(The following article by Chana R. Schoenberger was posted on Forbes.com on April 10.)
NEW YORK — The third-degree security checks now reassuring commercial air travelers since Sept. 11 are nowhere to be found at Amtrak. The national passenger rail service offers monastic calm. No long lines and you don’t have to take your shoes off. Checked luggage is randomly screened, but rarely do agents ask for your driver’s license.
So what’s to stop a terrorist from boarding a train in New York’s Pennsylvania Station, stowing a bomb-laden duffel bag in the overhead racks, ambling innocently down the car’s aisle, and ducking off before it leaves for Washington? Conductors don’t check tickets until the train leaves the station, and might not notice the orphaned bag until it’s too late. “In terms of screening everyone when they board, that would be logistically challenging,” says Amtrak spokesman Daniel Stessel.
Paradoxically, Amtrak’s best defense against terrorism may be its unpopularity. Baddies like big bangs and lots of fatalities. Amtrak’s ridership is at 40% of capacity, and flat since 2001 at 23 million passengers a year. A terrorist attack on a passenger train would scare people away from Amtrak, but wouldn’t cause a major disaster, says Ronald Utt, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington. “Of all the things you can use as a weapon, Amtrak is the least effective.”
A bomb would have to be expertly placed to blow up a bridge. Ditto with tunnels. Amtrak’s six concrete-and-steel tunnels into Manhattan, which date back to the turn of the 20th century, would be difficult to rupture with an explosion on a moving train. But smoke and fire are potential problems, says transportation safety consultant Kenneth Korach, president of Philadelphia-based Transportation Resource Associates. Hijackings aren’t considered a serious threat. A remote command center controls the train’s movements and terrorists can’t divert a train as easily as they can an airplane.
Conventional or chemical bombs could cause serious damage, however, if a train were in a crowded station that combined Amtrak and subway lines, like Penn Station or Washington’s Union Station, Amtrak’s third-busiest station, located just blocks from the Capitol. But security experts note that while packed subways have been terrorist targets in France and Japan, intercity trains have not.
Although its precautions are often invisible to travelers, Amtrak has been beefing up its security. Its 300-plus police force has gone from 8-hour to 12-hour shifts, increasing armed officers on patrol by up to 50%. They randomly sweep trains and stations with dogs and ride the rails both in uniform and in plainclothes. Conductors and other employees have also gone through training to spot anomalies such as shifty-eyed passengers. The company also is continuing camera surveillance of its bridges and tunnels, in conjunction with the freight railroads that own 97% of the track mileage.
But finding any more money for security would be challenging. The government has spent approximately $25 billion to cover the Washington, D.C.-based carrier’s losses since its christening in 1971, including a $1.2 billion loss in 2001 on revenue of $2.1 billion. Payments equal to a third of its revenue come from your tax dollars, and officials say they’ll need another $1.8 billion next year from the federal government.