U.K. Strike Won't Impact Games; LOCOG Comms Chief Honored; Contador for 2012?

Walkouts Won’t Impact Games, Says Transport Authority

Transport for London tells Around the Rings that Great Britain’s biggest strike in three decades is not a cause for concern ahead of next year’s Olympics.

TfL workers were not, in fact, among the several million public servants to hit the streets Tuesday in protest of proposed pension reforms. The walkouts disrupted schools, courts, museums, hospitals and government departments in and around the 2012 host city.

Despite the massive turnout, however, transport remained largely untouched, including TfL’s primary charge: the London Underground.

"A couple of months ago, we agreed to a four-year pay deal with those staff, and we’ve also agreed to a series of deals around additional payments for staff working during the Olympics," says spokesperson Ben Pennington.

"As things stand we’re in the best possible place to ensure we don’t have any interfering action next year."

LOCOG declined to comment on the strikes.

According to Pennington, TfL will be responsible for moving the bulk of spectators around London during the 2012 Games.

"We run the Tube, the Docklands Railway, all of the buses, river services, so yeah, the majority of them."

Also Tuesday, TfL released a series of "heatmaps" depicting expected congestion levels during the Games as well as a list of hotspots and a tool to calculate travel times to and from key points throughout the British capital.

Top Honor for LOCOG Communications Chief

Jackie Brock-Doyle, LOCOG communications director, is the latest recipient of the U.K.'s top PR award.

Last week, CorpComms magazine named her the Corporate Communications Professional of the Year over several leading PR experts in the U.K.

"The mood has changedtowards the Olympics," CorpComms reported judges as saying.

"People are definitely more positive, and much of that has to be down to the communications. Even the anger about ticket sales appeared to disappear relatively quickly.

"London 2012 has used its assets extremely well. Former Olympic medal winners have been used to great effect, while at the same time they have worked well with sponsors to ensure they are maximizing the opportunity."

The judges added: "There have been a lot of early wins for London 2012, such as completing construction work ahead of schedule and on budget, and these have been exploited with great success.

'But more than that, they have managed to deliver high visibility over a prolonged period of time without fatigue setting in."

Brock-Doyle joined London 2012 during the bid process, serving as bid communications chief.

A source close to Brock-Doyle said she was too busy to attend the awards ceremony and "she will want to give credit for this to the whole team and also to Seb [Coe] and Paul [Deighton] and the senior management team at LOCOG ... and the IOC as well."

Contador Targets London

Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador wants to compete in the London Olympics.

The Spaniard made the announcement at the unveiling of his professional team, Saxo Bank-Sunguard, on Tuesday.

"Why not try this new challenge in London?" Contador was quoted by Reuters.

"It sounds interesting…if the possibility is there, I will give it a try."

Contador competed in the time trial and road race at the Beijing Olympics. He finished fourth in the time trial and did not complete the road race.

Written by Matthew Grayson and Edward Hula III.

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