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Rail operator removes cycle racks because of the risk of car bombs

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https://insidecroydon.com/2025/06/20/commuters-protest-at-plan-to-remove-east-croydon-cycle-racks/

It is hard to believe that such a busy train station as East Croydon won't have any cycle racks.

And why are they even preparing for the possibility of car bombs? I don't think  Croydon has ever been a terrorist target so what has caused this sudden concern for terrorist acts?

I also don't understand why anyone would want to leave a car bomb at the side of a station well away from nearby crowds. Unless they wanted to blow up a cycle rack!


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:25 pm
 beej
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Surely removing the car park would make more sense?


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:26 pm
retrorick, ossify, sirromj and 2 people reacted
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They have been reading The Quiet American?


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:36 pm
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That article makes absolutely no reference to car bombs. Where did you get that from? 

Bloody stupid decision though. 


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:37 pm
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And why are they even preparing for the possibility of car bombs? I don't think  Croydon has ever been a terrorist target so what has caused this sudden concern for terrorist acts?

I wouldn't have ever thought Warrington would have been a target for terrorist bomb attacks and then three came along at once

In that case the reasoning for choosing that target was precisely because it was an unlikely, target that no-one would have thought to have put measures and protocols in place for


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:40 pm
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Posted by: tthew

That article makes absolutely no reference to car bombs. Where did you get that from? 

Bloody stupid decision though. 

Thanks! I posted the wrong link! 🤣

https://insidecroydon.com/2025/06/22/southern-axe-bike-racks-over-car-bomb-fears-at-east-croydon/

“We have an ongoing challenge with unauthorised vehicles accessing the car park which poses an issue from a security perspective given the proximity of the car park to the train lines and platforms – ie from a car bomb perspective.

 


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:42 pm
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Out of curiousity I took a decent look at the mapping and streetview on this. I'm calling bullshit. I bet this has nothing to so with preventing car bombs. It will be either them wanting to create some additional staff car parking spaces or just wanting to make staff car park more secure as some manager had his car scratched or damaged in the currently unsecure car park. 


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:54 pm
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Posted by: ernielynch

“We have an ongoing challenge with unauthorised vehicles accessing the car park which poses an issue from a security perspective given the proximity of the car park to the train lines and platforms – ie from a car bomb perspective.

Easy peasy. Put a secure barrier to prevent unauthorised vehicle entry whilst keeping pedestrian gate accessible. Or just have a separate entrance for cycle store. 

If this goes ahead I bet a box of grapes that additional staff parking spaces will be created where the cycle store is/was


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:57 pm
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Thanks! I posted the wrong link! 🤣

Ha, stubs me out! Should definitely not be allowed to just remove without a suitable replacement. 


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 3:58 pm
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So... they're adding security to the car park to keep the public out? Seems fair enough... but surely that should mean MOVING the bike rack to outside the new secure area, not just removing it? Is there any other cycling parking provided, outside the area to be secured?


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 4:00 pm
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How does removing the bike rack stop unauthorised vehicles going into the car park? If they are planning to put a barrier there, it would be easy to leave a gap for pedestrians and cycles to pass through.

I would put forward a 'manager pissed off with having to take care for cyclists' theory.


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 4:02 pm
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I've broken the rules and read the comments on that local news piece now... there's actually useful informed stuff in there! Apparently the racks could be easily re-located, according to someone connected to the company that installed them. Seems a no brainer... I hope they get shamed into doing it.


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 4:05 pm
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Posted by: franksinatra

. I'm calling bullshit. I bet this has nothing to so with preventing car bombs.

Yup, as the original link which I erroneously posted shows, there was no mention of "car bombs" when the decision was first made public.

It sounds like someone came up with a schoolboy excuse to explain why they were doing it......."quick, think of something to say, I know, car bombs, there's a risk of car bombs, and no one wants car bombs in their town"

 


 
Posted : 25/06/2025 4:08 pm
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https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/southern-u-turns-east-croydon-31934540

Al-Qaeda will be rubbing their hands in glee!


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 7:42 am
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It has been a few years since I had the "pleasure" of visiting Croydon but I had assumed the place had alread been bombed 😉 


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 7:56 am
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Good work on the U-turn. Someone suggesting that if cars coming into what is apparently a staff parking area there are ways e.g. bollards/barriers.

Terrorismwashing is obviously a bad reason for this, particularly when many stations have little/no secure bike parking (round here we've build a bike lane that finishes at a station… with no bike racks)


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 10:08 am
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Posted by: ernielynch

I don't think  Croydon has ever been a terrorist target

It's much easier to attack places that haven't been attacked before - security gets beefed up after a place gets attacked.


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 10:21 am
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Posted by: thols2

It's much easier to attack places that haven't been attacked before - security gets beefed up after a place gets attacked.

Which is true, and HVM is necessary as we've seen over and over. The problem is that it's often done in an unsympathetic and ugly manner (when it doesn't have to be), or in a way that (as with eg. barriers on bike paths) inconveniences legitimate users without doing much to actually do what it's meant to.


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 10:27 am
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There's a Raleigh Bomber joke in there somewhere....


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 4:50 pm
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Terrorismwashing

 

Is that really a phrase or have you made that up? 🤔


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 5:22 pm
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Posted by: thols2

It's much easier to attack places that haven't been attacked before - security gets beefed up after a place gets attacked.

Yeah but the staff carpark which the bike rack is in isn't in the station, it's round the corner. Why on earth would terrorists want to attack a staff carpark?

Since when have car bombs suddenly become a problem in the UK, and why would a carpark be a target?

It is clearly just a pathetic schoolboy excuse to get rid of a bike rack.

Presumably they have put the decision on hold whilst they try to dream up a better excuse.

Edit : And if car bombs are really a problem then the solution is to stop people parking their cars, not their bikes!


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 5:26 pm
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Posted by: vlad_the_invader

Is that really a phrase or have you made that up?

Is it really any difference to greenwashing, yellowwashing (using infection control to justify crappy decisions) or H&Swashing?


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 5:29 pm
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Maybe they're planning a timetable change that's really going to piss people off and are trying to get ahead of it?;-)


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 5:50 pm
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As someone who used to work in Croydon we had emergency procedures for bombs due to the proximity of our office to the various home office buildings. Not a million miles away from the station but equally not close enough for this to impact it. Either way, glad common sense seems to have prevailed


 
Posted : 26/06/2025 9:32 pm
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Disowned with bombers.


 
Posted : 27/06/2025 5:51 am
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They should have just banned Marzocchi forks


 
Posted : 27/06/2025 7:45 am

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