Flashes of Panic

Choreographing the many details of an event such as the World Indoor Championships can’t be simple, and the Local Organizing committee (who have undoubtedly been working on these three days for as much as two years, if not more) have to be under a lot of stress.

There’s a lot to go wrong. Like yesterday, when the bus I rode from my hotel to the venue appeared not to know how to actually reach the venue. He looped it twice, and when he appeared to have missed it the third time, the Spanish journalists in the bus crowded to the front, calling to him, “Enough, enough. Stop here.” So finally he did, and we walked from there. Apparently there were other issues with buses not turning up on schedule at all, or nobody knowing where the drop-off and pick-up points were. One of my colleagues made it back to the hotel via the subway system and about 15 minutes of walking, more quickly than I did on the official shuttle bus.

Today, it develops that the transport manager has resigned. Which leaves us wondering: who’s managing the buses for the remaining two days of the championships? (Not to mention the airport shuttles on Monday, now that I think about it.)

Technorati Tags: buses, spain, transit, troubleshooting, valencia