Three Years Ago - London Transport Terrorist Attacks

One of the most horrific days in my memory for the London Underground Tube and bus system as 52 people were killed in an terrorist attack on July 7th 2005. From a day of mammoth blogging updates, shock in the comments, nightmare images of blown apart carriages, increased security, fear of rucksacks, armed policemen eating in McDonalds - all things I hoped I would never have to see or write about.


Then the shock of the attempted attacks only two weeks later and the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes:


It wasn't just doom and gloom, Londoners showed a display of strength, defiance & unity that I still feel proud of. Thousands went to vigils and memorial services. A number of us helped through spending even more time on the Tube through a charity Tube Challenge to raise money for the victims & their families.

As Londoners we didn't wring or sit on our hands and slowly more people got back to travelling on public transport again. Gradually things got back to normal and London recovered.

All the arguments and finger pointing and blaming have been covered many, many times on this blog and loads of others.

However, what remains is that 52 people are dead through going about their every day travels. 52 families have lost people they cared about. Jean Charles De Menezes is dead because the police thought he looked like a terrorist. Hundreds of other people have been physically and mentally scarred (Rachel North), disabled (Gill Hicks) & hurt and nothing is going to take that away.

Flowers will be laid outside King's Cross Station today to remember the victims.

Everyone will have their own memories of that day and that summer, and you may want to share them in the comments below. My thoughts today are with the survivors of the attacks and the families of the dead and I just hope that we will never experience anything like this again.