Chicagoland’s Metra Rail System Security

Metra is a commuter rail agency that serves Chicago and all of northeastern Illinois, is the second largest commuter railroad in the country in terms of number of passengers, and is the industry’s largest in terms of numbers of lines, miles of track, amount of equipment, and number of employees, according to Richard Tidwell, Deputy Executive Director of Metra, noted during his testimony on railroad security before the House Subcommittee on Railroads on May 5, 2004, that. (1) Tidwell went on: “In addition, Metra is the most complex commuter rail system, in that we own directly and operate several of our rail lines, have purchase-of-service agreements with the nation’s two largest freightcarriers (UP and BNSF), and have several trackage agreements with other freight carriers such as Norfolk Southern and the Canadian National and Illinois Central.”

Specifically, Metra provides service to Chicago and northeastern Illinois on 12 lines that serve more than 120 communities with 240 stations, including a stop at O’Hare International Airport. In addition, Metra serves five hub terminals in downtown Chicago. All of these Metra lines carry more than 1.6 million riders each week or over 82 million passenger trips each year. On-time performance is the highest in the industry, averaging above 96% in every year of Metra’s existence.

As for railroad security, Tidwell shared what Metra has done since September 11, 2001. Noting that the Metra system comprises a vast service territory, totaling nearly 3,500 square miles, with 240 passenger access points for nearly 300,000 passengers each day, the challenge of securing the system is great. The largest Metra trains carry 1,600 passengers when fully loaded or, as Tidwell points out, equivalent to three (3) Boeing 747 aircraft. Nevertheless, Tidwell said, there is “simply no efficient way to individually screen those who use our service. Our ridership densities are too great and our time frames too compressed.” (Hearing transcript, p. 48)

What then has Metra done to improve its security?

1. Tidwell noted that the Metra’s overall philosophy on security is to train not only frontline employees in bomb recognition and reaction, but employees in the Finance Department, Grants Departments, and other departments because “they ride our system or they ride the CTA or our PACE suburban bus. “The training they get they can use as a passenger...We think having those eyes and ears are critical for us to see things that don’t look right, to report them to somebody and quickly respond to whatever is reported.” The entire Metra employee population (over 4,000 people) is receiving training on system security awareness from the National Transit Institute at Rutgers University. The Institute was established at Rutgers University by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 to support the national training and development needs of the transit industry and modeled after the National Highway Institute.

2. Metra joined the Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force and continues to be in direct communication with numerous state and federal agencies, sharing information on potential threats, according to Tidwell.

3.. Metra has hired “substantial numbers” of off-duty certified police officers to patrol our downtown stations along with dogs specially trained to detect explosives, according to Tidwell. Metra’s fire marshal trains first responders in Metra equipment and operations, and Metra’s police department works with numerous law enforcement jurisdictions to provide security where Metra has overnight storage yards. Metra officers patrol stations, bridges, interlocking plants and other critical facilities.

According to a Daily Herald article dated April 30, 2004, “Metra has put 70 of its 97 police officers, some in plain clothes, out on the streets to patrol boarding platforms and rail lines. They look for suspicious unattended packages or any devices attached to rails. Those were used for the recent bombings in Spain that killed 199, and Metra officials are taking no chance of the same thing happening here. In the Chicago train stations, Metra also has joined with the FBI and Chicago Police to use bomb-sniffing dogs. You easily could have come across an agent of the commuter line's new war on terror without knowing it. Undercover officers with full arrest powers ride the trains just as air marshals ride airplanes. ‘They are riding, randomly, all of our lines,’ said Judy Pardonnet, Metra spokeswoman. ‘We have taken other security measures also that I can't really talk about. But they are having security updates every day.’ The hidden officers are an outgrowth of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The transportation industry as a whole has reconsidered how it looks at security.” (2)

5. According to a Chicago Tribune story dated September 16, 2004, Metra has spent an additional $40 million on security upgrades since the 9/11 attacks. Metra spokeswoman Judith Pardonnet said that Metra has received $3.3 million from the Department of Homeland Security. (3)

6. When Tidwell was questioned at the House hearing about Metra’s ability to evacuate the Chicago’s population on short notice, Tidwell replied: “[W]e should be able to activate all or most of [the five downtown terminals], bring trains back in at any point during the day as long as we have crews available to begin the evacuation of the downtown area.” In fact, after 9/11 Metra was able to rearrange its scheduling and “take everybody home” as the skyscrapers rapidly emptied. “ Chicago was pretty much deserted by 11 o’clock that morning. We work very closely with the City of Chicago and their Department of Emergency Management, the Illinois Department of Emergency Management. I have an exhaustive list of agencies and entities we work with and communicate with,” said Tidwell. Metra’s Chief of Police and Deputy Chief of Police attend meetings, report to Tidwell, and he then reports the information to employees on a need-to-know basis.

Metra’s single greatest vulnerability, according to Tidwell, is “too few eyes and ears to be vigilant in all of our multiple locations.” He added that “Metra needs to harden itself as a potential target and expands its security infrastructure. Even more so, we must put additional human canine assets in the field.” He believed that the federal government has a role to play in assisting Metra to enhance its capabilities.

Editor’s Note: The reluctance to inconvenience passengers seems to be the reason cited by railroads for not installing passenger screening systems. But maybe it has more to do with resources needed to accomplish this and the willingness to embrace the reality of global criminals intent on harming civilian communities. I don’t see how screening system technology can NOT be added into the rail systems. Metra’s 100 police officers for 82 million passenger rides each year on a sprawling system is an insufficient supply of resources to meet the need for which they are being used. Metra knows this.

Source:

1. “Railroad Security Hearing (108-64) before the Subcommittee on Railroads of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure House of Representatives.” May 5, 2004, pp. 47-49.

2. “ Metra police heighten efforts to keep watch for terrorists” by Tona Kunz, posted on the Daily Herald website on April 30, 2004. Available at: http://www.ble.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=10280. Accessed August 24, 2005.

3. “ Bill seeks $3.5 billion to aid bus, rail security” [Chicago Final Edition]
Jon Hilkevitch, Tribune transportation reporter.  Chicago Tribune.  Chicago, Ill.:  Sept 16, 2004. pg. 12.