Photo/Illutration The former Tsukiji market site in Tokyo's Chuo Ward is now being used for buses and other vehicles for the Olympics. (Shiro Nishihata)

Tokyo Olympic organizers have been hit with complaints that confusion in bus operations for the Games has caused a host of problems, including athletes forced to miss training time, sources said July 29.

“We are asking the Tokyo organizing committee to do better,” an official of the International Olympic Committee said. “It’s a terrible situation.”

The bus operations were set up to transport athletes from the Olympic Village to training and competition venues.

IOC officials said some buses did not show up to pick up the athletes as scheduled or went to the wrong destinations.

According to sources, one competitor missed a training session because a bus was delayed. In another case, a bus did not arrive on time, so an athlete took a taxi to the training venue, even though such cab use could violate protocols of the COVID-19-prevention “bubble.”

Many bus drivers were brought in from outside the capital to work at the Olympic Games.
Tokyo organizing committee officials said such drivers may be unfamiliar with roads in the city.

In addition, the committee cited botched operations in arranging an appropriate number of buses for peak times of the athletes’ movements.

According to sources, IOC officials strongly demanded the Tokyo committee improve the transportation system during a meeting on July 27.

“The organizing committee should stick to the athletes’ schedules, not its own,” an IOC official said.

The IOC is asking for improved operations, additional parking spaces, and more staff and professional drivers.

“It is getting better,” a public relations official of the Tokyo organizing committee said on July 29.

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