THE conversion of London’s iconic 2012 Olympic Stadium is a major landmark in the history of London football, but it also signals a huge shift in weekend train travel in Essex.

West Ham United’s former Upton Park stadium had a capacity of 35,000, with many opting to travel by car, but now the majority of the 60,000 fans travelling to the newly named London Stadium will be going by train.

With a significant portion of the club’s fanbase living in Essex, the extra strain on our county’s train service has already become obvious.

Earlier this month, I was among thousands of other fans who packed onto Greater Anglia trains ahead of a match against Juventus to officially open the stadium.

While the spectacle of the match and its surroundings will live long in the memory, the journey was one to forget. Despite the extra numbers, the operator ran its regular half-hourly Sunday service, leading to overcrowding and frustrated fans being left behind on platforms.

Thankfully, the operator seems to have reacted quickly, and travel from Essex to Stratford for Sunday’s Premier League match against Bournemouth was more comfortable.

A Greater Anglia spokesman said: “We have improved our services by increasing a number of our four and eight carriage trains to 12 carriages, and running extra trains, where available.”

At Upton Park, the main public transport option was a cramped Tube station with only two platforms.

While some people did take the train to matches, many others decided to drive to East London and park near the stadium.

At the London Stadium, parking spaces are limited and visitors are actively encouraged to use public transport.

Essex’s other rail operator, c2c, claims 5,000 West Ham fans are using its network to reach matches. Another test of the network will come tonight, when West Ham fans and City commuters both pile onto trains ahead of a crucial Europa League match at the Olympic Stadium.

A c2c spokesman said: “We’ve been working very closely with the club and putting on a combination of extra trains and longer trains so far. We’ve also been varying the departure time of some services, for example today we have an extra train whose departure time will vary depending on whether the match finishes after 90 minutes or extra time. We’ll continue to develop these bespoke timetables and adjustments, depending on the circumstances around each game.”

“We are also putting on extra staff at West Ham station on match days.

“We can only run direct trains to Stratford at weekends, and this is dependent on when there is no engineering work, because of limited track access from Network Rail.

“However from West Ham station it is only a short journey on the Jubilee line or DLR, or alternatively it is walkable to the stadium.

“Also we expect that with time that some fans may prefer to travel to and from West Ham as it would mean they don’t have to queue so long at Stratford.

“So far we have taken about 5,000 fans to and from each game, significantly more than on match days at the old ground.”