ABSTRACT
Protecting the nation’s railway system from threats posed by terrorism has become a major consideration for the nation’s railroads and government agencies concerned with railroad safety and homeland security. Since the September 11 attacks growing attention has been given to the vulnerability of the vast and complicated network of railway lines in the US and other nations concerned with terrorism. The reasons for this concern are not hard to identify. Railway lines are critical to the nation’s economy, moving large numbers of commuters, a large portion of the nation’s freight, and form a critical part of the evolving intermodal system critical to global commerce. Because railroads are by virtue of their basic technology able to move heavy bulk cargoes effi ciently, they dominate the movement of such vital cargoes as coal and other minerals, automobiles and auto parts, grain, chemicals, and agricultural products. They are the preferred surface mode to move hazardous and dangerous materials safely. (Imagine such cargoes as nuclear waste or nerve gas moving along the nation’s roadways by truck instead of train.) In larger cities, they are the means of moving large numbers of commuters from suburbs to central business districts. They move more people and more tonnage per gallon of fuel than other modes, due to the inherent effi ciency of the steel wheel on the almost frictionless steel rail. They are, in short, critical to the functioning of our society, and that alone might suffi ce to make them a logical target for terrorists.
