"Roland Perry" wrote

Can you explain why the many references to battery locos have escaped your
attention?

Not all the rolling stock is battery operated, is it? I was referring to the
everyday clutter of hundreds of trains using the system.

That would have been done long before, when the lines were shut to the
public.

You see, I think you have in mind some sort of orderly gradual transition
from normality to emergency, when the government announces a problem and TfL
responds by ordering all the LT staff to clear the system of rolling stock,
and generally closes it all down neatly.

I on the other hand don't think that any emergency likely to cause it
necessary to make an emergency covert evacuation of VIPS from London is
going to happen in such a way. Whether a missile strike, a dirty bomb or a
germ scare, the transition time is likely to be extremely short, either
minutes or a couple of hours, and tidying all the trains away to their
depots is simply not going to be a priority either for TfL or LT staff -
most of the latter will have other priorities. It might happen, of course,
but the strong likelihood is that it won't, and the system will be abandoned
in some state of disorder.

This being the case, no sensible planner is going to choose the Tube as a
route for VIP emergency evacuation: there is only a slim possibility that it
could be so used, and there are far more reliable methods available.

Incidentally, while LT is rightly proud of the transport continuity provided
in some areas of London during the Blitz, in the East End a very large
number of station staff, bus and train drivers and conductors abandoned
their posts under fire. That sort of precedent suggests continuity of public
transport service in London in an sudden-onset acute emergency cannot be
expected.