DHS tests various weapon detection technologies at rail stations
The terror attacks on Mumbai trains reminded us, if a reminder was needed, of the vulnerability of public transportation; DHS conducts tests in Jersey City, Baltimore, and Atlanta for improving rail transportation safety
DHS is also conducting scanning tests of rail passengers heading from New Jersey into New York City. Commuters became scientific guinea pigs last Thursday, passing through invisible-beam scanners at the Exchange Place PATH station as part of a two-week trial run of anti-terror technology. All passengers who entered after 10 a.m. were scanned for hidden weapons or bombs under their clothes. Since the testing began well after the morning rush, travelers were delayed less than two minutes.
DHS is running the $3.1 million data-gathering trial, which will take place mostly between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The team may try to scan some passengers during an evening rush hour, said Christopher Kelly, a DHS spokesman. “We’re working with emerging technologies,” Kelly said. “We’re trying to see what the equipment will and will not take in a high-volume setting.”
The trial began two days after railway bombings in Bombay, India, killed 182 people. Last week, federal authorities announced the arrest of a Lebanese man in an international plot to bomb PATH train tunnels. The test which began Thursday is part of a $10 million, two-year effort to test different types of anti-terror strategies on big-city commuter rail systems. Some of that money is spent in Jersey City, New Jersey, on non-invasive machines to scan the body for hidden weapons and explosives; in Atlanta, Georgia, on sniffer dogs to detect explosives; and in Baltimore, Maryland, on ticket-scanning technology to detect chemical residues from explosives.
