SE23 Forum

So, on the morning 23rd July (3 weeks today) the Olympic Torch relay will pass through Lewisham, Downham, Bromley, Beckenham, Crystal Palace and on to Croydon.

On the same morning, I will be trying to drive to Gatwick. My normal route takes me to Sydenham and then through Penge on the way to Croydon and the A23. In other words, I need to cross the torch route. While I can find the route of the torch and the estimated times the torch will pass various points, I can't seem to find out at what times and how long roads will be closed for. I did a journey planner on the direct.gov site for that day and it made no allowance for the torch.

The Get Ahead of the Games route planner is the same as the direct.gov one - no allowance for the relay on that day. Lewisham.gov just directs me to the Get Ahead of the Games route planner. And so it goes.

Has anyone come across more useful sources of information?

Is this of any use?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17358291

Nope. As I said above, I can find out when the torch is expected on certain roads. What I can't find out is how long before and after that time the road will be impassable. Thanks for looking, though!

Not sure if you have seen this web-site.

http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/route/

You must zoom into the date you want information on.

You will then see a route for that date marked in yellow.

Zoom into that route.

For each location/waypoint marked by a yellow dot, click on the dot and you will see a pop-up screen with location and timings and as you progress along the route it will give some idea of durations.

It does not specify road closure times and I am not sure how accurate it may be.

The torch went through my home town a few weeks back. The road closures were literally for the 30 minutes or so around the torch arriving and that was mainly because of the promotional convoy that goes ahead of the flame itself. Roads were back open again within 5 minutes of it passing.

That's very useful to know, Applespider, thanks!

jgdoherty - yes, I've seen that map. Not much help. Applespider has sort of answered my question, which is how long the disruption will last at any given point, with advanced convoys, crowd management etc.

I imagine if the road has to be closed the police have to be involved - try contacting local police stations?

I imagine that traffic jams will form while waiting for the roads to re-open.