Congress has at last recognized and moved to fix a gaping breach in America's homeland security: railroad and transit system security. Unfortunately, the Senate and House bills come with veto provocations. The Senate bill enacting much of the 9/11 commission's recommendations has a provision authorizing collective bargaining by aviation security workers. The House bill embraces whistleblower protections for employees involved in security projects. Both bills apparently are nonstarters in the White House's view.
But while these tangential matters raise political issues, al-Qaida is increasing its use of improvised chlorine bombs (chlorine and other hazardous materials move over the U.S. rail system daily in great volumes), and terrorists for some time now have turned to the world's vulnerable rail and transit systems to wreak their havoc. This is simply not the time for a political standoff on nonessential side issues.
The essential issue is the rationality of the government's present transportation security policy - specifically, its degree of support for surface transportation security. America's surface transportation system consists of about 140,000 miles of track in the national freight rail network, 23,000 miles of track used for rail passengers, 7,000 miles of urban rail transit systems, and more than 4 million miles of interstate, national highway and other roads open to the trucking industry. Almost 2 million loads of hazardous materials or chemicals are transported by rail each year. As shown by recent tragic events in London; Madrid, Spain; and Mumbai, India, rail traffic is increasingly the target of choice for organized and careful terrorists.
