functional · ramblings

I write from work, and am thankful that the events that have unfolded this morning have not had any long-lasting effect on me. I was at Kings Cross, buying my ticket, when the bombs went off at 08:49. My ticket is stamped with that very time. Just as I was about to go into the station entrance, the emergency signs came on.

I am slightly unnerved, because I could have been on the train that was targeted between Kings Cross and Russell Square. At least 21 people on that train have lost their lives. I've been taking the Picadilly Line from Kings Cross at around that time for the past couple of weeks to get to work. I'm thankful I spent that little extra time on my hair this morning. You know, silly little details that one obsesses over after things like this.

I immediately thought that it was just a cock-up, a blip at Kings Cross, and headed for Euston Square. It started to rain, and I thought that it was not without irony that we had been so high-spirited yesterday, after the news about the Olympics. Our brilliant Tube network would ferry the thousands of spectators to the various events in the East End. This "blip", I thought, was just a reminder of how bad the Tube can actually get.

I walked to Oxford Circus and went down to the Victoria Line platforms. There was no indication of when the trains were going to go anywhere, so I came back up, and as I did, a PA announcement declared that no trains were running and that they didn't know when any would be.

Buggger. Typical.

I resolved to press on and walked south-west, heading in the Green Park direction. I caught the old 38 outside the Ritz and as we passed Green Park station I saw that the gates were closed and staff were directing passengers elsewhere. People on the bus were talking about how they're weren't any Tube trains running, but no-one knew any more than that.

A lot of us got off around Victoria, and I made my way to the Tube station. Staff there were directing people onto buses depending on their destinations, and I asked if they knew when the network would reopen. They didn't know. I had planned to go to Harrods for lunch today, and wanted to know if I could take the Tube to get there.

Outside Victoria there were masses of people, all wondering why the Underground station gates were closed. I just wanted to go to Clapham Junction and then on, southwards, to Putney, so got into the station and got on the first train I could find. As I waited for it to leave, I heard calls for British Transport Police staff to attend at platforms 4 and 5, if I remember correctly. I don't know if that was related.

On the train to Clapham Junction, one man said that he had heard that there had been explosions on the Tube, but he didn't know more than that. It was not until I got to work - 45 minutes late - that I found out that power surges had been blamed for the trouble on the Tube. News of terrorist involvement emerged later.

Marimo rang, my mother rang, Ed texted me, I rang my sister, who was supposed to have a job interview in London today. She was fine, safely away in Raynes Park.

And I'm thankful. The full details will doubtless emerge in the next few days. But I keep thinking - it could have been me.

I bought this ticket at Kings Cross just before all the chaos began. Just as I was about to go down into the station proper, I heard sirens, and saw the 'Emergency: Do Not Enter' signs on. I supposed that there had been a power failure or, at worst, a suspcious package and hurried to the next station, Euston Square.

Little did I know what was in the process of unfolding.

More here.

The confusion has now subsided. We know what went on. More or less, anyway. There are certain specifics, like precisely who was responsible for the attacks, although examination of CCTV recordings will doubtless yield clues in due course. I now know that the Piccadilly Line train that exploded was in fact going in the other direction - from Russell Square to Kings Cross. Having seen mobile phone video footage and photography on the BBC - both the web site and the telly - I am incredibly thankful that I was not on that train. Or one of the others afflicted. Or the bus - the photos of it are quite horrifying.

At the time, the most frustrating thing was the lack of information. A lot of eyewitnesses have expressed their disappointment at being stuck in Tube trains which had been hit or such and just not knowing what on earth was going on. I can understand that there is a need to avoid panic, and that as such, there was generated the fiction that it was caused by electrical power surges. I find it hard to believe that this could have been anything more than something designed to prevent undue panic, as it quickly became clear (with the destruction of the bus) that this was not a problem we could blame on the National Grid.

But standing at Euston Square station at 9:05, I knew nothing. I presumed that there had perhaps simply been a power failure or, at worst, a suspicious package at Kings Cross. Trains would thus just carry on straight through. I, like other commuters, was frustrated when the expected arrival of the next train changed from 2 minutes to "delayed", and the announcement over the tannoy illustrated that most Underground staff were as much in the dark as we were. Of course, mere minutes after that, just a little way down the line at Edgware Road, another bomb went off. Even when I got to Oxford Circus at 9:20, or thereabouts, all any of us knew was that no Tube lines were running. I think most of us just thought that London transport really sucks.

I in fact knew nothing until I got to work, which was when I first heard the story about the power surges. Old Street was suggested to have been affected. No-one really knew anything. I pulled up BBC News, but it took a while before the truth emerged.

The thing is, such an attack could happen tomorrow and we would still be powerless to stop it. The people who perpetrate these attacks have no compassion - as Ken Livingstone said, they have no respect for race, gender or religion. They probably wouldn't think twice about attempting an attack on the Tube network tomorrow. It's not actually implausible.

But we should keep the attacks in perspective. Fatalities have, thankfully, been relatively low, and although there have been many casualties, most of them have not suffered too seriously. London can and will recover from this, and it would be nice to think that our response will be as restrained as possible. Bullies get tired of attacking those who don't react.

I came as close today as I ever want to come to a terrorist attack. New job starts tomorrow. I hope it's a little less stressful than the events of today.

(I wish to thank all of you who have asked after me today. I shall be seeking an explanation from those that haven't! :P)