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.
But smaller agencies such as VRE don’t have their own police force or large stations. So VRE used what it had on hand: riders. The train service, which shuttles commuters from Virginia into Washington each day, carries a heavy load of federal workers, many of them in defense and homeland security jobs.
“We’re blessed by where we are and the people who ride our trains,” said VRE spokesman Mark Roeber.
Several years ago, the agency created an undercover rider program similar to the air marshal system on the nation’s airlines. In exchange for free rides, the mix of armed Secret Service, FBI and Homeland Security officers agree to stay alert on their commutes and respond as needed. Every train has a designated officer, he said.
VRE officials know which trains they ride and more or less where they sit, he said. Their rail passes have special markings that indicate to the conductors who they are and they share a code of when to respond in emergencies. “We have at our disposal some of the best-trained people,” Roeber said.
The train service also relies on local law enforcement agencies and Transportation Security Administration officers to patrol their trains and platforms, he said. – Kytja Weir
