Lynch: Rail system vulnerable to attack
The bustling rail system connecting Boston and the Northeast Corridor is a “soft target” for terrorism that remains one of the most difficult to defend, say experts and officials who are now eyeing its vulnerabilities in the wake of the attacks that hit New York City and New Jersey over the weekend.
“The rail system is a point of particular concern for us because you’ve got five times as many people traveling by rail than you do by air every single day,” said U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, a South Boston Democrat, pointing in particular to South Station.
“That’s sort of a more vulnerable mode of transportation because of all the points of entry,” Lynch said. “And also the Northeast Corridor that runs from Washington, D.C., to Boston is the most heavily traveled corridor in the United States. Those are points of vulnerability that I’m very worried about.”
Gov. Charlie Baker and other officials said there doesn’t appear to be any connection to Boston in the attacks that rocked the tristate area over the weekend and ended yesterday with the capture of Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-yearold naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan believed to be responsible for the blast that injured dozens in New York City on Saturday night.
But it reopened questions about how secure Boston is from attacks such as those in New York, which bore an eerie resemblance to the 2013 terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line.
Transit systems in London, Madrid, Tokyo and Germany have all experienced terrorist attacks, ranging from massive bombings to a lone gunman that three Americans were credited with taking down on a high-speed train en route from Amsterdam to Paris last year.
Protecting a mass transit system remains difficult, given the number of access points a terrorist could have, not just to trains but the sprawling system of tracks and other infrastructure.
“They’re a soft target. The problem is people have to move very quickly in and out,” said Rafi Ron, a security expert and former consultant to Massport. “And people carry bags. The thought that we could actually screen those bags at a reasonable level at every station when somebody boards the train, that doesn’t seem realistic.
“It’s an extremely difficult, if not impossible, target to secure at a reasonable level, as opposed to aviation, which as complicated at it is, is much easier to secure,” he said.