The Record (Bergen County, NJ) January 23, 2003
Security gaps persist on bus lines
By Amy Klein
When FBI agents and a police bomb squad stormed a Greyhound bus in East Rutherford last weekend, they were looking for a package, not a passenger.
That's because, on many national bus lines, passengers get on and off without much scrutiny, and bags stowed beneath are rarely opened or tracked to make sure they leave with the passengers who bring them aboard.
Although the FBI's two-hour search Sunday didn't turn up any explosives or weapons, it underscored the security gaps that still exist in the transportation industry more than a year after 9/11 and the revamping of airline security, experts said.
The evacuation and search of the bus, which was traveling from Los Angeles to Manhattan, was triggered by a cryptic telephone message that FBI officials would only say was left on the wrong person's voice mail in California. During the search, police shut down Route 3, a portion of the New Jersey Turnpike, and a ramp to Route 17 for hours. "Basically, we were looking at shipping options," said Special Agent Nick Rossi of the FBI's Sacramento, Calif., office. "My understanding is that people not traveling on the bus can ship items via bus."
A Greyhound spokeswoman said she could not comment on the bus line's security procedures as it related to the FBI search in East Rutherford. In addition to transporting passengers and their luggage, Greyhound also ships packages between select cities.
Information on Greyhound's Web site said that in the wake of 9/11, the bus line is using electronic sensing wands at 30 locations to screen passengers and using their ticketing system to make sure passengers remained with their bags until they were loaded on the bus.
And although the security measures aren't optimum, experts say they represent progress.
While airports have become dominated by X-ray screeners and identification checkpoints, many bus stations do not have metal detectors or even require ticket-buyers to show identification. In rural areas, there often isn't even a station: A ticket can be bought at the local supermarket, and the bus picks up passengers in front.
"From a security standpoint, they've got a long way to go before these things are completely secure," said Patrick Garrett, an associate analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, a Virginia-based think tank. "Sept. 11 was a one-trick pony. Once you do it, you're not going to fool people the same way anymore. Steps have to be taken to make sure they can't use buses as a source of terrorism."
The bus industry's lax security gained national attention last year when a passenger attacked a driver on a Tennessee highway, causing a crash that killed six people. Then in October, authorities discovered plastic explosives in the downtown Philadelphia Greyhound terminal.
Unlike the airline industry, which was screening carry-on bags before 9/11, the bus industry is essentially implementing security from scratch, Garrett said.
That makes improvements particularly costly, said Linda Bauer Darr, spokeswoman for the American Bus Association. The Washington-based group represents all members of the motor coach industry, from Greyhound and Peter Pan national lines to the charter buses that drive church groups to potluck dinners.
In fact, the diversity of the motor coach industry is part of the problem, Darr said. A charter bus probably doesn't need the same metal detectors and ID checkpoints that a Greyhound might - and what's more, it doesn't have a station to perform those checks.
Last week, the Transportation Department appropriated $15 million for motor coach security, leaving it up to each bus company to propose how to use the money. The industry, which depends heavily on charter buses and tour groups, was hit hard by a decline in tourism and just does not have the money to fund additional security on its own, Darr said.
"Greyhound is implementing passenger and baggage screening to the extent that they're able to," Darr said. "You do as much as you can. You can't do nothing, and I don't know if you can come up with a system that's foolproof, but you do as much as you can."
Copyright © 2003 Bergen Record Corporation
