After London Attacks, New York Suspended Cell Phone Service in Two Tunnels
Posted on: Thursday, 14 July 2005, 00:00 CDT
Jul. 13--New York -- If your cellphone suddenly doesn't work when you're on the bus in the Lincoln Tunnel, chalk it up to "security."
The Port Authority conceded this week that it had suspended cellphone service in the Lincoln and Holland tunnels immediately after the terrorist attacks in London last week.
"We believe this is a prudent security measure in terms of public safety," said Tony Ciavolella, a Port Authority spokesman.
No information has been made public about whether cellphones played any role in the attacks on London's mass transit system last week. Many commuters used cellphone cameras to transmit images of the destruction in the subways as they awaited rescue.
Terrorists, however, used cellphones as timers to detonate bombs on trains in Madrid last year -- a trick that doesn't require service to be available.
Ciavolella refused to elaborate on the agency's thinking or say how long and how often it has suspended cellphone service. Other agencies that control other tunnels in New York City either said they didn't suspend cellphone service or declined to comment on their security procedures.
Cellphone service generally isn't available underground unless it is specifically provided. For example, the Port Authority's PATH system doesn't have service. And there is little to no service in the New York City subways.
The other major underground crossing that commuters from Orange and Rockland counties and New Jersey use is Amtrak's tunnels to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown -- and they have service.
NJ Transit, which sends hundreds of trains through the tunnels every day, said Amtrak hadn't advised it of any suspension of cellphone service and wasn't sure that the railroad would necessarily do so.
"We have no comment," said Cliff Black, a spokesman for Amtrak, explaining the railroad doesn't talk about any of its security procedures as a matter of policy.
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Source: The Times Herald-Record (Middletown, New York)
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