The Olympic and Paralympic Games present enormous transport challenges to host cities. In addition to maintaining the existing transport demand, the games require the separate movement of athletes, officials, media, Olympic family members, sponsors, workforce and spectators, as was the case with the Olympic Games of 2000 in Sydney.

Overview of the Transport Plan

Sydney Olympic Park (SOP) was the focal point of the 2000 Games. Located 20 km (12 miles) to the west of Sydney's central business district, SOP incorporated the Athletes' Village and twelve venues, including the Olympic Stadium. The close proximity of the Athletes' Village to many venues certainly simplified the critical task of athletes' transport--not so, however, for all other client groups, such as officials, media and Olympic family members, who were accommodated in areas outside SOP.

In terms of the magnitude of demand, spectators were the largest single client group. SOP had a ticketed capacity for 200,000 spectators on peak days. With multiple sporting sessions being held each day, however, total on-site crowds of around 400,000 people were expected. It was clear from early in the planning process that realistically, the magnitude of spectator transport to SOP could be met only with a very high use of public transport.

Rail access to the site was achieved through use of an existing rail corridor and construction of a high-capacity rail station that was capable of moving 40,000 to 50,000 passengers per hour. Rail services were supplemented by the operation of regional bus services that provided direct services to SOP on about ten different routes from parts of Sydney that had poor access to rail.

The operation of regional bus services for the two-year period leading into the Olympic Games consolidated bus routes and operations. As part of the strategy to educate the public about using public transport to travel to SOP, the regional bus services were operated for major events prior to the Olympics, including three annual Royal Easter Shows that attract around 1 million visitors over a two-week period.

A challenge remained for the Olympics, however--constructing two bus terminals with sufficient capacity for Olympic Games demand. Transport planners and engineers from PPK Environment & Infrastructure, the Sydney-based company that joined PB in March 2000, worked with the Olympic Coordination Authority on the planning and design of this effort.

The layout of SOP was designed with a view to the long term, post-Olympic environment. Transport terminals, including the rail station, bus terminals and most car parks, were located inside the venue core area to maximize the access to the regular events. The two permanent bus terminals, in particular, were located close to the center of the site. Each was capable of moving 8,000 people an hour.

For the Olympics, however, the required capacity for each bus terminal was in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 people per hour. In addition, because the permanent bus terminals were located on what was to be the main pedestrian boulevard for the Olympics, the sheer volume of pedestrians expected during peak times meant that new locations had to be found for the Olympic period. The net result was two new, temporary terminals, called the Northgate and Southgate Bus Terminals.

In addition to designing these terminals, we also prepared designs for 13 other bus/rail interchanges across the city to serve other venues. Some of these experienced intense periods of demand. The interchanges serving the equestrian venue, for example, had to cater to crowds that could reach about 50,000 spectators on the two busiest days. All these people had to be shuttled by bus from rail and remote car parks.

Design of Two High-Capacity Bus Terminals

The Northgate Bus Terminal was intended to be the busiest of the two terminals. Our challenge was to convert an existing car park and access road into an Olympic-size bus terminal capable of servicing five regional bus routes and other shuttle buses.

Identifying Design Requirements. The following design requirements were identified early on:

• Target capacity of 15,000 arriving and 20,000 departing passengers per hour-numbers that equate to 300 and 400 buses per hour respectively in the peak arrival and departure periods
  
  
• Ability to handle cross-over periods with high levels of both arriving and departing passengers
  
  
• Complete separation of vehicle and pedestrian movements
  
  
• Separation of arriving and departing passengers for security and capacity reasons
  
  
• Flexible allocation of bus stands to different bus routes
  
  
• Sufficient area to hold (layover) about 400 buses prior to peak departure period
  
  
• Minimization of conflicts between bus movements
  
  
• Separate facility for set down and pick up of disabled spectators.

Although some indication of demand by bus route was developed from preceding SOP events, we faced considerable uncertainty regarding Olympic demand. For example:

• How many spectators would come by bus versus rail?
  
  
• Where would bus passengers come from, that is, which routes would they use?
  
  
• What time of day would they travel to SOP?
  
  
• How long would they be on-site before and after their ticketed event?
  
  
• How many non-ticketed spectators would arrive?

Despite the best efforts of planners to construct a reliable, detailed demand model, there was clearly a need to incorporate flexibility into the bus terminal design. In particular, we knew that bus stands might need to be reallocated across bus routes as the knowledge of demand per route increased.

Figure 1: Olympic Overlay and Operational Patterns of Northgate Terminal

Figure 2: Three bus lanes allowed buses to keep moving under peak conditions.

General Layout. Figure 1 shows the general layout of the Northgate Bus Terminal overlaid on the existing car park. Three pods were serviced by a perimeter road. The central road, in non-Olympic use, was a bus only access road into the site. The three pods of the car park were used for spectator set down, spectator pick up, and bus layover. The movement of buses between these three areas made use of the perimeter road. The central road was converted to pedestrian access to SOP. Thus, the terminal operated with no conflict between different bus movements and no at-grade crossing of buses and pedestrians.

Arriving passengers were set down on the curb of the perimeter road. Spectators then passed through a security check area before accessing the site while buses moved to the layover area. Set-down operations were simpler than pick up operations because there was no need to allocate stands to individual routes.

The most intense area for the terminal was the passenger pickup area. In the concept design, pick up stands were organized into a series of peninsulas. Spectators moved into the peninsulas from the central access road while buses moved into the stands directly from the layover area. Departing buses left via the north end of the terminal.

Maximizing Throughput. To maximize the throughput of buses, it was important that buses set down and picked up passengers in groups of three buses or more. For example, on the pickup side, a route may be allocated three stands within a single rank. In such cases, during peak departure periods three buses would move together from the layover area to the pick up stands. The three buses would load passengers simultaneously and move off together, even if all buses were not full. Soon after this group of buses departed the next group arrived. Adopting this procedure enabled stands to be located close together, thereby increasing usage of curb space.

We estimated that a group of buses could arrive at a stand, load passengers and depart in 3.5 minutes. With an assumed average bus loading of 50 passengers, the nominal departure capacity was 850 passengers per stand per hour. To deliver an overall departure capacity of 20,000 passengers per hour, at least 24 stands were required.

Another challenge was to convince people that three lanes were required within both the set down and pick up areas to maximize throughput and prevent blockages. Figure 2 illustrates why three lanes were required.

The Conversion Works. Converting the original car park to a bus terminal required the following general works:

• Internal road widening and creation of new access points
  
  
• Additional pavement overlay for areas with expected high volume of turning buses
  
  
• Construction of temporary set down and pick up stands to achieve a required curb height of 300 mm (12 inches) for bus loading and unloading
  
  
• Construction of pedestrian access paths through the car park
  
  
• Additional lighting
  
  
• Pedestrian and vehicle signage
  
  
• Bus driver facilities.

A Great Success

The operation of the actual bus routes through regional Sydney for the Games was a great success due largely to the experience gained in running the services for previous events. The need for high staff levels to manage the passenger pick up stands was highlighted a supervisor was required for each rank to ensure that buses pulled into the appropriate location and to indicate when buses were to move off. Additional staff members were required at each bus stand to safely load passengers and hold them back if the bus was full.

During the actual Games period, however, some operational difficulties arose at the Northgate Terminal that had to be overcome. In particular, bus staff had not been not trained adequately in the operation of the terminal before the commencement of the Olympics, and it took a number of days before actual operations reflected the principles that we had designed for. Fortunately, the first week of the Games, before the athletics commence, is traditionally a period of only moderate spectator demand.

Overall, the Olympic bus terminal designs proved successful. They made good use of existing infrastructure with substantial temporary overlay. Efficient operation of the terminal arose from intensive management of both buses and passengers, and the cooperation and goodwill of the public.