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Summary:
The March 2004 bombing of passenger trains in Spain highlighted the vulnerability of passenger rail systems to terrorist attack. The number of riders and access points make it impractical to subject all rail passengers to the type of screening airline passengers undergo. Nevertheless, steps can be taken to reduce the risks of an attack. The 9/11 Commission called for a systematic analysis of transportation assets, the risks to those assets, and the costs and benefits of different approaches to defending those assets; the Commission also called for homeland security assistance to be distributed based on these assessments of risks and vulnerabilities, rather than according to population. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-458) did not directly address passenger rail security, but did direct the Department of Homeland Security to create a national strategy for transportation security. This plan would identify national transportation assets, set risk-based priorities for their protection, assign responsibilities for their protection, and recommend appropriate levels and sources of funding for these efforts. This plan was due to Congress on April 1, 2005, but may not be completed until the summer of 2005. The Housepassed FY2006 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (H.R. 2360) would provide $150 million for grants for freight rail, passenger rail, and transit security; the same amount was provided for FY2005 (P.L. 108-334). The House-passed DHS authorization bill (H.R. 1817) provides no specific requirements for passenger rail security; it would require DHS to work with stakeholders and public officials to develop best security practices for public transportation. Several other bills have been introduced that would increase federal responsibility for passenger rail security. A key challenge facing Congress is balancing the desire for and cost of increased rail passenger security with the impacts of security measures on the operating efficiency of passenger rail systems, with the potential costs that could be incurred in the event of one or more attacks, and with the costs and benefits of other options for promoting homeland security. Some argue for greatly increased federal funding to help secure passenger rail systems against terrorist attack. Others argue that passenger rail systems are not only inherently vulnerable targets for terrorist attack, and thus difficult to defend, but also are only one among many groups of potential terrorist targets (e.g., schools, shopping malls, etc). Attempting to defend each of these groups of potential targets would cost billions of dollars, and the security measures may not only be of unproved effectiveness but may also interfere with the way these institutions operate, imposing many indirect costs on society. Rather than spending billions of dollars to provide an uncertain improvement in security for each group of potential targets, some argue that greater overall security can be achieved at less cost by focusing federal security spending on anti-terrorist activities of national defense, intelligence, and law-enforcement organizations, reducing the threat of terrorism to all homeland activities. This report will be updated as warranted.
