Tokyo tests athlete transport for 2020 Olympics

Organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics have tested a plan to transport athletes by bus across the city from their accommodation to the opening ceremony venue.

In the test on Sunday evening, 75 buses left the site of the athletes’ village in Tokyo’s Chuo ward one by one for the journey of about 20 kilometers via the Shuto Expressway in central Tokyo.

The buses reached the New National Stadium that straddles Shibuya and Shinjuku wards in about 30 minutes, 10 minutes less than expected.

Traffic around the national stadium had been regulated from around 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.

There was no major disruption, even though there was a traffic jam at one point on Aoyama-dori street in the busy Aoyama shopping district.

The street, which usually teems with traffic, has an exclusive lane for vehicles related to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Organizers of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are said to have used about 300 buses to transport athletes to the opening ceremony.

The Japanese organizing committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan government plan to discuss the number of buses needed and how to regulate traffic based on results from Sunday’s test.