Farce of the 'green' Olympics taxis being transported 130 miles by lorry just to be refuelled

They are designed to make the process of ferrying hundreds of VIPs and officials to Olympic venues more environmentally friendly.

But three low-emission taxis introduced in London for the Games had to be transported on a 130-mile round trip to Swindon to refuel.
The black cabs run on hydrogen, but a fuelling station at Lea Interchange near the Olympic Park has been closed for security reasons.

A new fuelling station opened near Heathrow airport today, according to the consortium behind the scheme, the Hydrogen Transport for European Cities project (HYTEC).

Until then, however, the taxis had to be loaded on to a transporter to be taken to the nearest station - at car manufacturer Honda's Swindon plant.

HYTEC co-ordinator Diana Raine said: 'The fuelling at Swindon was a one-off.
'The new fuelling station at Heathrow is now operational and the taxis have today been fuelled and driven into central London to pick up the Olympic VIPs, as part of a three-year project to develop hydrogen technology.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2182178/Olympic-taxis-transported-130-mile-round-trip-lorry-Swindon.html#ixzz22TlFoduv