Airport-level security could be coming to America's train stations

Following a gunman's attempted attack aboard a Paris-bound train earlier this month, new calls for enhanced security measures are being considered stateside. In the years following the terror attacks of September 11, airport security has radically evolved (though some might argue the opposite), while America's vast railway transportation system has remained largely unchanged. Should airport-style security be deployed at train stations as well?

A Homeland Security report from 2010 actually suggested that the full-body scans found in airports should be deployed throughout the country's train stations. In the years since, the efficacy of those same machines has been largely discredited, in a way validating the cost and complexity concerns that prevented their rollout in the first place.

With a papal visit on the horizon, the already stressed Northeast Corridor – the constellation of cities from Washington D.C. north through Boston – is considered a particularly glaring target. But unlike air travel, rail commuters typically make their journeys twice a day, to and from work. Flyers may be able to absorb the extra check-in time at an airport before taking off for the weekend, but that buffer – a suggested 2 hours at many airports – seems unfathomable before the morning and evening commute. Even if we wanted to beef up railway security, are we able to?

Amtrak employs 500 security officers, and both the MTA and TSA supplement those ranks with agents of their own. But train security often takes the form of random, rather than routine, measures. Think the New York City subway's omnipresent "If you see something, say something" signs as the tent-pole example of passenger-reliant security.

Mike Hellgren reports for WJZ:

[University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security's Vernon] Herron points out Homeland Security does deploy what are called VIPR teams randomly along the Northeast Corridor. Those teams include agents in uniform and bomb-sniffing dogs and agents out of uniform, designed to blend in with passengers and detect suspicious activity. "Citizens have to be the extra eyes and ears of public officials,” Herron said.

Applying that same ethos to airport security sounds insane, which goes to show just how vulnerable our trains can be. Ultimately, as we saw in Europe just days ago, these problems are hardly limited to the U.S. or even just our airports and train stations.

It's been more than a decade since 9/11, and yet we still haven't decided as a society on a proper ratio between security, liberty and modern convenience that we are comfortable with. Incidents like the attack in Europe, unfortunately, don't seem to bring us that much closer to an answer.