July 8, 2005
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July 8, 2005
With Characteristic Fortitude, Britons Carry On
By ERIC PFANNER International Herald Tribune
LONDON, July 8 – Helicopters hovered overhead, and security cordons remained in place today near the sites of four bombings that killed more than 50 Londoners. But many people returned to work with a display of the renowned British stiff upper lip – a bit anxious, they acknowledged, but grimly determined not to let the bombers get the better of them.
Matter-of-fact announcements over the public address system in the London Underground informed commuters that five subway lines affected by the “incidents” remained closed or disrupted. Though trains on the remaining lines were running normally, traffic appeared relatively light. Buses were running a “near normal” service, according to Transport for London.
Though some businesses gave employees the option of working from home or taking the day off, financial markets, offices and shops throughout London were open for business – if not business as usual, at least up and running. And for many Londoners, at least those not directly affected by the attacks, “getting on with it” carried an important symbolic meaning.
“I think the idea is to get back to normal as quickly as possible,” said Paul Batty, 58, manager of the Book Warehouse, a discount bookseller at Russell Square, just down the street from the site of the explosion on a bus, and not far from the King’s Cross subway bombing. “That’s the best way to show them it isn’t going to work,” Mr. Batty added, referring to the bombers. “We’ve been warned for several years that something like this would happen. So now, when it does, maybe there’s a certain resignation.” Though the Book Warehouse closed its doors a few hours before its normal 10 o’clock close on Thursday night, it was open as usual this morning, despite the police tape separating a busy sidewalk from an empty street outside.
At the London offices of UBS, the Swiss banking company, “all of our systems, operations and trading activity are up and running, and we have the staff here to operate them,” said Sarah Small, a spokeswoman. The bank employs 6,000 people in London, most of them at a building next to Liverpool Street station, not far from the first of the bombings Thursday morning, at Aldgate station.
UBS told “non-essential” staff members that they could stay at home today. But Ms. Small said it appeared that many employees had decided to turn down the bank’s offer.
“There are a lot of people milling around downstairs in the lobby area, so I think it’s pretty much back to normal,” she said.
Some callers to talk radio shows grumbled about hotels and other businesses that they said raised prices in order to profit from people stranded by the bombings.
For a second day, Transport for London waived the normal congestion charge for drivers entering central London, which recently had been raised to £8 from £5, in an effort to help commuters who live along subway lines directly affected by the bombings. The Piccadilly, District and Metropolitan subway lines were disrupted, operating only on some parts of the lines. Two lines, the Circle line and the Hammersmith and City line, were shut entirely.
While other subway and mainline train lines were running, there appeared to be more than the usual number of security alerts. Liverpool Street station, along with another mainline train station, Euston, was briefly evacuated. At Liverpool Street, the cause of the alarm turned out to be a journalist’s bag.
Gemma Sandland, 25, an account director at the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, was traveling on the Underground’s Jubilee Line, from her home in the Kilburn area of Northwest London to her office at Canary Wharf, in the east.
Ms. Sandland decided to wait until after the rush hour, when the bombings had occurred Thursday, and travel to work after 10 a.m. today. She said her employer had told her she could stay home, but she decided to go to the office anyway to “deal with a few important things.”
“They aren’t that important, actually, in the scale of things, but it’s important to act like this,” she said.
She acknowledged that she felt a bit jittery riding the London subway, which known as the Tube.
“Everybody’s kind of looking around to see who else is there,” she said, casting a sideways glance.
Leaving the Tube at the Canary Wharf station, Ms. Sandland said she was struck by the calm demeanor of an Underground employee as he read off the list of subway delays and closings.
“It’s strange – when we get bad weather, this country grinds to a halt,” she said. “Then we get bombed. I thought there was no way the Tube would be running.”
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