Corporate 2012 Olympic ticket packages costing £20,000 let fans use VIP lanes

[richard]

Businessmen are being offered the chance to ‘buy’ access to VIP road lanes during London 2012 for £20,000 a head, an undercover investigation has revealed.

Companies including High Street travel chain Thomas Cook stand accused of violating Olympic rules by secretly including use of the fast-track routes in corporate packages.

Customers are being warned to keep the offer ‘really quiet’ because ‘people will say you can buy your way on to the lanes’.

The revelations will increase the controversy over ticket allocations for this summer’s Games, amid claims ordinary people have little chance of securing the best seats – and will face travel chaos as VIPs sweep past on dedicated routes.

A total of 39 miles of roads in London will include a special lane that can only be used by 80,000 accredited members of the ‘Olympic family’, including 10,500 athletes.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last year that high-tech sensors are buried in the lanes to ensure that red traffic lights will automatically turn green to speed dignitaries to the stadium.

Experts warn that the express routes will bring chaos to the capital’s roads as thousands are forced into clogged bus lanes. Now two companies have been caught apparently offering paid-for access to the VIP lanes.

Reporters from Channel 4’s Dispatches were offered a Thomas Cook package priced at £450,709 for a group of 23. The week-long deal included tickets for the men’s 100 metres athletics finals, six nights at the five-star Athenaeum hotel in Mayfair – and access to the lanes.

In the programme, to be shown tomorrow, Pete Moore, who described himself as the company’s Head of Olympic Trip Packages, says corporate purchasers could use the road lanes by putting accreditation signs on the front of their dedicated ‘luxury coaches’.

Mr Moore then adds damningly: ‘There have been so many issues with these Olympic lanes and to be honest with you we need to keep it really quiet because we can’t really be saying that we have access to it... people will say, “Oh well, you can buy your own way on to the Olympic lanes.” ’

A second hospitality company, Jet Set Sports, was also recorded offering access to the lanes, even when customers were not travelling to Olympic events.

Richard Relton, a member of Jet Set’s staff, is heard boasting: ‘The key is the Olympic lane network. Our guys will travel in the official vehicles, so it gets you to the closest drop off point... you can travel in the lanes for as long as where the lanes are relevant.’

Last night, a spokeswoman for the London Organising Committee of the Games (LOCOG) said it was investigating. As an Olympic sponsor, Thomas Cook is entitled to use the routes, while Jet Set Sports carries out work on behalf of sponsors which gives it similar entitlements. But LOCOG rules bar them from including the use of the lanes in its packages.

Hundreds of thousands of tickets have been sold by LOCOG to hospitality providers, with Thomas Cook paying £25 million for 300,000 tickets.

Although Lord Coe, chairman of LOCOG, has claimed that 75 per cent of all tickets will be available to the public, for most popular events, such as the men’s 100 metres, it is likely to be closer to 50 per cent.

Jet Set Sports is owned by Sead Dizdarevich, an American multimillionaire implicated in a bribery scandal in 1999. He admitted paying £83,000 to officials to help Salt Lake City win the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

A LOCOG spokeswoman said: ‘We have been very clear with our authorised ticket resellers that the right to purchase our tickets does not include the right to access the Olympic lanes. Any evidence that suggests they are trying to sell access to the lanes will be immediately investigated.’

Jet Set Sports said Mr Relton was no longer an employee and that he had given inaccurate information.

Thomas Cook said Mr Moore was not an employee and worked for iLUKA, a ticketing company that has formed a partnership with Thomas Cook for the Olympics.

The spokesman added: ‘We have yet to see the programme and will investigate the issues raised following transmission.’


Source
By Glen Owen
www.dailymail.co.uk

[richard]

Thankfully here in the UK, breaking down, driving along, or stopping in a reserved London 2012 VIP lane doesn't yet carry the death penalty. Though a stiff fine might be awarded for such an action - paid at £1 a week out of benefits

Any motorists considering using these reserved VIP lanes should be reminded that although their road taxes helped pave these lanes, they are no longer permitted to use them.

With the lack of proper policing on the roads nowadays caused by huge cuts in police budgets, I dread to think about the delays caused by broken down and unauthorised vehicles in the VIP lanes.