According to recent report published by the U.S. Transportation Department, buses and trains in the United States are becoming inviting targets for terrorist acts.

The report was writen by world renown terrorism expert Brian Jenkins of the highly-regarded Kroll Associates. In the report, Jenkins said, "Contemporary terrorists have made public transportation a new theater of operations."

Jenkins believes that while airline security has been tightened in the U.S., ground transportation systems remain wide open with plenty of entrances and exits, no guards or machines to search passengers and an opportunity to kill a large number of people.

Overseas, buses and trains are often used in terrorism attacks -- especially in places like India and Algeria -- but such attacks in the United States are considered to be rare.

Some of the More infamous terrorist attacks against public transit systems overseas include: The Irish Republican Army planting bombs on British passenger trains and London subways. Palestinian terrorists have bombed Israeli buses and a Japanese cult released nerve gas into the Tokyo subway system.

The U.S. Transportation Department's intelligence office, created right after the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, says that it has begun working with local transit agencies to improve security against bombs and chemical weapons.

Jenkins says that federal officials are unlikely to set standards for transit security the way they have rules for airlines. Nor does his report recommend any such steps.

More than anything else, the report urges transit systems to be more aware of the terrorist threat and to be prepared through simulations and training exercises.

Jenkins said, "We have to be realistic about the limits of deterrence and prevention. Therefore, what we can do now is prepare so that if an incident arises, we can respond effectively. It can spell the difference between an effective response and a catastrophe."

An annual security seminar is held by the American Public Transit Association, which is the trade group for public transportation authorities. All employees, including cleaning and custodial crews, are being trained to be more alert.

Association spokesperson Amy Coggin explained, "There are multiple entry points to transit systems, most of them on a street. There's no way screen everybody who walks down a street. Unless we're going to become a police state, you won't see that thing happening. That's why the training of personnel is so critical."

John Sullivan is the editor of Transit Policing -- which is a journal for the transit police service. He is also the co-author, with Henry I. DeGeneste, of the article "Transit Terrorism: Beyond Pelham 1-2-3" which appeared in The Police Chief and the in the book "Policing Transportation Facilities." The following passage is from that article:

"Transit systems are attractive, visible targets for a number of reasons. They carry large numbers of people within concentrated, predictable areas and time frames. They are accessible (since they provide easy user access). Finally, their target-rich infrastructure, which often covers extensive geographic areas, frequently renders effective countermeasures impractical."

Sullivan told ERRI: "The threat of extereme violence against transit systems is not limited to classic political acts, but can and has included quasi-terrorist acts such as the Long Island Rail Road Shooting and the Fulton Street Firebombng on the NYC Subway. (Quasi-terrorist acts are similar in impact to terrorist acts but without the political dimension, i.e. activities incidental to the commission of crimes of violence that are similar in form and method to terrorism, but lack an organized social, political, religious, or economic dimension.)"

"Another way to look at it is to consider the potential for terrorism as an "intentional disaster," Sullivan added. "As a result emergency response and management programs for terrorism must be considered as essential elements of a transit security program. The majority of major transit systems in the US recognize the potential for terrorism and have been building their capacity to address the issue--which at this time is largely one of vulnerability rather than an explicit known threat."

Jenkins said the report was the first step in what will become a textbook of ideas and suggestions to handle terrorist incidents, based on the experiences of transit systems in the United States and elsewhere. It is one of several efforts under way to analyze and respond to the threat of terrorist attacks in the United States.

For related information regarding policing in transit systems, click here: Transit Policing On-Line