Vallone, Other Officials Sound Off On Lack Of Subway Security
by john toscano

Criticism of the MTA’s failure to devise a subway security plan, unleashed in the wake of the London bombings, continued last week amid reports that the beleaguered agency was finally getting its act together.

The reports, none of which were confirmed by the transit agency, said that the MTA was set to launch a $400 million anti-terror plan, including installation of a high-tech camera surveillance system to protect the subway system’s tunnels that run underwater.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg also reported that the MTA would pay the overtime costs involved in continuing extra Police Department patrols in subways which were started following the July 7 London subway bombings. However, this was not confirmed by the transit agency.

Meanwhile, the agency came under attack from City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. for its failing to have key locations staffed by subway workers.

In particular, Vallone (D–Astoria) urged that HEETs (High Entrance/Exit Turnstiles) be removed because they would endanger subway riders in an emergency. The lawmaker, chairman of the council Public Safety Committee, questioned the safety of HEETS and other automatically operated gates which sometimes require a call to a subway attendant to make them operational.

Vallone was quoted in one report as saying in a letter to the MTA: “If a terrorist attack, or other disaster occurs on our subways, riders will have a difficult enough time managing their way through smoke-or gas-filled tunnels without being trapped behind gates like lower class citizens on the Titanic.”

In some cases, no MTA staff members are available at stations with only HEETs because the Transit Authority has cut manpower or automated service has been implemented.

The subway security issue also reverberated in Washington where United States Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton were among those seeking to increase a Homeland Security funding measure by $1 billion, which would be earmarked for subway and railroad security.

Schumer and Clinton were among Democrats who charged that the Bush administration is not devoting sufficient funding to surface transit, despite the evidence of vulnerability as provided by the Madrid and London bombings.

This criticism was further highlighted during the week as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview that airports get more anti-terror funding because there are larger numbers of passengers using airplanes than trains.

In response, Schumer challenged Chertoff to go to crowded Grand Central Terminal and tell commuters that Washington is not responsible for protecting them.

Meanwhile, Clinton had the MTA in her sights as she asked why the agency had not installed security cameras in the subways as London transit officials had done. She noted the cameras there had helped London police to identify four suspects in the subway bombings. She wondered why the agency, which has received about $600 million in anti-terror funds since 9/11, has spent hardly any of it yet.

Several days later the Daily News reported on a $400 million plan to install surveillance systems covering 14 subway and commuter rail tunnels to detect intruders.

The closed-circuit television systems would be designed mainly to avert any explosions in underwater tunnels that could do incalculable damage.

An MTA spokesman said that the tunnel surveillance systems would be among several to be installed and paid for with the $591 million unspent anti-terror funds the agency has on hand.