Aldgate - Was bombed train going TOWARDS Kings Cross?

[astro3]

The simplest refutation of the official narrative for July 7th, comes from trains blown up going in the wrong direction – i.e. towards King’s Cross.

Whatever happened that morning did somewhat resemble a monster power surge, and it was rather non-localised, with various trains being zapped and more than one carriage on each train experiencing the blast/fire effect – and rather few witnesses testifying to the bang of a bomb. Here we just concentrate on the ‘Aldgate bomb’ story – with essentially three stations involved: Liverpool Street, Aldgate East (Hammersmith and City line) and Aldgate (Circle line). (there are also reports of high-tension cable blown at Moorgate but we ignore that here) If the trains afflicted are not travelling away from King’s Cross, the official story is stone dead.

1. The first travel report from Transport for London made at 09.55 informs the public that the network has been suspended and all stations evacuated following major incidents at Liverpool Street and Edgware Road on the Hammersmith & City lines. A web site update at 14.25 states that the train is a Hammersmith & City Line train travelling towards Liverpool Street. And the same report was given by Tube Lines on July 7th. Which way was it traveling? It was coming into the station. At 09:46, an announcement was made that the London Underground was suspended and all stations commenced evacuation following incidents at Aldgate station heading towards Liverpool Street station on the Hammersmith & City line (Source: Transport For London)

Conclusion: H&C line, heading into Liv. St.

2. The Met reported on July 7th that

At 08.51 on 7 July at Liverpool Street Station there was a confirmed explosion in a carriage 100 yards into the (Liverpool Street-bound station) tunnel.

This information was repeated the following day by Andy Hayman CBE, Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan Police Specialist Operations, responsible for terrorist investigations. On 8th July 2005 Andy Hayman told a press conference of the assembled world's media:

In relation to the tube train in Aldgate traveling toward Liverpool Street, the explosion occurred in a carriage approximately 100 yards into the tunnel. The device was in the third carriage and unfortunately we can't be any more specific than that.

(Source: Andy Hayman, Metropolitan Police Press Conference )

Conclusion: Circle line, heading into Liv. St.

3. David Taylor, Executive Editor of News, London Evening Standard:

about 90 seconds after the first bomb, our Transport Editor received the first call about Aldgate – literally, 90 seconds after it occurred, from one of his contacts who had been on the train that was ahead. He said there had been a massive bang and people were running through Liverpool Street. Within a moment of two we had another call from a City source, who had offices above Aldgate, who told us of a huge explosion. By about 9.05am, we had a trusted and known union contact who was telling us that people on the ground were saying there had been three explosions on the network. To add to that, we had eyewitnesses by about 9.30am who were ringing up to say that they had been on the train and had seen bodies on the line at Aldgate.

These were the initial perceptions as received by London’s Evening Standard news editor.

Conclusion: Circle train had just left Aldgate when it blew up, ie going towards Liv. St.

4. : Jonathan Richards of LBC News and Heart 106.2 had this story:

from our perspective, we were having witnesses telling us that the Aldgate bomb had been on a train that was travelling from Kings Cross towards Tower Hill. However, the police and TfL, for 36 hours afterwards, were maintaining that the train was coming from Tower Hill towards Kings Cross. Which as it turned out, was quite important. That was a case of reporters specifically putting the point to the police and TfL, and them saying ‘No, you’ve got it wrong; it was coming from Tower Hill.’

(Source: 7 July Review Committee 11 January 2006 – transcript of agenda item 4, session one [PDF])

Comment: Very strange - the police were insisting that a blast at Aldgate had come from a Circle line train traveling towards King’s Cross (Tower Hill is the stop after Aldgate). Were there two trains?

5. Michael Henning in his testimony to the GLA described how survivors emerged from Aldgate not Liverpool Street, and how they walked down the tube line:

the decision was made to walk to Aldgate station, which meant that we had to walk past the train. I subsequently found out that those in the rear carriages did not know there had been an explosion.They had no idea what they were going to see in a matter of seconds.

Conclusion: Mr Henning was concerned about the trauma which persons in the rear carriages would experience, as the wounded trooped past on their way to Aldgate station. Thus the train had been traveling from Aldgate towards Liverpool street.

6. Sachin, a passenger travelling West from Aldgate East, gave a detailed account of how

My train had just left Aldgate East station when I heard a huge explosion which shook the windows of our train. The lights dimmed and came back on again and the train came to a stand-still [....] The whole train came to a standstill in the tunnel and had to be evacuated, which took until about 11 am, walking out at Aldgate East station.

(Source: p247 GLA Review Committee report [PDF]) Accounts describe walking wounded emerging from Aldgate East ‘“with cuts and soot and debris in their hair.’

Conclusion: Some big power surge on a H&C line that had just entered the tunnel at Aldgate East, going towards Liv. St.

7. Ken Murphy in his report to the BBC describes being one of the paramedics on the scene. He enters a dark tunnel from Aldgate station and sees body parts BEFORE reaching the train or the affected carriage. the recovery team Manager for LU, Howard Collins, claims that train 204 travelled 80 to 90 metres after the actual explosion.

Conclusion: Circle line train with a train number, with a description indicating that it was traveling away from Aldgate i.e. towards Liverpool Street.


Data source: www.julyseventh.co.uk/7-7-liverpool-street-aldgate.html

[astro3]

A week after the blast, the Met put out a statement alluding to:

the Circle Line train traveling from Liverpool Street to Aldgate station. The device was in the third carriage of a train approx. 100 yards into the tunnel.. (1)

Right after the blast, the Metropolitan police took over management of the whole crash site from MetroNet, who manage the Circle line. So, they ought to know what was going on.

But, the Government's official ‘Narrative,’ published a year later, has the Aldwych blast happening in the second carriage (from the front). So the experts are here disagreeing over the carriage in which the bombs were located. How could that be? The police, having ownership of the crime scene for a couple of weeks after the blast, ought surely to be able to tell which carriage was cratered-out.

At Aldgate, not only can we not be sure on which tube line or in which direction the 'terrorist' was travelling, or at which station he was arriving (Aldgate or Aldgate East) but we can't even be sure of which carriage he was in! This tends to argue against the theme of a single 'bomb' going off somewhere, and in favour of some more general 'power surge.' This view has been argued eloquently by the 'Antagonist', see
http://antagonise.blogspot.com/2005/08/ ... icker.html
The problem here, it seems to me, is that a 'power surge' scenario is in the nature of X-files science. A normal power surge would just blow the fuses and halt the trains - not cause explosions. It has the advantage of accounting for the funny experiences of survivors - the feeling of being electrocuted, seeing balls of fire going through the carriage, or orange flashes outside the coaches without blast sounds.

In the case of the Piccadilly and Edgware Road blasts, the experts have been persistently unable to decide at which end of the carriage the blasts had occurred. The questioning of witnesses tends not to resolve this! In the case of the Aldgate Circle line the uncertainly is over which carriage was affected, which is rermarkable.


1. Met Police Service Home, 'One week anniversary' bombings appeal’ 14.7.05

[Prole]

The problem here, it seems to me, is that a 'power surge' scenario is in the nature of X-files science. A normal power surge would just blow the fuses and halt the trains - not cause explosions.

Power surges in themselves are serious and do cause explosions. Indeed, Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone said as much at a 7 July Review Committee Meeting [PDF] on March 1st 2006:

"You could have had a power surge with a quite catastrophic casualty level. We have always been aware of that on the Underground."


BBC 1/10/05 a power surge sent a flare 10 foot into the air from the track.

From our analysis of the incident:

The idea that the train was travelling towards King's Cross, not away from it -- a factor upon which the official Home Office conspiracy theory about how 7/7 came to be is totally reliant -- is confirmed by a survivor of the attacks who was interviewed by CNN on the day of 7th July 2005. The survivor confirms that she was on a Circle Line train, Westbound, going between Aldgate Station and Liverpool Street. The survivor confirms that the train was absolutely packed, that there were lots of head and facial injuries, as well as that everyone believed that a minor incident, a power surge, had occurred. She also notes that the emergency services were present outside the station but were not allowed to enter the station.

youtube

[kbo234]

"You could have had a power surge with a quite catastrophic casualty level. We have always been aware of that on the Underground."

It's easy to say such a thing. I'd like someone to explain how such a thing can happen.

The only information I can find google searching such an event is that the BBC reported that one had taken place (as mentioned by 'Prole' above).

Maybe someone threw a firework on the tracks?

Here's what someone might explain to us all.

What causes a 'power surge' what exactly takes place during such a surge?

I find it hard to imagine what kind of circumstance could cause "a flame to shoot 10 feet into the air" from a live rail unless the voltage in the rail suddenly leapt from about 4 to 600 Volts to many tens of thousands or maybe millions of volts. The breakdown voltage of air is 3000 Volts per millimetre.

If the insulation protecting the rail gets damaged I suppose it is possible that a few thousand volts could cause a large current surge to earth and hence a problem, but surely there are FUSES in the circuits to protect against this kind of thing. Also, someone slinging a length of conducting material across the rails might do something similar......but flames 10 feet into the air?????

How?

[karlos]

I dont buy the power surge story.
It is another convenient distraction that the public falls for.
Much of what happened on that day was well planned and executed. Ofcourse the Luton train being canceled was not planned. But the UK media seem to be so totally working from a script that even obvious errors are reported as facts.

If this power surge story is true then travelling on the tube must be extremely dangerous. It could happen anyday anytime and it could kill many people.
The reality is power surges do not occur. Transformers, fuses, tripswitchs, earthing, etc are there to prevent anything occuring and indeed has never happened before during the 100 years of the tube being electrified.
The previous reported occasion was recent, under Livingstone, Sir Ian Blair, Verint etc, so was probably the dummy run for this occasion.

When do powersurges ever occur in the house, factory, office, etc? Never. So why would it occur on the tube which has all the safety features etc well developed.
Ofcourse after the bombs went off you would have electrocution possibilities, but it appears the survivors walked along the tracks to the next station so clearly the safety features cut the power.

[Prole]

Of course 'power' surge can be interepreted in a different way.

LU's reply to my query re: power surge being a cover story:

4. Again, I'm afraid it's not accurate to say that the information given about a power surge was a 'story'. When the explosions happened, obviously they broke the track circuit. On the computer systems at network control, such a big break would look the same as a power surge. It's worth pointing out that we have never been the victim of a terrorist attack of this kind before, but on 28 August 2003 a power surge knocked out about half of the network. Such a surge can be accompanied by explosions. In other words, all the evidence we had at the time (including the information from the drivers) and our experience pointed to a power surge, so that's what we said it was. This information was given in good faith.

I am dismayed by reports in certain sections of the media that the term power surge was used as some kind of cover story until we were ready to reveal the truth. Indeed, I have to say that I take issue with calling it a 'story', as this seems to imply that we deliberately misled people. This is nonsense. As soon as we had evidence of what had actually happened, we made that information public.

Ray Wright, who was travelling with the driver of the Piccadilly Line train:

He said as they got people off the train, he and the driver still thought it was a mechanical or electrical fault.

It was only when the first police arrived he was told other bombs had gone off on two other Tube trains and one on a bus.

[numeral]

I dont buy the power surge story.
....
The reality is power surges do not occur. Transformers, fuses, tripswitchs, earthing, etc are there to prevent anything occuring and indeed has never happened before during the 100 years of the tube being electrified.
The previous reported occasion was recent, under Livingstone, Sir Ian Blair, Verint etc, so was probably the dummy run for this occasion.

When do powersurges ever occur in the house, factory, office, etc? Never. So why would it occur on the tube which has all the safety features etc well developed. ....

This is the Tube, remember. The protection features are there but do not always work.

http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewt ... 5718#95718

The Final Incident Investigation Report - Mansell Street - 17th May 2005 - INF No. EDF-INF-SSE-05-101

Executive Summary

On Tuesday 17th May 2005 at 18:03 hours a fault occurred at Mansell Street in the cable termination chamber of the Cobourg Street [next to Euston] 22kV feeder F2293.

Mansell Street is one of the main Bulk Supply Points feeding the London Underground Power Network. The incoming supply is at 132kV from the National Grid, which is transformed to provide the 22kV supplies required to operate the London Underground Railway Network.

This fault occurred within the switchgear fed directly from these Grid Transformers, and this situation would account for the intensity of the voltage depression that occurred during this incident.

Although the duration of the fault was only 0.6 seconds, consequential substation plant failures occurred which effected [sic] the operation of the London Underground Railway Network fed from Mansell Street derived supplies. All these failures are being investigated.

The main aim of the investigation was to identify the root cause of the incident, which has been established as an internal fault inside the red phase cable termination of F2293, due to poor jointing craftsmanship. The general design of these terminations was that utilised in the mid 1980's when these terminations were assembled. These methods of cable termination preparation had already been superseded, prior to this incident occurring.

Due to an erratic operation of the Translay protection auxiliary tripping relay, the circuit breaker failed to clear the fault in the minimum time. This allowed the fault arc to transfer to metalwork inside the switchgear chamber, causing extensive damage within the chamber and a voltage depression on this part of the Distribution Network.

[Sinclair]

the power surge story...

BBC ‘slow to call’ terrorist attack in July

18 November 2005

BBC head of news Helen Boaden has admitted the corporation was slow to abandon the claim that a power surge was the reason for explosions on the London tube on 7 July, rather than a terrorist attack.

Speaking at a session on breaking news, Boaden said the strap placed across the bottom of the screen on the morning of the bombings still bore the words ‘power surge' even when presenters were conveying details of the explosion on the bus in Tavistock Square.

"We've now learned that the strap and headlines condition the sense of the story," she said.

Boaden told the conference recent research carried out by the BBC had revealed the audience are more forgiving over the facts when watching a breaking story rather than a package aired during a bulletin.

"The audience are more sophisticated than we give them credit for — they are far more understanding when stories are unfolding than when they are watching bulletins. They expect a far higher level of accuracy during bulletins," she said.

...

source:Press Gazette

However, it's not unusual for the police to ask the media to withhold certain information for operational reasons. Since the blasts of 7 July and the failed attacks of 21 July, the Metropolitan Police have made a number of such requests, which the BBC has agreed to.


This PowerPoint presentation by Tim Fotheringham of the Royal London Hospital, confirms what staff at the RLH were told:

• 08.51 “Power surge LUG [London Underground]”
• Approx 09:05 LFB [London fire Brigade] declare major incident
• 09:16 LAS [London Ambulance] declaration

Slide 2


At 08.56 on 7th July 2005 a MI [Major Incident] was declared [at the the Royal London Hospital]

Slide 10


9.26am Major Incident Alert from LAS: bombs at Aldgate East, Liverpool Street, and Praed Street. Casualties unknown. RLH [Royal London Hospital] first receiving hospital.

Slide 12

[truthmonger]

Before people dismiss the idea of some kind of 'power surge' being responsible instead of bombs, they ought to look at the work of John Hutchison and the so-called 'Hutchison effect' (in fact a variety of bizarre effects produced by relatively low inputs of energy - as little as 400W).

Some of the anomalous effects at Ground Zero could have been caused in this way, and if it is in fact the case that the pulverisation of the Twin Towers, the vertical holes seemingly 'drilled' into WTC6 etc. were caused by deliberately produced 'Hutchison effects' (Hutchison freely shared his work with the Pentagon and a number of advanced weapons research companies), then it is obvious that similar technology could easily have been used on 7/7.

Paul

[astro3]

Numeral has helpfully provided an official report of a power surge on the LU, which happened on May 17th, 2005. This lasted for 0.6 of a second and ‘affected the operation’ of some trains’ – it did not blow up the coaches! It caused some burning inside a switch, that’s all - we are told.

This does not support Mayor Ken’s claim that a power surge can cause a ‘quite catastrophic casualty level.’ (1.3.06) He made that claim, by way of trying to support the LU’s claim that they originally believed the whole thing had been due to a power surge.

All I'm trying to say is, that if you're wanting to believe that What Really Happened was rather electrical in nature, and was a surge of power of some sort, affecting various trains and not quite localised to a definite centre as a bomb explosion has to be - as The Antagonist has argued - then you are believing in something different from what would normally be called a 'power surge' - viz a temporary voltage overload which blows the fuses.

On a different matter, I got confirmation from someone who works at my college (UCL) that his wife had been on the 2nd carriage of the Circle line train from Liverpool St to Aldgate and that the explosion happened in that carriage. She had to have her ears treated. She always gets into that carriage so she had no doubt about which one it was.

[rodin]

If you can prove the trains were not heading away from Kings Cross therefore the bombers could not be on them where do we go with this evidence?

[rodin]

Are we all agreed the train was going in the wrong direction? Time for justice surely. Aaranovitch site owner - get on this case and make a name for yourself by taking on the gov. We will back U up.

[redadare]

Astro 3 - Great post.

As for believing the power surge story, surely we should now be pressing for a Health and Safety prosecution of the Tfl and of course Ken Livingstone as he knew '.. with a quite catastrophic casualty level. We have always been aware of that ...'

Maybe then a bit more truth, or perhpas some more impossibly complex, and completely unbelievable cover-ups will emerge.

Rodin wrote

Are we all agreed the train was going in the wrong direction? ....

If research confirms Astro 3's post, I am agreed.

[redadare]

Sorry chaps. Changed my mind. Prosecute TfL and Ken for corporate manslaughter.

[TonyGosling]

In the main Circle Line control room it's likely the first signs of trouble would have been assessed to be a power surge or similar.

They may well not have had live video because of damage to feeds and quite normally assumed something had tripped the circuit breakers.
If bits of metal from the bombed train had hit the track there would almost certainly have been a short circuit which would look to them like a power surge.

[rodin]

Tony if it can be proved the trains were going in the wrong direction let's STOP RIGHT THERE and organise to prosecute on this evidence.

[rodin]

Again I ask the forum. Have we PROVED the Aldgate train direction was towards King's Cross and if so how about forcing the issue whatever way we can, legal, media etc.

Or mass demo/sit in at a tube station?

[astro3]

Let's come back to this idea, that reports do not generally sound like a bomb going off. And, 'The problem here, it seems to me, is that a 'power surge' scenario is in the nature of X-files science'. Would a comparison with someone on the 30 bus be helpful?

Tania Calibrese (from down Under) was sitting in the middle of the top deck, and was with her boyfriend - their joint experience may have helped her to retain her memory. And it was this:

Ms Calabrese said she had no idea the bus had been bombed, and initially thought they had been involved in a traffic accident. "I don't remember a bang," Ms Calabrese said. "I didn't hear anything. It was just like a violent shaking. It felt like a really bad car accident.

"I thought something had hit us from behind.

"Then the shaking was uncontrollable. I couldn't control my eyes. As soon as I felt the impact blood flew out of my nose metres in front of me. I remember grabbing on to the railing in front of me while the bus was shaking.

"I was thinking, 'OK this is going to stop', but then I could hear creaking metal and the floor around my seat started falling down. I just held on to the chair in front of me. The floor started slowly twisting and I ended up not that high off the ground.

"I couldn't walk down the stairs because the bus was flattened. I just jumped off.

"I landed on the floor and looked around. It was so quiet it was freaky. There was something like smog all around but it was actually fibres from the seats so there was like dust everywhere and black smoke. ..

"All my clothes were ripped and the hem on my pants was blown off by the blast as well as the buckles on my shoes.

So pressure from the top lifting off makes her nose bleed. But otherwise I'm just struck by the strangeness of this account.