Post by LHR02 on Mar 12, 2004 17:50:50 GMT -5
From todays International Herald Trib...still quite general overall but I would look for some changes to begin being implemented in the months to come:
New Security Worries for Europe's Sprawling Rail System
By PATRICK E. TYLER,
and DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: March 12, 2004
LONDON, March 12 — Senior European intelligence and security officials have expressed increasing concern in recent months that terrorists would make targets of the still relatively open rail networks of a region that depends heavily on passenger rail transport.
In the aftermath of Thursday's terrorist bombings in Madrid, European leaders and security officials were tightening security at train and subway stations across the region, stepping up police patrols, bomb-detection measures and electronic surveillance.
Passenger rail traffic in Europe is more than 12 times the level in the United States, according to European Union figures, and Europe is surpassed in passenger miles only by China and Japan.
France deployed nearly 500 soldiers today to key transportation hubs to beef up local security, especially on the high-speed rail lines from Paris to Lyon and Marseilles. French officials also placed restrictions on private aviation clubs and stepped up chlorination of national water supplies, all part of an elevated alert status ordered by President Jacques Chirac, a spokesman for the National French Police said.
A senior French counterterrorism official, who a month ago was trying to cope with a series of security-related cancellations of British Airways and Air France flights to the United States, said in an interview that he was even more concerned about the threat of a terrorist strike on the Paris Metro or the French railway system.
"The trains worry me more than the planes," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The French official's concerns have been echoed by Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of the British counterintelligence service MI5. She has warned that Al Qaeda has been seeking to stage a large-scale attack in Britain, where air and rail transport is considered the most obvious target, British officials say.
"We've been focused on the transport sector for some time," a Foreign Office official said. "We've been aware that transport is threatened and that different groups have looked at it."
European transport officials are strongly resisting inflicting airport-style security checks — metal detectors and baggage searches — on rail passengers because that would represent a radical transformation of an open transport sector and significantly drive up costs.
The Eurostar train connecting London and Paris via the English Channel tunnel is the only service in the region where passengers are screened like airline passengers with metal detection devices and baggage scanners.
"The reason the Eurostar has that level of security is obvious," a British official said. "If anything went off in the tunnel, it would be disastrous."
But as the Madrid bombing demonstrated, the potential for large-scale terrorism on the rails is growing. Railway stations are among the most crowded facilities on the modern urban landscape and, across Britain and the continent, high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers at speeds in excess of 120 miles per hour are vulnerable.
The French counterterrorism official, speaking in an interview before the Madrid attacks, said that his colleagues around Europe were seriously concerned about a biological or chemical attack in the subway system or aboard a passenger train. "And we worry about bombs, too," he added.
Meanwhile, Bavaria's interior minister, Günther Beckstein, said today that he believed Al Qaeda could be responsible for the Madrid attacks and that Germany, like Spain, was especially vulnerable to a terrorist strike because German troops were now serving in Afghanistan.
"We're on the radar screen of fundamentalists," Mr. Beckstein told Deutschlandfunk radio.
However, Germany's interior minister, Otto Schily, told German television that he did not believe the security threat had been elevated by the Madrid bombings unless it turns out that Al Qaeda was behind the attack.
"Then it would be a new situation," he said.
New Security Worries for Europe's Sprawling Rail System
By PATRICK E. TYLER,
and DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: March 12, 2004
LONDON, March 12 — Senior European intelligence and security officials have expressed increasing concern in recent months that terrorists would make targets of the still relatively open rail networks of a region that depends heavily on passenger rail transport.
In the aftermath of Thursday's terrorist bombings in Madrid, European leaders and security officials were tightening security at train and subway stations across the region, stepping up police patrols, bomb-detection measures and electronic surveillance.
Passenger rail traffic in Europe is more than 12 times the level in the United States, according to European Union figures, and Europe is surpassed in passenger miles only by China and Japan.
France deployed nearly 500 soldiers today to key transportation hubs to beef up local security, especially on the high-speed rail lines from Paris to Lyon and Marseilles. French officials also placed restrictions on private aviation clubs and stepped up chlorination of national water supplies, all part of an elevated alert status ordered by President Jacques Chirac, a spokesman for the National French Police said.
A senior French counterterrorism official, who a month ago was trying to cope with a series of security-related cancellations of British Airways and Air France flights to the United States, said in an interview that he was even more concerned about the threat of a terrorist strike on the Paris Metro or the French railway system.
"The trains worry me more than the planes," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The French official's concerns have been echoed by Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of the British counterintelligence service MI5. She has warned that Al Qaeda has been seeking to stage a large-scale attack in Britain, where air and rail transport is considered the most obvious target, British officials say.
"We've been focused on the transport sector for some time," a Foreign Office official said. "We've been aware that transport is threatened and that different groups have looked at it."
European transport officials are strongly resisting inflicting airport-style security checks — metal detectors and baggage searches — on rail passengers because that would represent a radical transformation of an open transport sector and significantly drive up costs.
The Eurostar train connecting London and Paris via the English Channel tunnel is the only service in the region where passengers are screened like airline passengers with metal detection devices and baggage scanners.
"The reason the Eurostar has that level of security is obvious," a British official said. "If anything went off in the tunnel, it would be disastrous."
But as the Madrid bombing demonstrated, the potential for large-scale terrorism on the rails is growing. Railway stations are among the most crowded facilities on the modern urban landscape and, across Britain and the continent, high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers at speeds in excess of 120 miles per hour are vulnerable.
The French counterterrorism official, speaking in an interview before the Madrid attacks, said that his colleagues around Europe were seriously concerned about a biological or chemical attack in the subway system or aboard a passenger train. "And we worry about bombs, too," he added.
Meanwhile, Bavaria's interior minister, Günther Beckstein, said today that he believed Al Qaeda could be responsible for the Madrid attacks and that Germany, like Spain, was especially vulnerable to a terrorist strike because German troops were now serving in Afghanistan.
"We're on the radar screen of fundamentalists," Mr. Beckstein told Deutschlandfunk radio.
However, Germany's interior minister, Otto Schily, told German television that he did not believe the security threat had been elevated by the Madrid bombings unless it turns out that Al Qaeda was behind the attack.
"Then it would be a new situation," he said.
i wasn't a happy camper.