VRE relies on undercover federal agents on trains

Local transit agencies have been gearing up for years to handle heightened security needs in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but Virginia Railway Express has its own special security system: 140 undercover federal armed officers riding every day on its trains. All of the local transit agencies received a wake-up call on Sept. 11, and then again after the subway bombings in Madrid and London in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

For example, in the past four years, Homeland Security has pumped upwards of $100 million into Metro, said Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn. The transit system has added officers, closed circuit cameras in stations, bomb-resistant trash cans plus chemical- and biological-weapons-detecting equipment.