. But this was nevertheless a
very well-managed project, quite unlike, say, Wembley Stadium.

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:25:26 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message
, at
05:58:33 on Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Stephen Furley
remarked:

I caught the last 45 minutes or so on the BBC website; it was just
about 00:20 when coverage closed but I think events in the stadium may
have finished a minute or two earlier.

The TV pictures towards the end showed about a quarter of the seats
empty. Which is why I'm more inclined to think it's people leaving early
to catch a train, rather than never having turned up at all.

Very likely. They probably thought they could beat the crowds by
leaving early, and could still see the fireworks from the station.
Maybe they wanted to miss the speeches, too?

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:27:23 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 14:20:46 on
Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Recliner remarked:

Apparently the main delay with the closing ceremony is that the
thousands of athletes took much longer to file into the stadium than
anticipated

No-one involved in the ceremony seemed to have any ID showing. Did they
have some sort of screening that assumed that once people were judged
safe to be inside the perimeter, you could trust them to behave
themselves where they went afterwards?

I thought some did have badges showing? After the mysterious 'woman
in red' mix-up in the opening ceremony, they probably did want to keep
others segregated from the athletes.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/I...an-3744279.php

"Recliner" wrote in message
...

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:25:26 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message
, at
05:58:33 on Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Stephen Furley
remarked:

I caught the last 45 minutes or so on the BBC website; it was just
about 00:20 when coverage closed but I think events in the stadium may
have finished a minute or two earlier.

The TV pictures towards the end showed about a quarter of the seats
empty. Which is why I'm more inclined to think it's people leaving early
to catch a train, rather than never having turned up at all.

Very likely. They probably thought they could beat the crowds by
leaving early, and could still see the fireworks from the station.
Maybe they wanted to miss the speeches, too?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why would anyone want to miss Boris?

(I didn't actually watch it, I'm just assuming that he made one)

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:16:08 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:31:10 on
Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Recliner remarked:

the fact remains that it's our most depressed industry and needs the
work (perhaps the Olympics work helped keep some companies afloat).

Odd then, that the construction of Crossrail was apparently delayed
deliberately to after the Olympics, because trying to do it before would
have over-stretched the construction industry.

There's only so many flights from poland each day so they obviously couldn't
get enough labour. After all, you can't expect those poor hard up construction
companies to actually pay decent wages to british workers can you. Far
better to get Oleg in on minimum wage sharing a house with 5 others.

B2003

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:59:47 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:

"Recliner" wrote in message
.. .

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:25:26 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message
, at
05:58:33 on Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Stephen Furley
remarked:

I caught the last 45 minutes or so on the BBC website; it was just
about 00:20 when coverage closed but I think events in the stadium may
have finished a minute or two earlier.

The TV pictures towards the end showed about a quarter of the seats
empty. Which is why I'm more inclined to think it's people leaving early
to catch a train, rather than never having turned up at all.

Very likely. They probably thought they could beat the crowds by
leaving early, and could still see the fireworks from the station.
Maybe they wanted to miss the speeches, too?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why would anyone want to miss Boris?

(I didn't actually watch it, I'm just assuming that he made one)


I don't recall Boris making a speech at the ceremony. He'd have been
more fun than Jacques Rogge and Seb Coe, who did make speeches.
However, Boris has written quite a good piece for his main employer
(in salary terms):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/c...the-world.html