I've been pondering on what seemed wrong about my journey
yesterday, and the time of events doesn't make sense unless
London Underground had suspicions something was amiss.

I arrived at Wood Green station at 8:30 to discover it was
locked and a notice saying the service was suspended
between Arnos Grove and Kings Cross.

Yet the Piccadilly line bomb was at 08:50 ?!

Could be coincidental problems, but it makes you wonder.

Plus I then went off to Finsbury Park and ended up at
Oxford Circus just as the one wet off at Edgware Road, so
if they knew something was likely it would have been nice
if they'd shared those ideas !


--
Edward Cowling London UK

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

I've been pondering on what seemed wrong about my journey
yesterday, and the time of events doesn't make sense unless
London Underground had suspicions something was amiss.

I arrived at Wood Green station at 8:30 to discover it was
locked and a notice saying the service was suspended
between Arnos Grove and Kings Cross.

Yet the Piccadilly line bomb was at 08:50 ?!

I received a text alert at from TfL at 08:25 announcing services were badly
disrupted due to a train failure at Caladonian Road. To be honest that was
probably the case, if they had suspected that was the case I'm pretty sure
they would have suspended the whole service.

I ended up using Seven Sisters (normally go from Turnpike Lane), by the
time we got to Finsbury Park (about 09:15) announcements saying Kings Cross
& Euston were closed due to the power failure. After a delay of a few
minutes at Highbury & Islington trains and the station were evacuated again
due to the same reason.

--
Phil Richards
London, UK
Home Page: http://www.philrichards1.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

I've been pondering on what seemed wrong about my journey
yesterday, and the time of events doesn't make sense unless
London Underground had suspicions something was amiss.

I arrived at Wood Green station at 8:30 to discover it was
locked and a notice saying the service was suspended
between Arnos Grove and Kings Cross.

Yet the Piccadilly line bomb was at 08:50 ?!

Could be coincidental problems, but it makes you wonder.

Plus I then went off to Finsbury Park and ended up at
Oxford Circus just as the one wet off at Edgware Road, so
if they knew something was likely it would have been nice
if they'd shared those ideas !

I was running late yesterday morning, so caught the BBC London travel
bulletin around 08:55 and they said there were _ongoing_ severe delays
to the Northern, Piccadilly & Bakerloo, two of which I'd normally use.
I figured I'd walk to Bounds Green, see what was happening, and then
back-track to Bowes Park to get WAGN into Moorgate if necessary.
Funnily enough, just before I left - by which time I'd switched the TV
off - a friend from Manchester texted me to ask if I was at work, which
I thought was a bit odd. As it was, when I got within sight of Bounds
Green I saw the gates were down, so walked straight back to Bowes Park,
although there wasn't a train due for about ten minutes. Getting
there, though, I found a train that "hadn't moved for ages" and
eventually the driver said it would be going to Alexandra Palace and
terminating there, so I decided to head home, especially after a text
from a work colleague revealed she was stuck at Clapham. Walking back,
the same friend who texted earlier rang to ask if I was okay, what with
all the bombs going off and stuff. I suppose if I'd been more on time,
I'd've ended up stuck in a tunnel either side of the K-X/RSq train that
got hit....

On Sat, 09 Jul 2005 11:23:29 +0100, Dave Arquati
wrote:

Express bus services are operating between Arnos Grove and Finchley
Central, and from Bounds Green, Wood Green and Turnpike Lane to Seven
Sisters.

Perhaps WAGN will be able to operate some improved service to stations
between New Southgate / Bowes Park and Finsbury Park or Highbury &
Islington.

Certainly WAGN will get displaced traffic from Bounds Green and Wood
Green. Have they got the stock to increase the service frequency,
though?

I can't even imagine how they begin sorting out the mess below King's
Cross. They are having trouble retrieving the unfortunate victims, let
alone do anything else. I feel sorry for anyone who is waiting for news
of their missing friends and relatives.

It was rather stunning to hear Tessa Jowell admit about half an hour
ago that none of the 49 dead have been officially identified yet. The
only "good" aspect of this is that the 25-odd people who are known to
be "missing" will be amongst them and the un-recovered at King's
Cross, so the overall toll in that respect will still be 49 plus
whoever is left at King's Cross, not 49 plus 25 plus King's Cross.
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War:
http://www.cwgcuser.org.uk/personal/...ra/lu/tuaw.htm
625-Online - classic British television:
http://www.625.org.uk
'Things to Come' - An Incomplete Classic:
http://www.thingstocome.org.uk

In message , Nick Cooper
writes

It was rather stunning to hear Tessa Jowell admit about half an hour
ago that none of the 49 dead have been officially identified yet.


There is still info coming out that is contradictory. We're told
it all went off at 8:50, yet a guy is filming it happen at Edgware
Road at 9:20.

It's past the usual sloppy journalism phase and becoming
annoying.


--
Edward Cowling London UK

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 18:36:08 +0100, Edward Cowling London UK
wrote:

In message , Nick Cooper
writes

It was rather stunning to hear Tessa Jowell admit about half an hour
ago that none of the 49 dead have been officially identified yet.

There is still info coming out that is contradictory. We're told
it all went off at 8:50, yet a guy is filming it happen at Edgware
Road at 9:20.

It's past the usual sloppy journalism phase and becoming
annoying.

At the press conference today it was categorically stated that all
three Underground bomb went off within - IIRC - a 50 second
time-frame. They showed screen-grabs from the Circle line software
showing train positions at various stages/times. If someone's Mobile
phone footage is being shown with differing time, I suspect the
problem is more that the clock on their phone is wrong!
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War:
http://www.cwgcuser.org.uk/personal/...ra/lu/tuaw.htm
625-Online - classic British television:
http://www.625.org.uk
'Things to Come' - An Incomplete Classic:
http://www.thingstocome.org.uk

"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in message
...
On a different subject; it seems unlikely the Piccadilly line is going to
be operational for many weeks, if not months. Are there plans to make
alternative arrangements to service the stations North of Kings Cross ?

Don't know what alternative arrangements might be made, but there's little
or no chance that the area of suspension will get any smaller. The only
other available reversing facility on the route is at Wood Green, and this
can only be used to reverse from east to west.

Note that the current shuttle from Hammersmith to Paddington uses a
hand-worked crossover at Royal Oak. To my knowledge this has only been used
by passenger trains on one other occasion during engineering works at
Edgware Road in the 1990s. This shows that LU is really trying hard to offer
the best service in the difficult circumstances.

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 19:26:56 +0100, "David Splett"
wrote:

"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in message
...
On a different subject; it seems unlikely the Piccadilly line is going to
be operational for many weeks, if not months. Are there plans to make
alternative arrangements to service the stations North of Kings Cross ?

Don't know what alternative arrangements might be made, but there's little
or no chance that the area of suspension will get any smaller. The only
other available reversing facility on the route is at Wood Green, and this
can only be used to reverse from east to west.

So what actually precludes a westbound train running into Wood Green,
reversing (east) into the siding, then out again (west) to the
eastbound platform, before heading back east again?
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War:
http://www.cwgcuser.org.uk/personal/...ra/lu/tuaw.htm
625-Online - classic British television:
http://www.625.org.uk
'Things to Come' - An Incomplete Classic:
http://www.thingstocome.org.uk

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 19:26:56 +0100, "David Splett"
wrote:

This shows that LU is really trying hard to offer
the best service in the difficult circumstances.

The message is "business as usual" and everyone is working to get the
network back as fast as circumstances allow. There are a lot of people
involved in pushing this forward.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 10:26:39 +0100, Edward Cowling London UK
wrote:

[snip]

Thank you. The media still seem full of conflicting accounts of events.

And it will be for many months. To be honest it would be far better to
wait for proper official reports to be published.

On a different subject; it seems unlikely the Piccadilly line is going
to
be operational for many weeks, if not months. Are there plans to make
alternative arrangements to service the stations North of Kings Cross ?

See my reply in an earlier thread. Other replies in this thread have
captured a lot of the issues.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!