A question. In what ways have trains played a part in the Olympics, both past and present? Not just trains in the US, but from all the countries that have hosted the Olympic games. You could also ask, have any trains effected the outcome of any Olympic event?
When Sydney held the sports carnival in 2000, a new railway line was built from Lidcombe to the main olympic venue. It utilised part of an existing freight-only line, but had a new, VERY expensive underground terminal loop added.
Cheers,
Mark.
I wonder if rail travel will help the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. I am trying to get tickets to some venues. What a great excuse to see the neighbors to the north…plus sneak in some railfanning!
Unfortunately, the Campbell government is very highway oriented. There is a rail line from Vancouver through Whistler (former BC Rail main) however it won’t be used. Instead, highway 99 has been widened so a fleet of busses can move people. SkyTrain (Vancouver’s LRT) will be doing yeoman duty though to get people around.
This question might become important around 2016, should Chicago receive the nod for the games then–the transit system really has to be upgraded, and it would be nice to see intercity rail capable of transporting visitors.
Meanwhile, Union Pacific has been a corporate sponsor of both the 1996 and 2002 games, going so far as to (re)paint a pair of locomotives for each. In 1996 a torch car carried the flame across a good part of the country, and an entire train was painted in the olive-drab color. The 2002 Olympic locomotives are still operating on the system. This year, the son of a UP employee is on the swimming team for American Samoa.
Here’s your Olympics inside information:
http://www.kqrs.com/article.asp?id=830615&SPID=6546
I considered the Vancouver Olympics since I love international hockey games, but I won’t fly and getting there by train from Minnesota looks to be too much trouble.
On behalf of Canada, we’d love it if you’d come to Vancouver in 2010!
You can take the Empire Builder to Seattle and then take either the Cascades or Throughway Bus Service to Vancouver. At the moment there is only one northbound trip to Vancouver from Seattle on the Cascades, but that will be changing fairly soon.
You’d think Rocky Mountaineer would at least want to run their Vancouver -Whistler service during the Olympics but no such luck eh?
In a modern twist, I would say a train is going to play a major olympic role soon. Michael Phelps is gonna need one for all his medals…[swg]
I would imagine that RMR will have something going on during the games, but there is a big difference between RMR excursions and a high capacity communter service running a dozen round trips daily between Vancouver and Whistler.
Nah. Just a container - and a rider car for the armed security detail.
Chuck (Olympic foamer)
In London, the new Olympic Village for the 2012 Olympics is being built on old rail yards near the new Stratford (East London) International station, which is served by the Eurostar trains from Paris and Brussels and by a host of local services including the Docklands Light Railway and London Underground’s Central Line.
I would assume the early Olympics (say before WW2) would have relied pretty heavily on rail to get people to and from the games, either heavy rail commuter-type operations or some version of streetcar / light rail.
I seem to remember that when Minnesota (Minneapolis/St.Paul) tried to become the US bidder for the 1996 Olympics (I guess each country can only put up one choice, and MN finished second to Atlanta, who ended up getting the games) back in the 80’s, a light rail system somewhat similar to what ended up being built was included as part of the proposal to move people around.
Problem with that was Minneapolis and the State of Minnesota should’ve put that light rail money into bribin’ the IOC officials if they really wanted the Olympics. I love watching Olympic men’s hockey competition, but the IOC is crooked as a dog’s hind leg. But, I digress…
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One would like to think that the olympics are above all that, but who knows? London should be nice when they are there. What work it must be to prepare for something like this.
(see avatar) [;)]