A brave few board No 30
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Your support makes all the difference.The No 30 was quiet yesterday morning. A bus normally crammed with commuters was ferrying a handful of regulars and tourists - few of whom realised they were retracing the route taken by the 13 who died in the Tavistock Square blast.
One woman realised the significance of the journey. "I heard the bus bomb go off, I was down the road from it," explained Nony Ardill. " I stopped using the buses and trains for days after that and cycled to work. I just thought all the time about what those poor people went through. But I just realised the response had to be measured. So I started using [public] transport again. Life goes on."
A teenage girl peered out of the window as we passed Euston. One year ago Hasib Hussain stood there waiting to board the No 30 next to those he would murder when his rucksack exploded at 9.47am. "Today's a year since the bombs, you mean?" she asked. "This bus? I might get off..."
Vido Reis, 50, a maintenance engineer from east London, was unperturbed. "I was in work early that morning and nowhere near it [the bomb]," he said. "Of course you think, 'That could have happened to me', and my heart goes to the families of people who died. But this is a day to remember, not to be afraid."
From Euston, it is a two-minute walk to Tavistock Square, where George Psaradakis, the driver of the bus, laid a wreath. The 50-year-old was four hours into his shift when he heard a bang. "I saw debris flying around, the windscreen blew out, but absolutely nothing touched me. I was stunned and puzzled," he said.
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