AS FEARS grow about the impact of the London Olympics, transport chiefs have identified what they believe will be the days of maximum pressure on the network.

An extra 80,000 passengers a day are expected at the key Central line junction of Stratford as soon as athletic events begin on Friday, August 3.

But congestion is expected to peak on Thursday, August 9, when the stadium hosts events including the men’s 200m and 800m finals, and when travellers can expect to spend at least 30 minutes waiting to board a service.

Transport for London (TfL) is urging commuters to leave earlier than normal for work, book annual leave or even conduct their business from home during the period of the Games, which runs from July 27 to August 12.

A spokesman said: “The station will have three busy peaks each day – in the morning as the spectators arrive, in the late afternoon as spectators both arrive and depart, and in the late evening when all sporting events finish.”

Stratford is the only station on the eastern end of the Central line identified by TfL as likely to suffer from delays, but the organisation admits that its calculations are based only on expected spectator numbers at the Olympic events.

Factors such as the proposed car park on the Green in Wanstead and campsites for up to 800 tents within walking distance of Wanstead station have not been taken into account Wanstead is also emerging as a key pressure point on the road network, and TfL is advising drivers to avoid it on every day of the Olympic period.

Sarah McArdle, 52, of Overton Drive runs an export company in Shoreditch with her husband Justin.

Both use the Central Line to commute to work.

She said: “We had an email from TfL suggesting we ask our staff to work at home and consider new strategies.

“But we can’t do that. It won’t work. In our business we need to get things to people when they need it and we need our staff to work on the premises.

“ It’s going to be chaos.”

The busiest day for the public transport network as a whole is expected to be August 3, when TfL estimates an additional three million journeys will be made, with 80 per cent of those expected to include some form of rail travel.

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