Being a Very Brief Reflection on Railway Terrorism in 1973

 

I spent an interesting few hours today doing some research and, as always, I was distracted by other issues.  I was reading the Annual Report of the Chief Constable of British Transport Police for 1973 and what caught my eye was the section on terrorism.  From time to time I get the impression that some people think that terrorism was invented only a few years ago.  The lethal terrorist campaigns of earlier decades are often forgotten.

In 1973 the RAILWAY in Great Britain saw:

5                           IEDs explode

5                           IEDs defused

1,314                   Telephone Bomb Threats

715                      Suspect Packages

38                        Suspect Cars

78                        Suspect Letters

And 22 Other incidents

That’s a total of 2,175 incidents and, as the Chief Constable pointed out, a major call on the resources of the force.

Nobody was killed by terrorists on the railway in 1973, although fatalities did occur elsewhere in the UK.  It was for example the year of the Old Bailey bombing.

The incidents included:

1.       An explosion at Victoria Station which injured 3 officers and 4 members of the public

2.       Explosions at King’s Cross and Euston on the same day – one device was thrown and the other ‘placed’,  injuring between 14 and 21 people.  The ‘warning’ call came five minutes before the first device was detonated.

3.       An explosion at Sloane Square Station

4.       Bombs placed on separate days at Baker Street Station

5.       An incendiary device that ignited at Birmingham New Station.

 

Terrorism is a permanent backdrop to railway operations. Within a few years of opening the London Underground was being attacked.  The threat is never far away, and this is true the world over. 

Planners and responders know that there is no room for complacency however ‘quiet’ it may seem.  Most attacks occur without intelligence predicting them and happen without warning.  The need for vigilance is perpetual, but thoroughly routine.   Vigilance need not describe an approach dominated by fear or a semi panic created by contemporary events.  The best sort of vigilance is an exercise in resigned common sense.

 

 

Phil Trendall

British Transport Police, 1974. Annual Report of the Chief Constable for the Year 1973. London: British Railways Board, p.34.

The Report was accessed courtesy of the British Transport Police History Group