London theatres will offer discounted tickets to commuters during the Olympics as part of a Society of London Theatre scheme intended to ease anticipated pressures on the capital's public transport this summer.

People working in areas deemed liable to be particularly crowded will be offered £10 tickets to a number of major West End shows, including The Phantom of the Opera, The 39 Steps and Mamma Mia!, as an incentive to travel home outside peak times. With hundreds of thousands of additional visitors expected, Transport for London is braced for further strain on the capital's public transport network, which already carries 1.1bn passengers a year.

Solt's chief executive Julian Bird announced the plans yesterday, at a TfL event that explained similar initiatives across a range of businesses and attractions, including Madame Tussauds and the Sanctuary Spa. TfL will run a voucher scheme encompassing the various plans, with discounts available to those who can prove they work in transport "hotspots" such as Canary Wharf or Westminster.

Bird said: "When the 2012 Games get under way, many employees in transport hot-spot locations will be looking to re-time their commute and enjoy the festival atmosphere."

"To help, we will be providing them with reduced priced tickets to some of the best theatre shows around through our new spring promotion and at tkts in Leicester Square, London."

Solt will announce full details of the scheme and participating shows in April.

In spite of several major voices of concern, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's prediction of "a bloodbath of a summer," Bird remains optimistic about the prospects for London theatre during the Olympic period. He recently told Variety that research had shown transport to be a major concern among audiences, adding, "we've now seen the detailed planning and it shouldn't be a problem."

Ben Plowden, TfL's director of surface planning, explained, "We know that at certain times and in certain locations the public transport network will be much busier than usual. That's why we are teaming up with a range of London's top attractions to ensure that people able to travel home outside peak hours are spoilt for choice when deciding how to spend their evening."