The transport plan for the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games has been completed. Spectators, coaches and athletes will travel aboard 1,000 buses, 600 mini-buses, more than 4,000 cars and 40 trains.
Toroc Transport director Paolo Balistreri said that the coaches and competitors will have 600 mini-buses at their disposal and there will be 4,000 cars for other groups – from members of the Olympic family to journalists.
Balistreri said, “tickets will be very cheap and the shuttles between the railway stations and various Olympic venues will be free”. But parking for private cars will be expensive to encourage the use of public transport.
Venues for the Games will include seven new ski slopes, a dozen ski-lift facilities that are reported to be among the most modern in the world, being serviced by an artificial snow system made up of nine water basins and 300 kilometres of pipeline capable of producing 7,000 cubic metres of snow an hour.
Turin 2006 Games head Mario Pescante calls it a record for the facilities hosting the mountain events to be ready a year before the event. “In previous Olympic Games this has never happened”, he said.
The new track for the bobsleigh, skeleton and luge in Cesana-San Sicario is now finished and has its final covering of polished artificial ice.
The bob and skeleton World Cup trials will take place on the new track January 20 to 23, and on February 5 and 6 the venue will host the luge World Cup.
The K 120 ski jump and two of the six rings of the cross-county skiing route in Pragelato-Plan will be inaugurated January 8 and 9.
Two World Cup Nordic combined “B” competitions are planned for the ski jump on January 8 and 9, bringing together more than 75 athletes from 15 different countries.