"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote:
Newsgroups: uk.transport.london, uk.railway
Subject: Me in London today
From: Clive D. W. Feather
Date: Thursday, July 07, 2005 4:57:37 PM

For those who care, here's what happened to me today.

I had a meeting at the Angel (the big BT building there). Got to King's
Cross about 08:30 - all normal - and went to get a cup of coffee and sit
and work for an hour or so. At about 09:35 I got up and discovered a
large number of people were milling around the area.

One of the patrons said she'd heard there'd been an explosion at
Liverpool Street. Another said that when her train arrived at KX the
driver said he'd been told not to open the doors (no, I'm not clear how she got out).

From the situation around the mainline station it was clear there weren't
going to be any buses coming along the Euston Road. So I started walking
up the hill towards Angel. Buses were queuing back past the fork with Grays Inn Road (?).

About 09:45 I heard a loud bang in the distance. I thought it was
south-east (that is, towards Holborn) but I guess it was the Tavistock
Square bus. When I got to Angel and met up with others, the reports were
of a "power surge". The other attendees each had their own - confused -
stories of what had happened.

During the meeting reports dribbled in. We decided that, since all
transport was snarled up, we might as well finish our meeting and then
work out how to get home. Meeting ran until about 2pm, at which point it
was reported that WAGN were running from Finsbury Park and GNER from
Peterborough. So three of us (me, someone from Leeds, and someone from
Hull) decided to head for Finsbury Park.

14:15 - the streets around Angel look much the same as I'm used to. There
are some buses running but, typically, not going the way we want.
Somewhere along Upper Street we managed to grab a taxi. It took him about
30 minutes, but he dropped us at Finsbury Park station. Small crowd
outside. A person with a "Customer Service Manager" or something like
that, on being asked "Peterborough", said "we've got a train waiting for
you on platform 2". But when we went to the doorway we were told to catch
the all-stops to Welwyn Garden City and change there for an all-stops to
Peterborough. The train (2x313) left at 15:30, full and standing. Enough
people got off by New Southgate that there were plenty of seats from
there on. I noticed a heavy police presence at New Barnet, but I'm told
there were policemen on the platform at every station before then. Can't
say I noticed any at Hadley Wood or any subsequent station until St.Neots.

Arrived WGC at 16:05. There were 2x365 in the other platform, and it was
announced for Peterborough. Decided to sit in first class - I doubt
they're going to make a fuss today. Train is busy but no worse than
normal. Just as we were about to leave another 2x365 pulled into platform
1. Presumably that will be the Cambridge service - it might have been a
chance for some rare track, but I'd rather get home, really.

Arrived Huntingdon 16:55 after an eventless run. Get to car, drive home.

I was on a train into King's Cross from Leeds, having landed at Manchester
Airport the night before - I'd left NY (there to celebrate my 30th)
wondering if Paris or NY would win the Olympic bid until the pilot
announced it was London as we were arriving in the UK... I had a morning
meeting in the City, fortunately being somewhat jetlagged I got a slightly
later train than planned.

We were turned back at Peterborough, with the 'power surge' explanation
doing the rounds. The poor guard was getting absolute hell from irate
passengers. Being more than happy with an excuse to head home and get much
needed shuteye, I was sanguine.

I still wonder to this day if the passengers, knowing what they do now,
regret the abuse they gave that guard...