TRAVEL got off to a flying start this morning as thousands of Suffolk residents departed Ipswich rail station to head to the Olympic Games.

Greater Anglia has reported a “good service” across its network with all trains running to time with a busy day expected as spectators travel to various London 2012 destinations.

The operator is providing extra late night trains during the Games and additional carriages while additional staff will be donning magenta Olympic tabards to assist passengers, give information about Games related activity and support other Greater Anglia employees.

After a trouble-free first weekend, Greater Anglia is gearing up to carry more weekday passengers who will be joining the commuters on their journeys to Stratford.

Even those without precious Olympic tickets are still getting into the spirit of the games following Danny Boyle’s uplifting and inspirational opening ceremony on Friday night.

Greater Anglia are putting on more trains which are running later into the night to cope with the expected extra demand.

Yesterday, and for the next two Sundays, they operated a Saturday service. There are extra services during the week as well with the last train to Ipswich due to leave Liverpool Street at 12.30am and Stratford 10 minutes later.

However, yesterday’s last trains departed ten minutes later to ensure passengers could reach them – people with smartphones can keep up with the latest news through Twitter or Greater Anglia’s new phone app.

A spokesman for the company said there had not been any major problems reported – they had kept passengers up to date through Twitter and had not heard of any serious problems for passengers.

Ruud Haket, managing director, Greater Anglia said: ”We’ve been pleased to welcome those travelling to the Olympic venues on our services this weekend.

“Together with Network Rail and our Games partners, we’ll continue to make every effort to provide our regular customers and visitors to the Games with the best possible service this summer.”

It’s not just London that has been hit by Olympic fever – Ipswich councillor with responsibility for leisure Bryony Rudkin visited Old Trafford with her family to see Brazil in the football tournament.

They were very impressed to find themselves sitting just a few feet away from the legendary United boss.

Mrs Rudkin captured the moment on Twitter: “Oldest son in heaven. Sir Alex Ferguson has just arrived at Brazil match at Old Trafford and sitting near us!”