Attack shows subways, Russia vulnerable
The St. Petersburg bombing demonstrated the terror risks facing subway stations because of their open access and large crowds, but experts said Monday that Russian transportation security has been less stringent than in the U.S.
Subways have increasingly become the target of terrorists because of the number of entrances and the volume of passengers, security experts say.
“The scariest part is that it’s no longer instructions from al-Qaeda. Nowadays, it’s the guy who’s practicing radical terrorism in his living room,” John Poncy, a security expert who is CEO of The Densus Group and a former Army soldier, told USA TODAY. “I just think it’s a mat- ter of time — I hate to say this — before it hits a subway system in the United States.”
Anthony Roman, a global risk-management expert and president of Roman & Associates in Lynbrook, N.Y., said his staffers found Russian transportation security below par for the Sochi Olympics. “Security was felt to be far below U.S. standards, and wholly inadequate,” Roman said.
In general, subways and other train systems are difficult to protect from terrorists because of the large number of entries and large number of people using the transportation. But Roman said New York City illustrates how security can be organized with uniformed police, plain-clothes officers, bomb-sniffing dogs, electronic and video surveillance — and significant patrols at high-value targets such as Penn Station and Grand Central Station.
“These multilayers of security make it increasingly difficult to effectively and regularly commit acts of terror. Not impossible,” Roman said.
In the U.S., the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Administration is receiving periodic updates from federal law enforcement but hasn’t changed the already “elevated” security level.
Poncy expects proposals to reduce the vulnerabilities of subway stations. Metal detectors are now common at airports and sporting events, and the inconvenience for subway riders might be overcome by security concerns, he said.
“It’s an intricately woven target that permeates every part of a London or a New York, or any of the cities with a large subway system,” Poncy said. “If you want to make an impact, you set it to go off when it gets to Grand Central Station.”