Gannett News Service April 23, 2002
Buses, trains fast becoming new security priority
By MIKE MADDEN
WASHINGTON -- Walk into an airport these days, and it won't be long before someone is asking you to show identification, patting you down and looking through your bags to see what you're trying to bring on the plane with you.
Walk into the nearest train station or bus terminal, and you might not encounter anyone except a ticket-taker on your way to your seat.
That may soon change. Federal regulators and lawmakers are now turning their attention to buses and trains with an eye on making security as tight as that of the airline industry following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
It's no easy task. Nearly 63 million people rode intercity buses and trains in 2000, compared with 665 million who flew. But, unlike airlines, any kind of passenger or baggage screening for buses and trains would basically have to start from scratch. Security was so loose prior to Sept. 11 that passengers could often board without even having to show any kind of identification.
Security experts warn that buses and trains are very attractive targets for terrorists because many routes run right through crowded downtown areas where an attack could terrify people even without killing or injuring many. They say even a small bombing or two could be devastating if it scared people away from travel.
Without new security measures, attacking a bus or a train would take very little advance planning or sophisticated equipment, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org and a former terrorism analyst with the Federation of American Scientists.
"It's the sort of thing that one guy can do," he said.
Soft spots in bus security became glaringly obvious last October, after a passenger attacked a driver on a Tennessee highway, causing a crash that killed six people. Later that month, authorities found enough plastic explosives in the Greyhound terminal in downtown Philadelphia to blow up an entire block. The FBI is still searching for the person who left it there.
The new Transportation Security Administration, which Congress created when it federalized airport security, is working on ways to screen bus and rail passengers and luggage, said John Magaw, the agency's chief.
Anticipating possible new regulations, bus and train operators have already taken steps to tighten security, but gaps remain common.
Amtrak now runs names of ticket-buyers through an FBI watch list and has added police on trains and in stations, spokeswoman Katrina Van Veen said. Also, passengers need to show tickets to get near tracks at most stations. That's not the case at some smaller stations with minimal staff.
On Greyhound, the country's largest interstate bus line, busloads of passengers are randomly selected for metal detector searches in 30 of the busiest terminals, but passenger bags that go underneath buses are not examined, said spokeswoman Kristin Parsley.
Well aware of the high cost of security, Congress is getting ready to give bus companies and Amtrak hundreds of millions of dollars for security upgrades.
A broad Amtrak spending bill approved by a Senate committee last week includes $ 360 million for security, which would pay for everything from hand-held bomb detectors to new police officers. Bills for bus security would authorize between $ 200 million and $ 400 million for similar projects.
But while those proposed laws would pay for some new screening programs, they do not include mandatory screening for all passengers, which could cost billions of dollars.
Finding some way to put effective security in place with the least amount of inconvenience is going to be a challenge, Transportation Department officials acknowledged. Bus and rail industry representatives are quick to point out that their stations are not like airports, where passengers have no choice but to go through security because all airports have manned checkpoints.
"This is not an industry where every passenger passes through a funnel point like in an airport," said Michele Janis, spokeswoman for the American Bus Association. "This is far more fluid a system."
On Amtrak, security improvements in busy stations might be rendered moot by smaller, out-of-the-way stations where passengers can simply walk up to the track and board the train when it arrives without passing through any checkpoints, Van Veen said.
For now, most rail travelers shrug about talk of a possible terrorist attack aboard a train. Listen to Jeff Brown, of Arlington, Va., a Federal Reserve employee who rides Amtrak between Washington and New York frequently for work.
"It doesn't make me uncomfortable" that bags aren't checked on trains, he said. "That's the attractiveness of taking the train, you don't have to go through all the hassles."
At Washington's Union Station, one of the busiest stations on the East Coast, Amtrak passengers echoed Brown's opinion. Most said they were vaguely worried about the lack of noticeable security, but not enough to stay off the train. Most welcomed some new screening -- as long as it didn't interfere with the convenience of being able to show up at the train station not long before boarding.
GlobalSecurity.org's Pike said a terrorist strike would put a quick end to worries over inconvenience.
"Hijack a bus, wait until the TV cameras show up and then blow it up," he said GlobalSecurity.org's Pike. "That'll get people's attention."
Copyright 2002 Gannett Company, Inc.
