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Explosion on London tube
- Thread starter mehrmantrout
- Start date
Charles Brandon
Member
If they can search 10 millions bag everyday in Beijing then more power to them but if you'd ever been in a London tube station in rush hour you'd know that this would cause the whole system to immediately collapse.
I get that point! Cant disagree.
stan423321
Member
Hahahaha
The underground city train system is not your airplane or something, at this point it wouldn't be a huge stretch to attempt to security check all pedestrians.
Also a lot of London museums have security checks and let me tell you that I am sure they are worth nothing unless attacker panics.
What exactly would you have us do, seeing as you're an expert?
They do it on subway in china (they try anyway).
They aren't at all. Brixton tube station *alone* has over 20 million people go though it a year. It has one entrance with 3 normal sized staircases going down into it.
I don't think people are understanding both the volume and complexity of the tube. It was the first underground in the world and is very, very old and built very differently to other underground networks (single lines, for example). It's not possible to put bag searches in operation on the tube, full stop.
BigJonsson
Member
Thousands of people vs millions is not an equal logistical nightmare
A few locations vs 100 locations etc...
Fuck:/ damn
Blue Geezer
Member
Good luck.
Hey earls court!
Yeah bag checks on the tube is just a laughable idea. It would either be implemented poorly making it a joke or create chaos with insane lines that have nowhere to go except spill on to the street which would be much worse....
This. Anyone claiming it is even a vague possibility to bag search on the tube network has never been on the tube.
Jesus, WTF are you on about?
uncleniccius
Member
You are aware that there are innumerable attempts all the time that fail right? Like, everywhere.
Audioboxer
Member
First time I ever visited London I arrived at around 5pm. It was the most stressful experience of my life getting that underground for the first time at that time of the day. Try carrying luggage through it and up all the escalators to boot. People throwing you about everywhere, getting angry and such at an underground newbie slowing them down. Worse stress than any job interviews lol.
I've been to London a few times since and the underground is still a riot at peak times. I echo what other posters have said. There is far too much traffic for mandatory bag searches. The best you have is security around to eyeball what they can and the reliance on passagers to report suspicious behaviour/packages.
I've been to London a few times since and the underground is still a riot at peak times. I echo what other posters have said. There is far too much traffic for mandatory bag searches. The best you have is security around to eyeball what they can and the reliance on passagers to report suspicious behaviour/packages.
Blue Ninja
Member
Shit, stay safe London.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I'm sure they could put up metal detectors and do random searches no matter how high the traffic. The mandate just isn't there yet because it isn't consistently bad enough.
Jezbollah
Member
Get the fuck out of here with this shit.
Yeah I've been to London quite a few times and I'm ok at the underground but no expert. Imagining having to deal with security checks would be ridiculous as everyone has said
I'm in London in a couple of days and this isn't really bothering me. They can fuck off
BigJonsson
Member
snausagesUK
Member
Yeah best to go and get a tea or something until 7 if you have lots of baggage. Peak hours are a fucking nightmare. Really miserable experience.
JonnyDBrit
Member
Can't imagine Lidl is appreciating all this free advertising.
More seriously, from the sounds of it, the explosion lacked on one of the key things to a device causing harm: Shrapnel. Which I imagine is probably down to being in a (relatively soft) plastic bucket, rather than something more solid like a rice cooker (to use one known example). If it's deliberate, then thank god it's an amateur, or it could have been a lot worse.
More seriously, from the sounds of it, the explosion lacked on one of the key things to a device causing harm: Shrapnel. Which I imagine is probably down to being in a (relatively soft) plastic bucket, rather than something more solid like a rice cooker (to use one known example). If it's deliberate, then thank god it's an amateur, or it could have been a lot worse.
Sorry but what would metal detectors do?
snausagesUK
Member
Metal detectors would be the worst. My spine has metal in it and I always set off the security check in the airport
Westbahnhof
Banned
How would metal detectors not just cause complete chaos?
People are allowed to carr loads of stuff that would trigger the detectors.
You would slow everything to a crawl. It wouldn't work.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I dunno. It sounds like how I'd think of a US-Mexico wall two years ago. Though to be fair, who knows if that would ever happen either
People would adjust to the commute. It's like when people voluntarily purge their liquids before they fly.
ClosingADoor
Member
Metal detectors? How are you going to do that. It would ping all the time and you can't search all those people.
Random searches would be next to useless also.
Nexus Zero
Member
Because we don't live in an authoritarian shithole? Sorry but I went to Beijing, they are not bring that police state shit over here. I take the tube every day and I'd rather "risk" this than live like that.
speedwagon_
Banned
just walked past there like 10 minutes ago.
EDIT: For people asking if it could have been an accident, I received an email this morning saying that there was someone with a knife.
EDIT: For people asking if it could have been an accident, I received an email this morning saying that there was someone with a knife.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Well that's a different story. I'm not saying it wouldn't be security theatre.
Musha_Soturi
Member
From what I've read so far seems like more people were injured in the mad stampede to get out rather than the actual explosion. Way to care for your fellow commuters.
andythinkpad
Member
Point to the person who snap a picture instead of picking up her hangbag.
Westbahnhof
Banned
No they wouldn't. People need to carry that stuff. To work, from work.
Take stuff home they bought. Just some examples.
It's unfeasible.
Don't suggest removing people's freedom and slowing down an immensely popular form of transportation just so that a paranoid minority can feel more secure.
What you'd be doing by putting in security checks in tube stations is creating a small underground room full of thousands of people queuing to get through metal detectors and bag searches in the morning rush hour, with a couple of staircases for exits. Which is an even worse target for a bomber than a train, frankly
It's being done at the gare du Chatelet in France, which is the second busiest station in Europe. Just at the entry points of the station though, but it's something.
TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared
Member
Hope everybody's ok.
I think you don't really understand either how the tube works, or how counterterrorism operations work in the Uk.
Remember, we've been experiencing this for *decades*. The IRA had a long campaign of targeting civilian targets in london. We never introduced bag searches or metal detectors on the underground then either. This isn't a new phenomenon, and no-one is going to disrupt one of the worlds busiest transport networks in the worlds financial capital just for a piece of security theatre - least of all the intelligence and police services.
Umm, I don't think so. One of the advantages of taking the smelly, claustrophobic, nightmare that is the tube is that you don't need to know the timetable because the trains are usually 1-3 minutes apart. How would security work in ridiculously busy stations like Victoria or Bank/Monument? You would have to get to the station 45 minutes earlier which would defeat the whole purpose of having the tube in the first place.
Its because its stupid and turns metro services from a convenience to a bloody hassle. As people have pointed out, the checkpoints just create a bottleneck that can be attacked anyway.
Suikoguy
I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
I'd wait till a legit expert on bombs can look at the picture and provide an educated guess as to if this was intentional, or the authorities release more information.
Glad no one was killed.
Glad no one was killed.
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