John B wrote:

Mizter T wrote:
[ allowing x-London Terminals transfer by bus]
It appears that the train companies through ATOC are responding to
passengers demand for such a ticketing product. I guess this can be
seen in part as a response to the events of two summers ago, but
regardless of any such terrorism fear factor there has always been
plenty of people who just don't like the idea of using a subterranean
railway (I guess as a result of claustrophobia), and others who find
using the Underground an ordeal because their mobility is impaired or
they have heavy/bulky luggage.

Agreed on the claustrophobia, mobility and luggage.

However, given the death toll relative to passenger density seen with
the Tube, sub-surface and bus bombs two summers ago, anyone aiming to
minimise potential personal terrorism damage would be unwise to do so
by taking a bus...


This wasn't quite the direction I intended the thread to go in.
Nonetheless a brief response to that. I'm not sure how accurate your
thinking is, given that there were twice as many victims on the
Piccadilly line train (which was a in a tube as opposed to being a
sub-surface train), though I'm not particularly keen to get into making
grisly and speculative calculations as to which form of transport is
safest in the context of it having a bomb explode on board.

A slightly wider way of looking at it is this - there are a good number
of people who, as I said, have always been wary of Tube travel for a
number of reasons that aren't terrorism related - be it claustrophobia,
fear of crowds or fear of being in tunnels under the ground etc.
Previously some of them may have just bitten their lip and got on the
Tube, but the fear of terrorism is perhaps the final straw that means
they'll now avoid using it. Buses are something they are more familiar
with, and they don't bring with them claustrophobia etc so they seem
like a safer option.

You might say this is irrational - if so, I'd go back to the point I
made above, i.e. I'm not sure there's really enough evidence to suggest
one way or the other about which vehicle is 'preferable' for avoiding
damage, and of course no-one in their right mind wants there to be any
further evidence to study anyway.