The Birmingham Post's Political Editor, Jonathan Walker, was on his way to work when the bombers struck and the full horror of the attack became clear...

Hundreds of thousands of commuters were attempting to get home from London last night after a day of travel chaos caused by the terrorist outrages in the capital.

Although nearly all main line London rail stations were open by late afternoon, the Tube still remained shut.

Bus services in the heart of the capital were only slowly returning to normal.

And commuters were warned that the Tube, on which some services might run later in the evening, might not be totally back to normal even today.

The West Midlands also experienced a series of travel problems.

Coventry was brought to a standstill when the city's central Pool Meadow bus station was evacuated and the ring road sealed off after a suspect package was discovered on a bus at about 11am.

The bomb squad was called and, after two controlled explosions, the area was reopened at 2.40pm.

Travel West Midlands' depot in Wolverhampton also had to be evacuated because of a suspicious ruck sack, lined with tin foil and lead, found on one of the buses.

It turned out to have been converted for shoplifting, with the metal lining designed to avoid store tag detectors.

Phil Bateman, corporate affairs director of TWM, said: "We were put on a high state of alert and with the two incidents happening so close together, it has obviously been a stressful time.

"I do want to make the point that we are well-versed in these kind of incidents through the years of IRA activity and we are prepared to deal with them. We urge people to be vigilant and keep their luggage close to them at all times."

Meanwhile, the rail network has also been hit by knock-on disruption, with all services from Birmingham to London on Virgin and Chiltern trains terminating outside the capital.

A spokeswoman for British Transport Police in Birmingham said: "We have got extra, high visibility officers out at New Street Station and other transport related areas. This is for reassurance."

A spokesman for Birmingham Airport said: "There has been a heightened state of alert and vigilance since September 11 but there has been no extra security presence because of what happened in London."

London's streets belonged to the emergency services. I even saw a red bus commandeered by police in fluorescent green jackets, heading through a narrow lane to Aldgate East tube station.

Police cars whizzed by in all directions, while ambulances emerged from junctions with sirens blaring.

This was the scene as I approached Aldgate yesterday morning, ten minutes walk from the Tower of London.

The news was still patchy, and most of London's workers and residents had little idea what was really going on.

There were rumours of a power cut on the Underground. But the constant stream of speeding vehicles and sirens made it clear something much more serious was happening. Many offices were evacuating their staff, presumably on the advice of police, leaving suited workers milling in doorways with nowhere to go.

I counted six fire engines outside Aldgate, and a helicopter hovered noisily overhead, although whether it belonged to emergency services or a television news crew was impossible to tell.

Spokesmen for the police and Transport for London, the local transport authority, were on the scene, but admitted they had little idea what was happening.

Mobile telephones across the capital had stopped working, as the networks struggled to cope with the volume of calls.

Some networks had also limited access to ordinary customers, to ensure councils and emergency workers could get calls through.

But this meant that the flow of information was slow, and officials in Aldgate knew little about events in other parts of the city.

However, one person did manage to get through to me - an old friend from Finland who had seen the pictures from London and wanted to know if I was all right.

A spokesman for the police suggested his colleague at Liverpool Street station might know more, so I headed in that direction.

By this time, everybody had some idea what had happened. The streets were crowded, as not only the Tube but all bus services in central London were suspended. It left most with little choice but to walk.

There was certainly confusion, and a sense of shock. But there was no panic.

Some Londoners took refuge in coffee shops and by this time the pubs had opened. They had no shortage of customers.

Police chatted with pedestrians, advising them on how to get to their destination when many streets were blocked off, and sharing gossip on the newest bomb scare.

False alarms were coming thick and fast, and shops were evacuated one after the other as suspicious packages were reported.

Many people insisted on just getting on with their lives. The biggest topic of conversation was the paralysis of the transport system, as travellers asked how they were going to get to work, or how they would get home again in the evening.

Taxis were in strong demand, and I didn't spot any with their "for hire" sign on.

Foreign visitors, who tend to rely on the Tube to get around, appeared particularly lost. But there was no shortage of locals ready to help them out.

One might have expected an atmosphere of fear, or at least anger.

But walking the streets of London yesterday was a reminder that this is the city that survived the Blitz and decades of IRA bombings.

It is a city that refused either to surrender or to feel sorry for itself.

Liverpool Street station was closed - apparently there had been three suspicious packages.

Heading around the back, looking for anybody who could explain what was going on, I found myself looking down on a deserted set of platforms.

Trains sat stationary but a recorded message was audible from outside.

It urged the non-existent passengers to evacuate the station immediately.