DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY ANNOUNCES NEW MEASURES TO EXPAND SECURITY FOR RAIL PASSENGERS
New Directives Call for Immediate Action from Commuter, Transit and Inter-city Rail
(Washington, DC) May 20, 2004 - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today issued Security Directives (SD) requiring protective measures to be implemented by passenger rail operators. The measures instruct commuter, transit and inter-city passenger rail systems to comply with requirements that range from removing or replacing station trash cans to utilizing canine explosives detection teams.
The directives, which will be administered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), were signed today and take effect on May 23. The directives apply to all passenger rail owners/operators. These include light rail systems, inter-city passenger rail systems such as Amtrak, commuter rail operations such as the Maryland Rail Commuter and Long Island Railroad, as well as subway systems nationwide.
"Millions of Americans travel by rail every day and recent world events highlight the need to ensure they are kept safe from acts of terror. These protective measures, along with others already in place, advance our mission to ensure rail passengers are protected," stated Asa Hutchinson, former DEA adminstrator and currently Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security at DHS.
The mandatory measures cover a broad range of security issues and provide flexibility to meet the specific needs of rail operators. They substantiate existing best practices in the rail industry and will ensure enhanced security across the nation?s passenger rail systems. The directives require rail operators to take a number of steps, among them:
1) Rail owners/operators must designate coordinators to enhance security-related communications with the TSA.
2) Passengers and employees will be asked to report unattended property or suspicious behavior.
3) At certain locations, operators will be required to remove trash receptacles, except clear plastic or bomb-resistant trash containers.
4) When needed, canine explosive teams may be utilized to screen passenger baggage, terminals and trains.
5) Facility inspections will be conducted by rail operators for suspicious or unattended items.
6) Rail operators will ensure that security is at appropriate levels consistent with the DHS established threat level.
The protective measures announced today are the latest in a series of initiatives DHS, the Department of Transportation and the industry have put in place to strengthen rail security. These measures include:
* Assessing new technologies at the New Carrollton, Md. Amtrak and Maryland Rail Commuter station
* Conducting comprehensive vulnerability assessments of rail and transit networks that operate in high-density urban areas
* Training for rail personnel in preventing and responding to potential terrorist events
* Allocating over $115 million since May 2003 to improve rail and transit security in urban areas
* Developing new technologies including chemical and biological countermeasures
Thanks for posting this. I heard it on the radio and was trying to find confirmation.
COULD TERRORISTS BE CASING NEW YORK-PHILADELPHIA-D.C. RAIL CORRIDOR?
By Pierre Thomas & Richard Esposito
May 20, 2004 — Suspicious activity along the New York-Philadelphia-Washington rail corridor — along with the discovery of a concealed infrared electronic device on the tracks near a rail yard in Philadelphia — has triggered federal and regional investigations, ABCNEWS has learned.
While authorities say they do not want to unnecessarily scare commuters, they say the findings fit the pattern of terrorists casing the rail lines for a possible attack. The devastating train bombings in Madrid, Spain, have forced them to take all suspicious activity seriously, they say.
The New Jersey attorney general's office is investigating at least seven instances in the last week of suspected surveillance along New Jersey Transit commuter lines leading into Philadelphia, Trenton and New York City. The incidents include the filming of trains and rail lines by a number of people in an apparently systematic way, authorities say.
The New Jersey Transit trains use the same track as Amtrak's New York-to-Washington run.
Infrared Device Found
In a separate investigation, the FBI's Philadelphia field office is probing the discovery of an infrared sensor that was carefully concealed along the track bed of a Pennsylvania Southeast Transit Authority line.
The device — a commercially available wireless infrared transmitter made for home security use — was discovered, spraypainted black and tucked neatly into the trackside ballast, by a conductor. Such devices transmit a signal when something cuts across their infrared beam.
According to a police report obtained by ABCNEWS, the sensor had the potential to be used as a triggering device for a terrorist bomb. "This sensor could have functioned as designed by sending a radio signal to the receiver which also can be modified as an IED [improvised explosive device]," the report said.
A spokesperson for the FBI in Philadelphia stressed that there was no sign of any terrorist connection and said investigators are "curious" about the device's intended purpose. "We are looking into it because it shouldn't have been there," the spokesperson said.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/US/rail_corridor_terror_040520-1.html
THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS AN EXACT QUOTE (includes url):
===
===
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=3572
New Directives Call for Immediate Action from Commuter, Transit and Inter-city Rail
For Immediate Release
Press Office
Contact: DHS Press Office 202-282-8010
TSA Public Affairs 571-227-2829
May 20, 2004
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today issued Security Directives (SD) requiring protective measures to be implemented by passenger rail operators. The measures instruct commuter, transit and inter-city passenger rail systems to comply with requirements that range from removing or replacing station trash cans to utilizing canine explosives detection teams.
The directives, which will be administered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), were signed today and take effect on May 23. The directives apply to all passenger rail owners/operators. These include light rail systems, inter-city passenger rail systems such as Amtrak, commuter rail operations such as the Maryland Rail Commuter and Long Island Railroad, as well as subway systems nationwide.
"Millions of Americans travel by rail every day and recent world events highlight the need to ensure they are kept safe from acts of terror. These protective measures, along with others already in place, advance our mission to ensure rail passengers are protected," stated Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security at DHS.
The mandatory measures cover a broad range of security issues and provide flexibility to meet the specific needs of rail operators. They substantiate existing best practices in the rail industry and will ensure enhanced security across the nation’s passenger rail systems. The directives require rail operators to take a number of steps, among them:
1. Rail owners/operators must designate coordinators to enhance security-related communications with the TSA.
2. Passengers and employees will be asked to report unattended property or suspicious behavior.
3. At certain locations, operators will be required to remove trash receptacles, except clear plastic or bomb-resistant trash containers.
4. When needed, canine explosive teams may be utilized to screen passenger baggage, terminals and trains.
5. Facility inspections will be conducted by rail operators for suspicious or unattended items.
6. Rail operators will ensure that security is at appropriate levels consistent with the DHS established threat level.
The protective measures announced today are the latest in a series of initiatives DHS, the Department of Transportation and the industry have put in place to strengthen rail security. These measures include:
• Assessing new technologies at the New Carrollton, Md. Amtrak and Maryland Rail Commuter station
• Conducting comprehensive vulnerability assessments of rail and transit networks that operate in high-density urban areas
• Training for rail personnel in preventing and responding to potential terrorist events
• Allocating over $115 million since May 2003 to improve rail and transit security in urban areas
• Developing new technologies including chemical and biological countermeasures
###