Legacy was embedded across all of the UK Olympic Delivery Authority's capital projects – 75 pence out of every pound spent went towards long-term regeneration. The around £500 million invested in long-term transport improvements was designed with this legacy in mind to leave a positive impact across all venues wherever they were across the UK. The great majority of these permanent legacy benefits were delivered by the end of 2010, nearly two years before actually needed for games time capacity and operational needs. From the very start of London's bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games there was a determination to host a ‘public transport' event. There were two main ways to meet this aim: create new public transport systems but risk them becoming redundant after the 2012 games; or invest in and enhance the existing network. In a purely practical sense, the latter course was the obvious choice because it was deliverable in the six-year timescale and because of the lack of physical space and high capital costs associated with inserting new systems in existing cities. But by far the major influence in the decision to invest in existing systems was the opportunity to use the significant investment in transport to deliver benefits that were felt by passengers long after the 2012 games. This paper explores the legacy of the UK Olympic Delivery Authority transport programme and its place in the great tradition of transformational transport investment in the capital over the past 150 years.

This paper provides an overview of how the UK' s olympic Delivery Authority, its delivery partners and others have worked together to facilitate the huge logistical challenge of transporting spectators to the London 2012 olympic and Paralympic Games, the world' s largest sporting event. over 10 million spectator tickets are available for the 27 days of games, and transporting those people to and from the venues has to take place while keeping London and the rest of the UK moving. The paper describes the complex planning and delivery of transport infrastructure and services that will help to ensure that London 2012 is a success.

Upgrading London's transport network to allow for nearly a million more journeys every day during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was an unprecedented challenge. This article provides an overview of the requirements together with a summary of the key roles and responsibilities, the transport plans produced for each games, the main transport projects undertaken and the successful outcome. It then introduces four detailed papers which explain in more detail how London 2012's transport solution was successfully delivered.