§ Mr. GapesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on transport links and access to the Millennium Dome from East London and Essex. [87234]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonThe Millennium Experience will be a 'car free' event, with parking at the Dome site restricted to Orange Badge Holders only and extensive parking controls in place on and around the Greenwich peninsula. The transport strategy devised for the Experience therefore focuses on access to the Dome site being made by public transport.
For visitors travelling from East London and Essex, the most convenient public transport route will be travel by surface rail to either Stratford or West Ham stations, or where appropriate the Docklands Light Railway to Canning Town station, and transfer on to the extended Jubilee Line to make the short journey to North Greenwich station, which is located adjacent to the entrance of the Dome site.
For visitors who seek to make the first leg of their journey by car, the New Millennium Experience Company is intending to manage a small number of formal park and ride facilities around London at which a limited number of visitors each day, who pre-book in advance, will be able to leave their vehicles before completing their journey on convenient public transport links. For visitors travelling from East London and Essex, the most convenient park and ride facility will be the proposed site in the north east sector of London which, subject to planning permission, will be located at Stratford. Visitors parking at the Stratford site would be transferred the short distance to Stratford station by shuttle bus, where they would again take the extended Jubilee Line to North Greenwich Station.