In message
Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 11:48:17 on
Fri, 23 Feb 2007, charles remarked:
hijacking a train and seizing exclusive use of part of the network for
the necessary time.

But if mass panic has hit London, the Tube network will not be running
anyway.

Indeed. It will have been closed for normal traffic for some time. Which
is why it's easily available for various (not just Royal Family) special
operations.

given that there was only supposed to be a "four minute warning", how long
is your 'some time'? Two minutes, maybe?

I don't know why you think my scenario involves a surprise nuclear
attack. Either a period of "increasing civil unrest" measured in days,
or a specific and concentrated non-nuclear attack several miles away
earlier that day.

The original cold war scenarios envisaged a two week period between the
Soviet Union forces crossing the East-West German border to the point where
consideration of a nuclear attack was contemplated. This was the time it was
believed it would take the Russsians to get through the NATO defences in
Germany and break out into France. If the American reinforcements flown in
via the UK didn't stem the advance then we would escalate to nuclear, if the
Soviets failed to break through before the Americans arrived it was
considered they would escalate to nuclear. The worry from the UK perspective
was that if the Soviets confined their nuclear attack to the UK, the
Americans might not retaliate but pull back into their isolationist mode.
Hence the perceived need for a British independant nuclear strike capability.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html