Bugging out of London

[extractorfan]

In a fast crash scenario the government would try to set up food and medicine distribution centres. There are most likely already disgnated centres already planned for.

If you have prepped, avoid these places as most .gov resources will be concentrated around these area's, containment.

Not meant to sound like a catch all answer but may be worth keeping in mind when planning a route.

[jonny2mad]

Look back at last years rioting what caused that some guy getting shot, or the LA riots some guy gets beaten by police .

Imagine the reaction to all the cash-point machines and banks closing (which happened in Argentina ) shops stopping selling food because your currency is now worthless and they don't know what to charge .

Imagine overnight petrol shortages and hoarding, think back to the strikes of 2000 and this wont be caused by something in control of the UK government .

If you worked for the railway and lived in London would you come in to work and travel to Manchester , or would you stay with your family or try to stock up on food .

How many people will try to get out of London .

Think about what UK governments have been doing in recent years, both labour and conservative have brought in millions of people and they should know a future government is not going to be able to feed them .

Thats the level of leadership you have in this country, so its not going to be like a rerun of world war two rationing and everyone pulling together yup they will likely try that , but we have twice the number of people we did then and back then we nearly starved even with food imports .

I think thats something all the transition people don't get, a currency can crash in minutes banks can close in minutes, how long do you think it will take for people to riot when they cant buy a cheese sandwich, you may well keep a larder so you have some food in the house but lots of urban people don't .

you could well wake up to this, the collapse could happen at night and the first thing you would notice is nice people doing awful things as selco noticed in Yugoslavia, so you walk to work past a corner shop thats being looted by your neighbors

[SleeperService]

Further to my earlier post I've modified my opinion. You want to approach the cordon line at dusk. TI doesn't kick in and, as long as you move smoothly the human eye will be at it's least effective. If the army have milimetric radar set up it will see you but anybody trying to intercept will still have the Mk1 eyeball problem.

J2M, I think you're right as to people's reactions once they see the end of the road. The vital element will be having the courage to act and not just follow the herd.

[adam2]

I dont believe that an overnight collapse is that likely, but it could happen.
As posted above, a possible trigger could be a systemic banking failure with no money from cashpoints or bank counters.
We came very close to this a few years ago, when it was said that major banks came within hours of closing cash machines for want of money with which to fill them.
I would predict large scale rioting and looting within hours in such circumstances.

Another trigger event could be a nuclear war in the Middle East. A number of unstable countries have the Bomb and others are suspected of attempting to make or aquire one.
Even a limited nuclear exchange would dramaticly reduce oil supplies, and would probably lead to general panic and mayhem.
Inter racial rioting in the UK could well result as people seek to punish those sctors of the UK population that they believe to be behind any ME nuclear attack.

[DominicJ]

You had a guy killed in London and another stabbed over some sneakers in the sales, thats happens in the states on a regular basis . What will people who have never known hunger do when their scared and the system breaks down .......

To be fair, the guy was stabbed in a gang fight over who was going to get to steal the trainers....

I just dont see a situation where you cant get a train
Theres 4 trains an hour from euston to picadily, all day, everyday.
I just dont see a situation in which all of those are cancelled, right now.
If nothing else, many of the train staff will reliant on them to get home.
Do you think a Driver who live in Manchester is going to sit in London in a parked train as the city tears itself apart?

Maybe add a few gold coins to ensure you get on the train first?

[clv101]

I just dont see a situation where you cant get a train

Really? Surely it doesn't take much imagination to think of a plausible situation that stops the trains running?

[adam2]

I just dont see a situation where you cant get a train

Really? Surely it doesn't take much imagination to think of a plausible situation that stops the trains running?

Agree, the railway is readily stopped by industrial disputes, bad weather, breakdowns and theft of cables whilst times are normal.
I would have no faith in the trains running during or immediatly after any widespread disaster.
They are all or vitually all electric trains, no power to any part of the route means no trains.
The signalling is remotely and centrally controlled, no power to the signalling center, or no staff means no* trains.
Obstructions on the line or incidents such as rioting near the line would also close the line. During the recent riots in London, the first actions of TPTB was to to close rail stations in areas affected.

"LAST LIGHT" was of course fiction, but in that novel, one of the first actions by the government was to suspend all public transport.

*In theory a very limited service can be run without proper signalling, in practice I suspect that it would be all over by the time plans had been drawn up to so do.

[DominicJ]

Adam/Clv

"Agree, the railway is readily stopped by industrial disputes, bad weather, breakdowns and theft of cables whilst times are normal."
But two of those of predictable, and the other two are short term.

The chance of a strike occuring with an immediate walkout is almost nil.
Bad weather is readily reported.
Breakdowns result in another train being sent and stolen cables are replaced and trains are redirected.

Yes, if a dirty bomb goes off in Birmingham, all bets are off, but thats unlilkely.

During the recent riots in London, the first actions of TPTB was to to close rail stations in areas affected.

Indeed, I had to go back to work and wait for a lift, but really, I SHOULD have left work an hour early and I would have missed it and it was a temporary closure not repeated the next night.

[clv101]

Dom, this whole thread is about "bugging out" of London if/when something goes wrong to make one want to bug out of London. In that scenario, relying on trains is just daft. At the very least you can expect many other people to have the same idea and the trains to be hopelessly over crowded.

[RenewableCandy]

Yes, if the trains are still running, your boss is likely to ask you what the heck you're doing b***ering off from work early

[DominicJ]

Clv
I suggested a scooter for a fast crash, but also with the caveat that I didnt believe a fast crash would be that fast

RC
"Yes, if the trains are still running, your boss is likely to ask you what the heck you're doing b***ering off from work early "

"Sisters died, gotta pick up her kids from school / the zoo / social services"

[jonny2mad]

I wouldn't depend on trains or phone service or the Internet, I wouldn't depend on being able to buy petrol or even mains electric working .

If you have real riots or insurrection maybe trying to overthrow the govt and you can see its being organized online or via text or phone, why not stop the system working for a while, then your army or police would be still able to operate via radio and unless the rioters have CB or ham radio they wont .

A collapse of the banking system could well lead to some sort of insurrection this isn't anything we have seen in the UK in hundreds of years, but did the trains keep running during the Russian revolution .

We have at present the occupy people occupying things here and there, if things got really bad really fast could they morph into some sort of revolution.... that may sound crazy but before the Russian revolution you had similar protesters mooching about the place .

How would they react to a currency collapse and people not being able to buy cheese sandwiches .





storm the Winter palace ....capture the Bastille


I'm not saying they would be successful but a revolution could stop the trains

[jonny2mad]

I claim this train station for the Socialist Workers Council of Great Britain

[Tarrel]

I bet the first one to fall would be Vauxhall. (If you know some Russion you'll get this)

[Tarrel]

Sorry. That would be "Russian", not "Russion"!