Roland Perry wrote:
In message .com, at
04:48:19 on Tue, 12 Jul 2005, Peter Vos remarked:

I saw a post saying the KX stop is the only stop on the Circle Line
where trains in both directions are separated by an central island
platform. All (most?) of the other stops have platforms on the
opposite side of the train.

The only one on that section of the line.

That means the doors that open at KX are
not used for the other stops. This might make it possible for someone
in a crowd to leave a smallish package by the doors that open at KX and
no one would notice until things had thinned out significantly.

That is certainly a possibility.

The question I have is how far would you have to travel in either
direction from KX before the doors that open at KX would be used again?
Would you get as far as Edgware and Liverpool?

In the UK we tend not abbreviate places like that. Edgware is a suburb
in north London, and Liverpool a big city halfway to Scotland.

You would definitely get as far as Liverpool St, however Edgware Road
also has island platforms, bit I cannot from memory tell you if a Circle
Line train might open the righthand doors there. It wouldn't have done
so earlier in the trip from Kings Cross.

Were the blasts on the
204 and 216 on the correct side (KX platform side)?

I have seen no reports that would either confirm or deny the theory.

If so, then dropping the package near the door while the train was at
KX might be feasible without attracting attention. That would obviate
any "babysitting" and means the perp never has to leave KX.

I was also wondering .... how often at KX during rush hour do you see
Circle Line trains in both directions at the station at the same time
or nearly the same time?

If there's clockwise one circle line train every 10 minutes
(you'd have
to check what the interval actually is) and they are stopped at the
station for 30 seconds (again, check) then you'd have a 1 in 20 chance
that at any instant there was such a train stopped at the station. If
you start the observation when an anticlockwise circle line train enters
the station, and end it when it leaves, then it doesn't alter the
probability very much.

Supposedly it is every 2 to 4 minutes at that time of day. There is a
schedule, but the important point is the gap between trains. Assuming
30 seconds in the station you might actually have a 1 in 4 chance of
that happening. I'm not suggesting the trains have to both be stopped
at the same time, merely one in the station when the other is
approaching. If they were both stopped you might not have time to
plant bomb one, cross the platform and plant bomb two before the doors
closed.

This assumes there's no particular timetable, adhered to, which might

There is a timetable, but the more critical thing is the spacing out of
cars.

mean that there were always, or never, two circle line trains on either
side of the island. (The island is also very wide, with connecting
passages linking two running tunnels, rather than being a narrow "open
air" island; so you don't tend to see trains on both sides at once
unless you stand at the very eastern end.)

The first two bombs were in the middle of the trains (3rd and 2nd car)
so I doubt anyone was hanging out at the end of the platform.


Is it something relatively common? If it is
then waiting for such an occurance to start the process would minimize
the time planting the first two bombs and gives you as much as 10
minutes before you have to be at the Picadilly Line.

I would expect it to be pretty random. You might find the two trains
there, or you might easily have to wait 150% of the published interval.

I agree, that would be why I suggest showing up around 8:30 or so and
waiting. If you have trains every 4 minutes and a 1 in 5 chance of
this happening, you will certainly catch a break before 9:00


Similarly, the trip to the Piccadilly line and the wait there can be
very unpredictable because of crowds, non-operational escalators, and
earlier problems with the Piccadilly line which have been mentioned
elsewhere. You might easily get to the Piccadilly line platform and find
no trains at all!

That's why I was budgeting as much time as possible by having the first
two trains as close together in time as possible.


If all that is true, then you really only need one person because you
can do everything in a walk.

If the scheme you are suggesting was what happened, then the people were
lucky to get the package on board the Piccadilly train when they did -
only perhaps 45 seconds before it detonated.

That is true, and suggests they were flying off the escalator to get to
the train before it left. It also suggests some serious nerve to be
rushing for a train with a ticking time bomb. This suggests someone
with demolition experience (probably former military) and maybe even
combat experience.

--
Roland Perry