The train's on time - now the builders must follow the lead

By George Scott, Sportsbeat

IT'S fair to say there are more exciting milestones in the build-up to London 2012.

ON TIME: London Mayor Boris Johnson does his best job not to look like the Fat Controller ahead of the maiden trip of the Olympic Javelin train from London's St Pancras station (Stefan Rousseau/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The iconic wave-shaped roof of the Aquatics Centre taking shape, the completion of the Olympic Stadium or the first test event being held.

But, for all its apparent lack of glitz and glamour, the time-trial journey of the Javelin service between St Pancras International and Stratford International is no less significant.

With three years to go until the opening ceremony, London 2012 organisers invited VIP's, athletes and the media to join the great and the good, plus Boris Johnson, on the maiden journey.

The Javelin service is central to London 2012's transport plans and will carry around 25,000 passengers an hour, making it the key route in and out of the Olympic Park.

Transport remains one of the key challenges facing organisers, who are aiming for 97 per-cent of visitors to get to the Games by public transport.

Infrastructure and efficiency are long-standing problems - but London Mayor Johnson will also be keen to build bridges with the fiesty railway union RMT to avoid a potential tube strike close-to, or during, Games time.

And needless to say, Locog were keen to ensure yesterday's journey to Stratford went without a hitch.

The journey time is a well advertised seven minutes - anything more would have been a public relations disaster.

But after Coe offered a welcome message over the tannoy, the 140mph Javelin left on time at 09:42am and completed its journey - the majority of which is in darkness through a tunnel - with 15 seconds to spare.

A success - for now.

TAKING SHAPE: London's 2012 Olympic Stadium will be completed by 2011 - giving Locog 12 months to snag problems and stage test events (Stefan Rousseau/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The weather was not so kind, with persistent rain determined to ruin the party - but the sun finally broke during the ensuing bus tour of the Olympic Park.

Three years out and the area is still very much a building site - but it is taking shape.

Buildings can be spotted rising from the ground as their foundations are completed and there is a real sense of the compact Games that was promised in the bid book.  

By coincidence or, more likely, clockwork PR, yesterday saw the first ground broken in digging the diving pool - with recently-crowned world champion Tom Daley one of the 20 athletes taken on the tour.

COE AND THE CHAMP: Locog chairman Lord Coe gives Tom Daley a guided tour of the Olympic Park (Stefan Rousseau/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The Aquatic Centre may well be the architectural centrepiece but it is the Olympic Stadium which, for now, dominates the Stratford skyline.

For all the criticisms of its design from the outside, inside it is suprisingly intimate.

The centre of the arena is twice the size of Wembley, but the back row will be 20 rows closer than its north-west London counterpart.

London 2012 is taking shape and three years to go is a significant landmark. There is plenty of work left to do but the atmosphere is building - if you pardon the pun.

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