Phil Graham

A FORMER tube driver has recalled the “horror” as he waited in his Underground train during the 7/7 attacks ­– as residents remember the bombings 20 years on.

Councillor Phil Graham was in the driver’s seat of a tube at Warwick Avenue – one stop away from the explosion at Edgware Road – when the network started to be evacuated.

He said: “You think to yourself oh my god that could have been me. You get survivor’s guilt.”

Passengers were confused and scared, and it was hard to find out what was going on.

Cllr Graham recalled how the drivers were left waiting for “ages and ages” in the trains, told that the evacuation was due to a power surge.

He added: “Then I heard that a bus has blown up, and I went to wait on the street. It was chaos, just mayhem, people couldn’t get home because nothing was running.

“The biggest problem was the lack of information.”

There were 13 Islington residents killed in the attacks which saw four bombs detonated, three on the tube network and one on a bus in Tavistock Square.

Twenty-six people lost their lives at King’s Cross. Flowers were left at memorial sites across London, including the official monument in Hyde Park on Monday.

Cllr Graham said: “It was a dreadful day and people weren’t prepared and Transport for London weren’t prepared. This level of terrorism was still a shock, still bloody frightening.”

He told the Tribune how the following day the drivers were told to resume work, without the remaining trains being checked for explosive devices.

He said: “They said ‘we’re running as much of the service as we can’, but I said I wasn’t happy driving a train if they hadn’t all been checked. I just thought that even if they were suicide bombers, it didn’t mean they hadn’t left something else elsewhere. A handful of us insisted that the trains be looked at and after that I went down and I took my train out. It was very very difficult, but you want to get the service running so you’re not giving in to terrorism.”

A service commemorating the 20th anniversary was held at St Paul’s Cathedral. Doctors who had rushed out of the British Medical Association building to treat those injured in the bus bombing were among the guests.

BMA council chair Tom Dolphin said: “I don’t think anybody goes through a day like that without coming out as a different person.

“I have a strong sense of pride that the doctors who were here, even those for whom emergency care is not their usual practice, were able to step up and provide support, care and comfort for the victims.”