Railway Security of the Acela Express - Essay Example

Running head: Railway Security Railway Security of the Acela Express between Washington DC and Boston, USA Insert Insert Grade Insert Tutor’s Name 06 April 2012 Introduction The Acela express is one of the rail services in the USA that uses tilting technology and banked turn concept to allow the train to travel at high speeds with no disturbance to the travelers. This particular one travels along the Northeast corridor between Washington D.C. through Boston and Philadelphia to New York. The United States as in many other places in the world has experienced increased risk of terrorist attacks in transportation industry including surface, maritime and air which have posed a great threat to peoples’ lives, growth of commerce and economic and social development. The USA 9/11 commission has emphasized on the need to have increased efforts of minimizing loopholes and instances of enemy attacks to secure public places through increased funding for security operations and enhanced legislative initiatives. The 9/11 commission noted that “opportunities to do harm are as great, or greater, in maritime or surface transportation.” This paper will explore risk assessment and management for the Railway transport industry in the United States particularly the Acela Express railroad services. Under risk assessment, it will try to explain on the criticality, vulnerability, and possibility of threat of attack while risk management will include measures of risk mitigation based on security loopholes or weaknesses identified. Risk Assessment The nature of terrorist attacks experienced in different parts of the world have seemed to target places where people congregate for different reasons including commerce, worship, work among others. The enemies of common good have intention to kill and destroy either as a way of retaliation or to seek recognition of their power by their so called opponents. Some of the points where attacks have been witnessed include places of passenger transport like airports, railway stations, bus stops among others. There have also been attacks en route through means such as hijackings, bombings, armed attack, sabotage, arson, unconventional attacks, kidnapping, barricade or hostage. They have used weapons like explosives, fire or firebomb, firearms, chemical agents and radiological agents and threats. Vulnerability and criticality of a rail system to an attack should be assessed based on assumptions about the sort of attack and the magnitude of the impact including loss of life, casualties, economic disruptions, destruction of the environment etc. The threat level should be the sort of information to be acquired which may range from low, moderate, substantial, severe to critical, the latter implying that the authorities may have adequate intelligence to determine that there is an eminent attack (Stinson, 2006). Passenger railway transport just like any other form of transport involves the public and has certain characteristics that increase its vulnerability to terrorism attacks. These characteristics include but not limited to the fact that there are scheduled stops along fixed routes which provide an opportunity for enemy plots to thrive. The possibility of attack is also increased by the fact that normal operations depend on people having quick and easy access to stations and trains and the impracticality of having to thoroughly screen all passengers due to the number of access points and volume of ridership involved. Usually, airline passengers unlike rail passengers undergo deep screening at the airport which significantly reduces the probability of undetected enemy threats passing through. The accessibility and extensive nature of surface transportation systems including railroads and such other systems involving mass transit reduce the possibility of heightened security against attacks and related insecurity incidences (Perl, 2005). The large numbers of people and massive infrastructure involved in mass rail transit systems is in itself a point of vulnerability by terrorist groups especially because their main intention is to kill and destroy. Open architecture connecting millions of passengers in major metropolitan areas creates inherent potential security vulnerabilities. There is a general consensus among security experts that passenger rail systems are inherently vulnerable due to the nature of operations but with water tight measures to detect and prevent opportunistic terrorist attempts, the vulnerability can be used as an advantage to increase protection. It is important to look at the problem of terrorism from the point of view of potential vulnerabilities in order to increase resilience through specifically determined methodologies based on the vulnerabilities identified. The majority of terrorist incidents on rail systems are bombings with suicide or conventional bombers, but other tactics have also been successfully employed. The practicality of carrying out an attack on yard and loading infrastructure is similar to that of ground-level track on infrastructure for passenger rail systems, to which unlimited public access is not generally available. The terrorism war cannot be won without stakeholder coordination and maximizing use of partner strengths and capabilities. Programs to enhance security by addressing policy gaps on security legislations, guidelines and regulations would come in handy to fight the menace. Because complete prevention from an attack may be tricky, focus has been shifted to minimizing the extent of damage from an attack also called consequence management which includes vulnerability assessment, emergency planning, emergency response training and drilling of transit personnel (Michael, 2001). The actions may be useful for the preparedness of natural disasters, criminal activity and other potential disruptions. Risk Management The vulnerability of a terrorist attack on any rail system in the USA will largely depend on the weaknesses discussed above. The possibility of an attack in the near future may not be determinable because terrorist activities are very secretive and strike without notice. However, based on the level and effectiveness of the intelligence the authorities have, it may be possible to expect a terrorist eventuality (Navin and Bapat, 2011). Potential terrorist groups around the world and mainly in the USA are the Al-Qaeda, Abu Nidal Organization, Abu Sayyaf group, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Ansar al-Islam, Islamic Jihad Union among many others. This section provides recommendations on how to enhance security efforts at the Acela express rail facility through reducing vulnerabilities and curtailing threats with an aim to minimize or completely do away with terrorist activities. Risk management may be conceived from a threat-based perspective where risk is the combination of vulnerability, threat and criticality; with vulnerability being the ways through which the rail system may be open to attack, threat being the likelihood of an attack and criticality being the potential consequences of an attack. Strategies adopted by intelligence and law enforcement agencies must be highly dynamic to allow for change over time as new information comes to light because skimmers of terrorism will always change tact, targets and weapons immediately they learn of changes in security strategies. The authority for regulating rail safety and security in the USA resides largely with the federal government. DHS1 issued secret security directives which are updated occasionally and already in implementation. In order to act before enemies do, information sharing should be embraced particularly through the use of transport stakeholders and partnerships to optimize public safety, facilitate commerce, and strengthen the resiliency of the surface transportation system. These efforts require good amount of funding in the transportation sector both for infrastructure development and enhancement of security controls. The local and state governments should allocate a significant amount of funds from the county’s budget to support security initiatives because the current concern is really about foreign terrorist attacks (Cragin and Gerwehr, 2005). The local community must also be involved in funding security improvements and in supporting security efforts as much as they pay tax to the government because it is beneficial to their lives. The use of the new generation signaling technology known as positive train control (PTC) is important to provide detailed and accurate information regarding the status of operations on a rail network. PTC systems use sensors, location and communications equipment as well as advanced computing systems to achieve the purpose of increasing the capacity of the track and improving the efficiency of rail operations by allowing closer spacing of trains. The technology also increases chances of reduced operating and maintenance costs by considering different factors through routing and scheduling of trains. Threat-based risk management can be used to assess the level of funding required just as TSA2 does through coordinating this and other initiatives in the transportation sector by way of advanced risk-based, intelligence-driven techniques to prevent terrorist attacks. Information sharing coordination should also involve the general public such as the case of TSA’s NSI3 which spreads throughout the Amtrak rail system where through a state of the art reporting system, suspicious activities are referred to the authorities for analysis and necessary action (Hall, 2005). Ensuring that local rail freight officials have adequate information through training and capacity building on safety and security enhancement measures will enhance intelligence by among other ways examining classified government reports for potential threats to railways to quickly communicate with the appropriate rail workers when danger is imminent. The fact that other than general passenger rail information, rail freight operational schedules and procedures are not usually readily available makes it relatively difficult for successful terrorism targets. A number of measures employed to improve security controls include increasing the deployment of security officers, use of video surveillance, conducting random inspections of passengers and baggage, use of sniffer dogs to detect bombs, and increasing vigilance for suspicious activity and more involvement of the public through announcements reminding and assuring them of protection as they report suspicious behavior (Cragin and Gerwehr, 2005 p. 112). Making changes such as hiring more police officers, introduction of random screening of passengers and baggage and installing security cameras are perfect measures to reduce vulnerability of the rail system to attack. Still, reduction of potential consequences of an attack through top notch and coordinated emergency response as well as reduction of threats to the rail system investing in intelligence and law enforcement should help a milestone to combat terrorism. The use of explosives detection equipment has been successful though the many entries and exits on the subway system create challenges to effective security breach monitoring. A crucial component of security planning is the coordination between rail transport industry agencies and intelligence agencies (Sideris and Anastasia, 2006). Rail yards may be fenced and secured by controlled access points for people and vehicles as well as remote video surveillance. One other effective way to curtail terrorist activities and improve safety of the Acela rail system would be to focus operations on counterterrorism investigations and intelligence by stopping terrorists before they can strike. It is believed that the most serious plot against an American passenger train plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station was foiled by a yearlong undercover operation by the New York Police Department. The DHS and the DOT4 have published a number of voluntary though meant to be compulsory security practices including employee checks for criminal records, frequent training, and collaboration with government emergency response agencies through liaison officers. The rail industry has implemented most of these measures by identifying vulnerabilities to make significant changes to operations. There is general consensus that trains are some of the likeliest terrorist targets and that the existing security precautions at the rail stations are substantial preventive measures to security threats. The number of police force dedicated to rail station security service needs to be increased significantly to reduce instances of security lapses in and around these areas. To sustain this kind of workforce calls for increased funding from the local government which sometimes may be a challenge. Dynamic targets by terrorists may be frustrated by employing randomness of precautions taken by the authorities. This may involve actions such as frequent, unpredictable police presence and unpredictable select searches and can help to avoid issues of civil liberty resulting from categorization of cases based on race, gender, or age (Harmon 2000, p. 88). Random searches also ensure that every passenger has an equal chance of being searched thus significantly reduce cases of bias and complaints. Regulations by the FRA5 on transporting hazardous material have certain requirements for rail freight sector to implement security plans and conduct training for employees. These are important to ensure that rail systems such as Acela Express conform and contribute to enhancing security in the transport sector. FRA has employed inspectors who ensure that rail freight conforms to these regulations (Johnson, 2011, p. 28). On-terrorist safety has been advocated through rerouting hazardous rail cargo to bypass densely populated areas though this has not been implemented because of legal challenges, concerns about additional costs, emanating delays to business processes, and the fact that amount of cargo classified as hazardous is insignificant relative to total cargo on rail freight. Solution to rail freight security should begin with addressing hazardous chemicals which is an element of chemical security. By reducing or completely eliminating the amount of dangerous chemicals on rail transit, the risk of release of such chemicals either by accident or sabotage is highly minimized (Tahmisoglu and Ozen, 2009, p.15). Conclusion In exploring risk assessment and management for the Acela Express railway facility in the United States this paper dealt with the criticality, vulnerability and possibility of threat of attack to inform decisions on the preparedness for potential striking eventualities. Many aspects of risk management including mitigation measures were also looked at. It has emphasized that in order to undertake proper risk management of rail transit terrorism, deep assessment is necessary to provide information on what measures should be taken and adopted (Forest, 2006, p.354). Determining the degree of vulnerability and criticality of a rail system to a potential attack is dependent on assumptions about the sort of attack and the magnitude of the impact. Various characteristics that were found synonymous with surface transport systems increase the vulnerability and criticality of these places to acts of terrorism. Risk in this context is the combination of vulnerability, threat and criticality. Information sharing should be embraced particularly through the use of surface transport industry stakeholders and partnerships to optimize public safety, facilitate commerce, and strengthen the resiliency of the surface transportation system. The use of advanced risk-based, intelligence-driven techniques and information sharing coordination, engagement of the general public through an effective reporting system are among some of the important basic measures to deal with attacks of a terrorism nature and improve safety of the people using rail facilities. In risk management to terrorist intentions, a number of preventive measures can be applied including increasing the deployment of security officers, use of video surveillance, conducting random inspections of passengers and baggage, use of sniffer dogs to detect bombs, heightened vigilance for suspicious activity and more involvement of the public through coordinated and effective communications such as announcements. Random screening of passengers and baggage and installation of security cameras are perfect measures to reduce vulnerability of the rail system to acts of terrorism. Even more, emergency response as well as reduction of threats to the rail system by investing in an intelligence and law enforcement system would be useful to run ahead of bad plans by traitors. In cases where explosives may be perceived to be the main causes of harm either through accident or sabotage by enemies, explosives detection equipment is used. The new approach is to have rail system operations just like in other forms of passenger and cargo transport, focus on counterterrorism investigations and intelligence to keep ready and prepared for eventualities and how to deal with such. Dynamic targets by terrorists may be frustrated by employing precautions randomly as done by the authorities such that it is not possible for strikers to predict what controls will be applied when, thus minimizing vulnerability. References Cragin, K. and Gerwehr, S. (2005) Dissuading Terror: Strategic Influence and the Struggle against Terrorism, United States of America: Rand Corporation. Forest, J.J., (2006) Homeland Security: Critical infrastructure, United States of America: Greenwood Publishing Group. Frank, T., and Johnson, K. (2009) Subway braces for D.C. crush, USA Today Hall, M. (2005) Cities Look For Ways to Secure Rails, USA Today Harmon, C.C. (2000) Terrorism today, New York: Routledge Johnson, C.M. (2011) Combating Terrorism: U.S. Government Should Improve Its Reporting on Terrorist Safe Havens, USA: Diane Publishing. Michael, M. (2001) Attacks Provide First Major Test of USAs National Antiterrorist Medical Response Plans. Lancet; Vol. 358 Issue 9286, p941, 1p Navin, A. and Bapat (2011) Transnational Terrorism, US Military Aid, And the Incentive to Misrepresent. Journal of Peace Research; Vol. 48 Issue 3 Perl, R. (2005) U.S. Anti-Terror Strategy and the 9/11 Commission Report, USA: The Library of Congress Sideris, L. and Anastasia, (2006) Rail Transit Security in an International Context. Urban Affairs Review; Jul2006, Vol. 41 Issue 6, p727-748, 22p Stinson, J. (2008). In London, No More Getting Stewed On The Tube. USA Today Stinson, J. (2006) Britain Adopts New Terror Threat Levels Similar to USAs. USA Today Tahmisoglu, M. and Ozen, C. (2009) Transportation Security against Terrorism, Netherlands: IOS Press Read More