(The following editorial was posted on the Long Beach Press Telegram website on September 12.)
Our initial reaction to a new study by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. was to toss it in the “yeah, so?” file. But then we reconsidered our haste.
There were no surprises in Thursday’s report identifying Southern California rail lines as vulnerable to terrorist strikes. Committed terrorists spend the better part of their days thinking about this kind of thing. The attractiveness of miles and miles of unprotected routes of commerce and military transport, whose shutdown would have a tremendous impact on the U.S. economy and armed forces, has surely crossed their minds long ago.
Then we got to thinking about the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The twin port complex, along with other seaports, were identified immediately after Sept. 11 as highly vulnerable to attack (probably more so than airports, even, since groups like Al Qaeda generally don’t use the same method twice in a row). Yet, the ports and local officials have had to fight for every bit of federal funding, which to this day falls far short of what’s needed to adequately protect our coastline. As an investigative television news report has discovered, shipping depleted uranium through the Port of L.A., two years after 9/11, isn’t all that difficult.
So while the report may state the obvious, perhaps it needs to be stated: Terrorists may hit the rails, and if they attack it could cost this region far more than the federal government would ever agree to spend on rail security. You have to shout to be heard in Washington, and even then, as ports have found, it’s an uphill battle.
The tragic part of anti-terrorism funding, it seems, is that an attack has to occur before the federal government puts serious money into its defense. Airports got billions after Sept. 11, while port security money can be counted in the hundreds of millions.
The study estimates that a shutdown of the Alameda Corridor East, which is fed by the Alameda Corridor and several other major freight lines, could cost this region $414 million a day, or $12.4 billion a month. That’s a staggering calculation. Imagine the recent West Coast port shutdown, but magnified.
While it is impossible to protect every mile of rail line in Southern California, it is possible to secure strategic areas that would be more likely targets. Identifying those points of vulnerability, and lobbying for resources to help protect them, should be part of Southern California’s ongoing efforts to defend itself against terrorist attacks.