The 09.37 from London St Pancras International to Margate, stopping at Stratford International and pointing South East, slid out of Platform 13 as usual on Wednesday. But with an unusual mix of passengers.

The carriages – broadly grey, clinically clean – contained the great and the good of Britain's rail transport service. And in the last of them was an impressive collection of political figures and media.

The collection being the impressive bit. And the political figures. Not necessarily the media.

Here were Jeremy Hunt, the Culture and Olympics Secretary, and Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, looking like a bit like schoolboys out on a trip. (Hair unruly). And here also was the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, looking very much like the master in charge of that trip. (Hair neat).

Standing alongside them, the affable figure of Dennis Hone, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Their journey was not long, in one sense. St Pancras to Stratford International, and then one more stop to Stratford – on what was the first test run of the newly completed Docklands Light Railway link down to Canning Town, linking the Olympic Park site with others such as the ExCel Centre.

But this was also a journey which had taken around six years – since Sebastian Coe's carefully calibrated plea to the International Olympic Committee yielded a big yes for the London Olympics in 2012.

Coe was already waiting at Stratford in what will be the main ticket hall.

And his short speech to mark the occasion on which the last main bit of transport infrastructure for the Games was officially designated as complete, more than a year before the Games were due to get underway, paid tribute to the strength and breadth of political cooperation which had got all of us present, literally, to this point.

The chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games went on to recall how, six years earlier, he and several others present had stood in the cold of a freezing morning on this site to greet the members of the IOC Evaluation Commission and explain to them their vision for this particular part of East London.


Just as Hammond (pictured left with Johnson) had done in his preceding speech, Coe mentioned "the naysayers" who had greeted news of London's coup with gloomy prognostications about the ability of the capital to host the Games, and, in particular, to arrange transport for the Games.

While the main part of the rail infrastructure may now be in place, there remains – as Coe, Hammond, Johnson, Hone and Hunt were all swift to point out – the matter of managing and operating transport during the period of the Games.

"Precision is absolutely essential," said Coe. "Getting the right people at the right time to the right places. We can't have a situation where Usain Bolt is held up in a transport hub."

Coe had started his speech by saying: "I like days like this."

You could understand what he meant.

But such were the circumstances of this particular day that the London 2012 chairman could not enjoy a nice clear run. There was a big fallen tree lying right across his line - the ticketing issue.

Johnson had raised laughter within the hall as he described how he had "fired up his computer" that morning, only to discover that, as far as securing tickets for the Olympics was concerned, "computer says no".

The Mayor of London, it transpired, was among those quarter of a million applicants who had been - at least initially - unsuccessful.

Johnson, working the crowd like a stand-up, switched to a riff about how the Olympic Games might have been called the Legacy Games, and London might have been called Legacy, which of course would mean having the General Legacy Council....

While Johnson did his thing, the rather strained smile his ticketing story had created on Coe's face faded into a more uncomfortable expression. The media express was heading for a platform near him any minute now...

And the media express arrived. And Coe was there to meet it with a response that was characteristically efficient, if a little defensive. No, he didn't think the 2012 ticketing system was a fiasco. No, he didn't accept that more information could and should have been available to applicants. And yes, he did want to stress that all those unsuccessful applicants would have the possibility of trying again, and would be first in line at that point.

There is still a way to go before those members of the public – and indeed those likely members of the British team such as Bradley Wiggins – who are currently angry about the arcane process of getting 2012 Olympic and Paralympic tickets will be either satisfied or mollified.

This might well turn out to be an issue which will quieten down by the end of the year, when further tickets have been yielded by the system.

But for now, Coe and his colleagues at London 2012 have promises to keep, and miles to go before they sleep. When one journey ends, another begins...

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames