The Terrorist Attacks on London

Underground on Thursday 7th July

2005

Andy Barr

Network Co-ordination Manager

London Underground
 Reflections - 1
Reflections 1

It is now exactly four years since the terrible events of July 7th 2005 unfolded, and since then,
London Underground and the other resilience and emergency organisations in London
have had the opportunity to :

• Review the incident performance

• Update our Emergency Plans in the light of the experiences

• Reflect on our actions and the way people responded

• Review the way we would react given a similar incident.

• Design new systems and reactions

• Enhance our Customer Incident care teams

Reflections - 2

• As a result of these reviews, we have made a number of changes

in the following areas in particular:

• Victim Support and Trauma counselling

• The way we assist people after large scale disasters
• Communications systems
• Emergency aid facilities at stations
• Recovery strategies
• Resilience Modelling for LU and TfL
• Better modal linkages
Reflections - 3

• This presentation details the events of the 7th July, and the
subsequent days in which London Underground and its
partners recovered the Transport system across London.
• How the people aspects were the single most important
factor in management on the day and subsequently
• How this contributed to the longer term strategy
• It also reflects the real time details, the speed of fact input
and the urgent need for London Underground to respond
on the day both as a system, and in conjunction with the
emergency services and other transport partners.
 Background

TfL moves over 6.5 million customers every day

London Underground is a diverse
organisation...
Moving 3.5 million customers per day
throughout London:

– 9 lines & over 250 stations

– Office locations all over London

– About 12,000 staff

– a 20 hour service customer hours

– All engineering to be completed in 4 hours

Planning & Preparation for Disasters

• In common with almost every large organisation,

London Underground has Continuity and
Emergency Plans, which they hope will never be
needed.

• London Underground on the 7th. July had to

implement its plans under circumstances which
no organisation or the employees should have to
endure
 At 08.51, we had THREE Major Incidents

Kings Cross
Aldgate
Edgware Rd
 Dimensions

When the bombs exploded there were :

- over 500 trains in service, each with a driver
- over 250,000 passengers on LUL
- around 2,500 staff on duty at stations

These were all evacuated in 1 hour

At 09.45, we had a further explosion on the bus.

Kings Cross
Aldgate
Edgware Rd
Tavistok
Square
Casualty Figures
• The number of fatalities was 52 (excluding the bombers.)

• 7 from the Liverpool Street / Aldgate incident.

• 7 from the Edgware Road incident.

• 24 from the Kings Cross / Russell Square incident.

• 14 from the bus

• 700 Treated for injuries.

 Key Stages of Business recovery – The
people aspect
• Managing the Incident
Managing
- The first 8 - 12 hours
the Incident

• Consequence Management
Consequen – Protecting the Business
ce
Manageme
nt
• Business Recovery
Business – Returning to normal
Recovery

Lessons • Lessons Learnt

Learnt – What would we do the same/differently?

Preparing • Preparing for the future

for the – Having a longer-term robust plan
future
Incident Management
• Command and Control

POLICE FIRE AMBULANCE LU Gold

INFRACO (Strategic)

POLICE FIRE AMBULANCE LU Silver

(Tactical)
INFRACO

Bronze
POLICE FIRE AMBULANCE LU (Operational)
POLICE POLICE POLICE POLICE
POLICE POLICE POLICE POLICE
POLICE POLICE POLICE POLICE INFRACO
We had to consider Multi – Site Incident
Control for the first time
Gold Control Network Operations
(Rostered Duty Centre 55 Broadway
Office, + Team)

Silver Silver Silver

Control Control Control

Edgware Rd. Kings Cross Aldgate

Aldgate
Circle Line Train 204 eastbound between
Liverpool Street and Aldgate, in cut & Cover tunnel
Edgware Road
Circle Line Train 216 westbound between Edgware Road
Paddington in cut & cover tunnel.
Kings Cross / Russell Square
Piccadilly Line Train 311 westbound between Kings Cross
(Piccadilly) and Russell Square.
 Managing
the Incident

Consequen
ce
Manageme 2. Consequence Management
nt
Business
Recovery

Lessons
Learnt

Preparing
for the
future
 The Network
On July 8th, we Operational
ran 80% ofConsequences
our service
The Wider London Picture

• As soon as the nature of the 3 incidents was identified, the

London Civil Contingencies Plan was implemented. This
meant :
– COBR Sitting

– The Gold Co-ordinating Group (GCG) Assembling at Hendon

– The Transport Cell as part of the GCG Meeting

– The Strategic management of the incident being managed at

Government level.
Strategic Co-ordination Centre (SCC)

Police CHAIR Media

LAS of GCG Joint Health
Advisory
Centre

GCG
LFB
Utilities
Recovery
Management Health Transport
 Managing
the Incident

Consequen
ce
Manageme
nt
Business
Recovery
3. Recovery Management

Lessons
Learnt

Preparing
for the
future
 Rolling Stock Removal
• Aldgate train moved as a train
on its own wheels

• Russell Square 2 cars also

moved on own wheels

• Edgware Rd. Train had to be

craned out due to Rolling Stock
structural damage
 The recovery strategy had a number of stages

• Completion of Scene of Crime

• Estimation of Damage to Rolling Stock & Infrastructure and repair

timescales

• Communication with customers, staff & Stakeholders

• Removal of damaged Rolling Stock to a secure location

• Repair and testing of damage to infrastructure

• Handing Back of assets and return to service

The Recovery Structure
• Recovery Plans were in existence, and were used
• Recovery teams interfaced across the Network
• A Service Director was assigned to the sole role of Recovery
• Day to day operations were separated from the recovery role
• A Recovery Gold was appointed on a shift basis across all sites
• Recovery Silver Controls were appointed at each site also ‘round the
clock’
• A system of twice daily conference calls with all participants to
monitor progress
• Project plans for each site agreed with LU and Infracos
Services were re-introduced as sites
became clear
• Kings Cross Station re-opened
– Saturday 9th July for the Metropolitan Line only.
– Tuesday 12th July for Victoria & Northern Line
– Thursday 4th August for Piccadilly Line and all services

• Liverpool St Station re-opened

– Friday 25th. July, Aldgate resumed with Hammersmith & City Services
resumed Baker St. to Barking

• Edgware Rd Re-opened
– Friday 29th July for District Line
– Tuesday 2nd August Full Services to Hammersmith( resumed later due
to Weekend engineering works)
 Managing
the Incident

Consequen
ce
Manageme
nt
Business
Recovery
3. Lessons Learnt
Lessons
Learnt

Preparing
for the
future
 Positive Lessons (ii)
Consequence Management
• Restoration of 80% of the service on Friday 8th July gave
customers confidence

• The way we manage customers involved in serious incidents

was good and all staff carried out all actions in a professional
way

• The emergency services liaison was exemplary, demonstrating

the worth of recent exercises

• During the whole phase, there was good transport inter-agency

emergency management links particularly with BTP.
Areas which have been improved
• multi-site events management worked, but 3 sites
stretched the operational resource available. This is
now part of our contingency planning

• Stakeholder management needed a dedicated

response

• Communications needed to be more real time to meet

fast changes and the significant levels of media
coverage

• Short term solutions for Surface to platform

communication processes have been enhanced.
Further Improvements - 2

• Emergency aid facilities have been enhanced at a small

number of locations to manage more casualties
• Modal linkages for all TfL have been strengthened by the
provision of a wider net of Gold Commanders from each
mode.
• The process involved in evacuating the Underground has
been looked at in the light of the way the system response
is managed
• The London resilience model has been improved as a result
of the cross organisations lessons learnt processes.
 Managing
the Incident

Consequen
ce
Manageme Preparing for the Future
nt
Business
Restoration

Lessons
Learnt

Preparing
for the
future
Future Plans Centre on People Care

• The Incident Care Team process is now regarded

as the one of the exemplars

• The roles of those people involved were always

our first consideration – and this has been
strengthened

• We have developed new and different structures

and processes when we are the subject of future
major incidents – but the people care content
remains consistent
 In May 2004 London Underground finalised its recovery plan for
responding to major asset failures as a result of 7/7 it has now
been upgraded

Managing
the Incident

Consequen
ce
Manageme
nt
Business
Restoration

Lessons
Learnt

Preparing
for the
future
Recovery Plan

We took the Operational Plan …

Recovery Plan

… and the Business Recovery Plan …

… and made the two into one.