Terrorists are more frequently targeting train and subway systems but making them safer will be difficult, U.S. officials said.
Terrorists consider attacking mass transit systems because they are hard to secure and there are too many passengers to screen, USA Today said Monday.
Six plots aimed at U.S. subway and rail systems have been discovered since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and officials foiled an alleged plot to simultaneously bomb four Washington, D.C., subway stations in October.
"Mass transit systems are much less secure than the aviation sector or certain key government buildings," said Clark Kent Ervin, the Department of Homeland Security's former inspector general.
The newspaper said terrorists have launched mass transit attacks in 22 other nations in the past five years.
Transit safety is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has rigorous screening requirements for air passengers at the nation's 450 commercial airports. But it has no such plans for rail passengers, the newspaper said.
The Transportation Security Administration, however, says it will begin conducting random screening on trains and subways next year.
"Mass transit systems, by nature, are open systems and vulnerable to attack," says Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. "The Metro system is no different, with multiple entrances and exits designed to move a large number of riders".
The United States has more than 3,200 stations and more than 20,000 miles of track and it would be too expensive to screen every passenger, the report said.
Amtrak, which carries nearly 30 million passengers annually, agrees train transit is difficult to secure.
"Because of advantages such as easy access, convenient locations and intermodal connections, rail and mass transit systems are completely different from the structure and organization of the airline transportation and airport industry, Amtrak spokesman Steve Klum said. UPI
