Senator: U.S. rail exceedingly vulnerable
Senator Joe Biden writes that during his own daily commute from Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington, D.C. he has observed many instances of lax rail securty; it is time to take the issue more seriously, he writes
A recent survey by the Teamsters’ Rail Conference found that 32 percent of rail workers observed trespassers in the rail yards where they work. More than 50 percent of rail workers observed hazardous material shipments which were left unattended in the yard. Only 4 percent noticed a police presence in the yard. The Pittsburgh Tribune’s investigative reporter, Carl Prine, has been looking at rail security threats in the years since 9/11. His reports are frightening: Prine found he could stick his business card on tanker cars in some of the nation’s biggest cities’ rail yards — without being asked once by anyone to explain what was he doing in the rail yard next to tankers carrying dangerous materials. What would stop a terrorist from sticking plastique explosives on a chlorine tanker and remotely detonating it? The Naval Research Laboratory has indicated that up to 100,000 people could be killed or injured this way.
The above is taken from an article Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware), a daily commuter on the Washington, D.C.-Wilmington line, pubished in the Pittsburgh Tribune yesterday.
