Luke Skywalker
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Rescue workers and police officers around a Red Cross tent at the Wetstraat - Rue de la Loi, which was evacuated March 22, 2016, after an explosion at the Maelbeek - Maalbeek subway station in Brussels.(Photo: LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ, AFP/Getty Images)
Massive amounts of people, openly designed stations with little<span style="color: Red;">*</span>security<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and the potential for prohibitive costs and delays to travelers<span style="color: Red;">*</span>have long thwarted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bringing airport-style security to ground and underground transportation hubs.
The explosion at a downtown Brussels metro station Tuesday is a stark reminder of the difficulties authorities face to provide<span style="color: Red;">*</span>high levels of security on the USA's subway<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and train systems.
"We can never have the same level of security on trains as we do on planes,” said U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who supports more canine units and random searches for rail security.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
“Just by its nature, you couldn’t possibly do it.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>You couldn’t ask for IDs, you couldn’t have magnetometers for the millions of people," King added.
USA TODAY
U.S. security boosted after Belgium attacks
The series of attacks on the Belgian capital during the Tuesday morning rush hour left at least 31 dead and scores injured in two explosions in the open departures area of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>city's international airport and a third at a subway station. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Terrorists have targeted trains and subways in the past.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>A 2004 bombing a commuter train in Madrid killed 191 people and injured 2,000. In 2005,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>suicide bombers killed 52 people in the London Underground and on a double-decker bus.
Train and subway stations' easy access for both travelers and terrorists make them tempting targets compared to airports that funnel people through highly manned security checkpoints. For example,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>New York City subway stations have more than 1,000 exits for millions of daily passengers, in contrast to the relatively confined spaces in airports, King said.
The sheer volume of passengers traveling by subway<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— five times as many per day in the U.S. compared to planes,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to a November report by the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Congressional Research Service<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— is also highly attractive to those wishing to do harm.
In 2014, passengers took<span style="color: Red;">*</span>5 billion rides on different types of trains, with some using intercity trains, commuter rail and subway in a single day. By comparison<span style="color: Red;">*</span>travelers take about 730 million airline flights each year.
At the $7 it costs the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Transportation Security Administration to screen each airline passenger, it would be prohibitive to conduct similar examinations of subway or commuter train passengers, said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Brian Michael Jenkins, director of the National Surface Transportation Security Center at the Mineta Transportation Institute.
Add on a 10 to 15-minute wait — shorter than what is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>typical in today's airport security lines<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"it would destroy public surface transportation," he added.
The large crowds backing up at crammed train stations waiting to get through<span style="color: Red;">*</span>checkpoints could merely create bigger targets, defeating the purpose of additional security in the first place, said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jeff Price, a transportation-security expert and associate professor at Metro State University in Denver.
“There would have to be massive changes in facilities throughout the U.S., and ultimately, we would just end up creating more crowds for bombers to attack," he said.
Instead, the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>TSA<span style="color: Red;">*</span>posts high-profile canine teams with local police in subway and train stations, but at a small fraction of the resources devoted to airports. Uniformed police officers are<span style="color: Red;">*</span>temporarily placed on train and subway platforms and perform<span style="color: Red;">*</span>random searchers of travelers<span style="color: Red;">*</span>when security is heightened.
On Tuesday, police at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey increased security at its three area airports — John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark — and at bridges, tunnels and bus terminals. Additional bag checks also were conducted at Manhattan's busy Penn Station<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as a precaution.
New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said a special<span style="color: Red;">*</span>police unit is now<span style="color: Red;">*</span>permanently assigned to the Times Square subway station, but the Tuesday deployment<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was planned in advance of the Brussels assault.
"Increasing the number of security personnel does cause them to back off," Jenkins said of research on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>terrorists who survived their own attacks.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Educational campaigns encouraging travelers and transportation workers to report suspicious activity also get results, he added.
A Mineta Transportation Institute<span style="color: Red;">*</span>study of worldwide incidents found that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>nearly 9% of thwarted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bombings on trains, buses and ferries were discovered by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>passengers or workers before the bomb detonated,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jenkins said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"The reason for that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>appears to be the effectiveness of these see-something, say-something campaigns," he said.
Gathering intelligence to thwart plots before terrorists reach a train station is also key, King said.
“The odds are against us," he said. "The odds are with them.”
Contributing: Kevin Johnson
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