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U.S. Heightens Mass Transit Systems' Security

Posted on: Saturday, 9 July 2005, 03:00 CDT

The federal government ordered security increased yesterday on mass transit systems across the country after the terrorist attacks in London.

Terrorism experts warned that U.S. mass transit systems are vulnerable to similar attacks.

Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, also raised the terror threat level to "orange" from "yellow" for "regional and inner city passenger rail, subways and metropolitan bus systems."

Under the color-coded threat level system devised after the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes in New York and against the Pentagon, "orange" signifies a "high" risk of terrorist attack.

"Obviously we're concerned about the possibility of a copycat attack," Chertoff told reporters after the London bombings. There was "no specific credible evidence" indicating an attack in the U.S. was imminent, he said.

"We are not suggesting that people avoid public transportation systems,'" Chertoff said. "Rather, we are asking that they use those systems, but with an increased awareness of their surroundings."

Transit officials in Washington sent bomb-sniffing dogs and machine-gun toting police to underground Metro stations packed with tourists and commuters.

The Washington-area rail system is the second largest in the country after New York City's.

There, police reinforced security on the transit system. Several other cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston, also announced stepped-up security measures in their metropolitan areas.

Amtrak officials said they had increased police staffing on all trains, at stations and along rail lines. They have also brought in canine units.

Because of their size and numerous entrances and exits, rail and bus transit systems are extremely vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Carl Kent Irwin, the former inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, just last month told a forum that the country has done "relatively little" to safeguard transportation systems.

Yesterday, Irwin said the measures Chertoff announced "move in the right direction."

He said that the stepped-up police and surveillance for buses and railways should be made permanent.

He and other experts acknowledged that security efforts bring no guarantees, especially for bus and subway systems that move millions of people daily.

"Mass transit is probably the softest target there is," Irwin said. "The volume of people moving through the system every day is so huge and the access points so many that there's really no way to reduce to zero the possibility of attack."

About 29 million people take commuter trains and subways daily in the United States, said Alan Pisarski, a Washington-based national transportation policy analyst.

The kind of screening equipment used to check passengers at airports can't be used because it's too slow for systems designed to quickly move large numbers of people.

"Mass transportation systems will always be vulnerable to some extent if we want to keep them as efficient as they are today," said Rafi Ron, president of the Washington-based transportation security consulting firm New Age Security Solutions.

James Carafano, a homeland security expert with the Heritage Foundation think tank, said trains are a tempting target for terrorists because they're so predictable.

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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