Claiming U.S. rail service
is vulnerable to terrorist attacks, several U.S. senators called on the Transportation
Security Administration to dedicate a greater portion of its budget to surface
transportation, particularly rail. Meanwhile, the General Accountability Office in a
report issued this month alleged that TSA did not fulfill a requirement of the 9/11
Commission Act of 2007 to implement a rail-security training program.
"For
years I have been sounding the alarm that our attention has been too
one-sided—too lopsided—and that we can't only focus on aviation security,"
said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) during a recent hearing held by the Senate subcommittee
on surface transportation and merchant marine
infrastructure, safety, and security.
Noting
that TSA spends just 2 percent of its budget on rail security, GAO director of
homeland security and justice issues Steve Lord told the committee that TSA
spent "a lot of time on deterring and preventing a type of attack, if an
attack happens," but not much time on train evacuation procedures and
training of frontline rail employees. "It appears evident that there needs
to be increased focus in that area," he said.
In
addition to TSA budget allocations for rail, the agency also receives funding
from the DHS transportation security grant program. In fiscal year 2010, $273.4
million of that grant money went to rail, raising the total since 2006 to $1.6
billion. Still, TSA administrator John Pistole acknowledged TSA "can do
more."
"We
would be more interested in applying more resources to surface transportation
in particular," Pistole said. "I don't see why we can't provide that
training for Amtrak or for other passenger rail providers to add security.
There are a lot of things we are doing well, but there are things we can
streamline."
One area for improvement, according to
GAO's report, is communication. GAO noted that 19 transit agencies do not have
access to the Department of Homeland Security Information Network, which issues
alerts on potential threats, while 12 "had never heard of the
mechanism" and 11 "did not know whether they had access."
Ahead
of a later hearing held by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and
Government Affairs, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.),
who chairs that committee, said, "With so many
passengers at so many stations, along so many routes, these systems are very
difficult to secure. But there is much more TSA can and should do and more that
state and local governments and transit agencies can and should do."
At that hearing, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)
said that "while improvements have been made since 9/11,"
the federal government still must work to "ensure the transit providers
and local officials have the equipment and training to plan for and respond to
terrorist threats."
"State
and locals usually have the best resources locally and the best information
intelligence in the community so they can do the best possible job," said
Pistole, noting that the federal government could "enable" those
entities to "make critical structure improvements" through grants.
TSA, however, may face steep budget
cuts, which would hinder its ability to allocate funding to rail security. In the
House of Representatives' proposed fiscal year 2012 budget for DHS, the transit
security grant program was eliminated and the research and development budget was
cut by more than 75 percent.
Securing Rail Without 'Impeding The Flow Of
Traffic'
One challenge TSA faces in securing
rail is maintaining the ease and efficiency of rail commuting, according to
Pistole. "The
job is to promote the movement of people with the best possible security, so it's
a balance between that commerce and security," he said. "Trying to do
individual screening does not make sense from our perspective on the rails."
Lieberman acknowledged that "it is
simply not possible to install permanent aviation-level security checkpoints [for
rail travel] without impeding the flow of traffic because of their open nature
and the number of passengers." However, Lieberman said TSA "must step
up its efforts to develop creative, non-intrusive security solutions—especially
to detect improvised explosive devices, which history has shown are the weapon
of choice for disrupting rail and transit systems."