CROWDS RETURN: London taxi trade prepares for a BUSY Wimbledon Tennis Championships

The All England Lawn Tennis Club’s (AELTC) 135th staging of The Championships at Wimbledon, including the celebration of the centenary of Centre Court in its current home, will see the return of full crowds.

The Ground's capacity will be up to 42,000 each day. After two years, The Queue will return for spectators wishing to buy tickets on the day, as will Ticket Resale, for those wishing to purchase returned Centre Court, No.1 Court and No.2 Court tickets, in return for a donation to the Wimbledon Foundation.

Demand for taxis during The Championships is always high and marks one of the busiest annual periods for the black cab industry.

Steve Howard, Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA), said in TAXI Newspaper: “Yes, that time of year is upon us again where Wimbledon goes into panic mode for two weeks with the AELTC championships. This year will be no exception, being the first time in three years it will be a full tournament.”

Dates of the championships are Monday 27 June to Sunday 10 July. For the first time the Tournament will run for ‘14 days’.

There will be ‘Cab sharing’ to and from local stations only, at £2.50 ph. There will be two ranks in the park at Church Road, one for local work and one for all other work – they will be run dependant on crowd volume. Should it be necessary to run ‘first cab first job’, this will be instigated by the marshals.

The LTDA also confirmed there will be extra taxi marshals on site. The taxi representatives warned that as last year there were drivers working out of their area, there will be more bill and badge checks taking place.

Generally, the operational plan will be the same as last year, with road closures in Church Road and Somerset Road, with the exception of the two ranks in the park at Church Road.