Ed Lake wrote:
Clive D. W. Feather wrote:

In article .com,
Peter Vos writes

If the culprit knew the train schedule so well, he'd do things the
safest and easiest way. Taking a train to Euston, then another to get
back to King's Cross so he could plant the bomb on the Picadilly line is
just too complicated.


Not really. Euston is the closest station to KX (2 min) at that time of
day, trains are spaced "2 to 4" minutes apart.


In practice, they're 2 minutes apart throughout the peak hours.

At Euston Square (*NOT* Euston) you have to go up a staircase, over a
bridge, and down another staircase to change trains. At King's Cross the
two directions are separated by an island platform.

If we knew the ACTUAL times the trains arrived at King's Cross, it would
solve the matter.

[...]

The trains start running from various points on the Circle so spacing
is more important than scheduling. The key is the "2 to 4 minutes"
apart.


You both appear to be assuming that trains 204 and 216 were targetted
and timing is essential. Much more likely is that two random trains on
that part of the Circle were targeted. They come along every couple of
minutes, after all. The bomb on train 204 exploded just before the point
where one third or so of the trains diverge; that on 216 shortly after
the point where 40% or so diverge. Provided that, on the westbound, you
avoid the visually distinctive Metropolitan Line trains, any train will do.


I'm only assuming that the culprit is familiar with the way things
happen at King's Cross. I'm assuming that he's gotten off the eastbound
Circle line at the same time every weekday for years and knows that a
westbound train arrives at the other side of the platform moments later.
He also knows that as he's going up the elevator, a southbound
Picadilly Line train arrives at an upper level. He's not going by any
specific schedule. He's going by his EXPERIENCE with what happens at
King's Cross. He may even have practiced planting the bombs during that
hour and getting off again(without actually leaving anything behind - or
maybe even leaving some innocent package behind to see if anyone stopped
him.)

I was basically making the same assumption. I threw in the shuttling
between stations to see if the lone bomber idea fell apart. That
scenario strains credulity, but is clearly possible. If it really is
a lone bomber, I expect we will see him periodically. If he is doing
this based on experience, he probably has also scoped out the cameras
and knows how to avoid or confound them as well.


Ed
anthraxinvestigation.com