Our terrorist attack this week seems to have become a proper branded event, now known as “7/7” that just doesn’t seem appropriate somehow.

Looking back at Thursday the thing that strikes me most is that my fellow commuters became real people for once. You probably know what it’s like on busy public transport, you don’t make eye contact, you don’t speak and you keep to your own space. These rules didn’t apply after around 10am.

We were asking each other for news, we were asking for advise on how to travel and where to go. People still had their sense of humour even as the terrible news continued to roll in. At Beconsfield station I connected to the BBC news website and a small crowd gathered to get the latest news. I chatted to a South African defence contractor who had been in most of the worlds trouble spots at one time or another, I chatted to an architect who had taken the first train out of the City regardless of the destination. Almost everyone I met was phoning friends and family to tell them they were OK or to check they were safe.

The London Transport staff have received much praise in the media already and in my experience they really do deserve it, they were efficient and very helpful. In NW1 there were scores of people who were starting to hear the news and, like me, wondering if they should continue to their destinations or turn back, all the station staff were great under the circumstances. Now things are getting back to normal