LaHood Says Amtrak Is ‘Very, Very Safe’ Amid Terror Threat
LaHood Says Amtrak Is ‘Very, Very Safe’ Amid Terror Threat
Christopher Powers/Bloomberg
“Once our friends in the intelligence community have a chance to look at the material that was gathered from bin Laden’s house and we talk to Congress about ideas they have, if more needs to be done I’m sure Amtrak would be willing to do more,” Ray LaHood said.
“Once our friends in the intelligence community have a chance to look at the material that was gathered from bin Laden’s house and we talk to Congress about ideas they have, if more needs to be done I’m sure Amtrak would be willing to do more,” Ray LaHood said. Photographer: Christopher Powers/Bloomberg
May 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks about the future of the Amtrak national passenger rail service and government's decision to award $795 million to increase rail speeds between Boston and Washington as part of $2 billion in high-speed rail grants that Florida rejected in February. LaHood speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
Riding Amtrak is “very, very safe” and the national passenger rail service is “doing everything they can” to ensure the security of its trains, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.
LaHood’s comments, in an interview yesterday at Bloomberg’s Washington bureau, came less than two weeks after the U.S. military’s May 1 raid on Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout uncovered information that al-Qaeda had considered an attack on U.S. railroads. Passenger railroads have been targeted in Moscow in 2010, Mumbai in 2008, Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005.
“Once our friends in the intelligence community have a chance to look at the material that was gathered from bin Laden’s house and we talk to Congress about ideas they have, if more needs to be done I’m sure Amtrak would be willing to do more,” he said. LaHood said he sees no reason for Amtrak to do more now.
The railroad has more than doubled its bomb-detecting canine teams from 20 to 45 since 2005, and in 2008 it started a random baggage-screening program, Amtrak Chief of Police John O’Connor told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at a April 2010 hearing.
Amtrak began working with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration in December 2007 to increase the presence of uniformed police and security officers in Amtrak stations, O’Connor testified.
It also works with the security agency’s bomb experts, behavior screening officers and security investigators, he said.
Amtrak has also installed security fences and closed- circuit televisions on its property. It has encouraged passengers and the public to report possible security threats on trains and at the railroad’s more than 500 stations in 46 states and the District of Columbia.
Security Challenges
Amtrak operates a network of more than 21,000 miles, primarily over tracks leased from freight railroads including CSX Corp. (CSX), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC), Union Pacific Corp. (UNP), and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) It owns about 650 miles of track, including 363 miles between Washington and Boston, which carries about two-thirds of its ridership. Amtrak says it carried 28.7 million passengers in 2010 on more than 300 daily trains.
The openness of passenger-rail systems “can leave them vulnerable to terrorist attack,” according to a July 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office.
Other characteristics such as “high ridership, expensive infrastructure and location in large metropolitan areas or tourist destinations” make them difficult to secure, according to the report, which examined explosive detection technologies that could help protect passenger railroads.
Growing Costs
Passenger rail’s “multiple access points along extended routes make the cost of securing each location prohibitive,” the GAO reported.
Amtrak has received more than $103 million in transit security grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2005, the first year it got money, according to Adam Fetcher, a department spokesman.
It requested $39 million for fiscal year 2011, said Steve Kulm, a spokesman for Amtrak. The railroad also has devoted $450 million from the money it got in the 2009 stimulus package to security and safety projects, Kulm said in an e-mail.
Amtrak also works “extensively” with freight railroads, law enforcement and commuter railroads and transit agencies “to enhance our security efforts,” Kulm said.
‘No Ride’
Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has called on Amtrak to create a “no ride” list similar to the “no fly” list airlines use to keep suspected terrorists off planes. Schumer also would increase funding for track inspections, monitoring and supporting local law enforcement at train stations.
“They are fundamentally on the right path with the measures they’ve taken,” Michael Jackson, president of Firebreak Partners Llc, an infrastructure security consulting firm, said in a phone interview.
“Airport-style passenger screening wouldn’t be feasible and I don’t think it would even be necessary,” said Jackson, who as deputy secretary of transportation from May 2001 to August 2003 focused on responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Jackson also served on Amtrak’s board of directors and was deputy security of homeland security from 2005 to 2007.
The best approach for railroads is to combine personal security measures, random baggage checks, and monitoring of bridges, tunnels, turns and certain key segments of track, Jackson said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Caruso in Washington at lcaruso7@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernie Kohn in Washington at bkohn2@bloomberg.net.
Rate this Page