Officials Step Up Security at Transit Systems in U.S.

WASHINGTON —  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised the terrorism alert level for the nation’s public transportation systems to Code Orange on Thursday as SWAT teams, bomb-sniffing dogs and extra police stepped up surveillance of major bus, subway and rail systems from coast to coast.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the government had no credible evidence of an imminent attack on American soil.

He added, “I think our transit systems are safe.... This is not an occasion for undue anxiety, it’s an occasion for ... a renewal of our determination to keep our country safe, and a measured and appropriate response in terms of dealing with what has happened overseas.”

Nonetheless, Chertoff said, “We’re concerned about the possibility of a copycat attack.”

Underlining the seriousness of the threat, the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to state and local police and other security agencies warning that the Al Qaeda terrorist network has shown a continued interest in targeting rail transportation systems since its March 2004 bombing of trains in Madrid claimed 191 lives.

“We are concerned about this attack being perpetrated in the United States,” a senior Homeland Security official said in a conference call with reporters.

Al Qaeda leaders had been impressed with the impact of the Madrid attacks and have been eager to replicate that kind of attack elsewhere, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We’ve been following this threat stream for a couple of years now. This is not a new threat vector that we’re following just because of today’s events.”

A department spokeswoman, Katy Montgomery, said later that although no specific information existed about a planned attack in the United States, the bulletin was issued to underscore the fact that Al Qaeda is known to have a specific, continued interest in rail systems here and abroad.

And the response to the London attacks indicated that local officials across the U.S. took the threat seriously.

In New York City, which operates the country’s largest mass-transit system with more than 7 million passengers a day, authorities assigned police officers to every train and ordered bomb checks to be made before each of its 6,400 subway cars and more than 4,500 buses went into service. It was much the same in major cities everywhere.

On the choppy waters of Puget Sound, the Coast Guard deployed additional patrol boats to back up security for the Washington State Ferry System.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ordered transit police in Boston, which was the departure point for the two airliners that struck the World Trade Center, to search any individual or package “if they have a reasonable level of suspicion.”

Atlanta deployed 50 additional transit police officers. And subway riders in Washington were handed small yellow cards advising them to report “unusual behavior, unattended packages, anything that seems suspicious.”

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said bluntly, “If you see something, say something.”

The same message was delivered by federal, state and local officials around the country.

But many also emphasized that complete protection of transportation networks was not possible. Almost 29 million Americans commute each day by rail, subway or bus, according to transportation analysts.

For the most part Thursday, despite the horrific images from London and even the occasional false bomb alert, commuters seemed to take the risk in stride.

“What are you going to do, stop riding the subway?” asked Carmine Lengua of Brooklyn, N.Y., who rode the train Thursday morning to his job at a shoe store in Manhattan. “If I see something suspicious on the train, I’ll change to another one ... but I’ll still ride it.”

Heading the U.S. response to the London attacks, the Homeland Security Department called on state and local transportation officials to boost their use of video surveillance; fortify sensitive areas with perimeter barriers and intrusion detection equipment; increase spot ID checks and inspections of garbage bins and storage areas; and deploy extra law enforcement officers, backed by bomb-detecting canine teams.

And in cities across the country, the effects were immediately visible.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, early morning riders found BART trains and platforms swarming with police and transit workers in neon-green vests -- a day after riders had been worrying about a crippling strike.

In Atlanta, where the MARTA system ferries half a million passengers a day, authorities added more officers but also put the agency’s SWAT team on alert, along with its six explosives-detecting dogs.

“There’s an increased security police presence, which we know is a deterrent,” said Joselyn Baker, MARTA’s communications director.

New York Gov. George E. Pataki ordered state troopers to begin riding New York City trains and buses minutes after learning of the London attacks.

“We’re going to have every one of our trains and buses swept by police with bomb-sniffing dogs before they leave their hubs, and we’re going to have police on every subway train,” Pataki said. “This will continue indefinitely.”

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered all officers on the overnight shift riding New York transit, from midnight to 8 a.m., to remain on duty.

Teams of officers and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled some of the busiest stations, such as Grand Central, Pennsylvania, Herald Square and other sites.

Kelly said he also ordered thousands of additional police to patrol the streets near transit stations and sensitive sites such as the British Consulate in Manhattan.

In the meantime, officials said they increased the number of police guarding the city’s water supply.

“I know New Yorkers worry this kind of attack could be replicated in our city,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said during a news conference at New York’s Grand Central Terminal. “But we are doing everything in our power to prevent that from happening.”

In Boston, a federal security alert arrived at 7:40 Thursday morning. But Romney had already ordered additional police protection about 1 1/2 hours before the alert came.

“They are on platforms. They are on trains. They are present to make sure that if they see anything suspicious, they take an appropriate action,” the governor said at an early morning news conference in the gold-domed State House on Beacon Hill.

Boston exercise physiologist Nancy Campbell, 29, said South Station was “crawling” with orange-jacketed security guards as she boarded the subway Thursday afternoon.

Campbell said she was mildly surprised that no one checked her large backpack, which was full of clothes for an evening concert.

With so many transit police on duty, throughout “the T,” Campbell said, “it’s probably a good day to travel, that’s what I figured.”

Richard Pearson, 46, who was waiting for a train late Thursday, said he was not worried. “And what are you going to do, anyway? I’ve got to get to work, and my wife needs the car.”

In Washington, D.C., Police Chief Charles Ramsey also held over officers from the midnight shift as the city tightened security on its 106-mile subway system, which serves more than 700,000 riders a day.

Government workers, lobbyists and summer tourists were told to expect delays on buses and trains, but that the beefed-up security was precautionary, not because of any intelligence regarding a specific threat.

Even so, the subway rides weren’t entirely tension-free.

One subway rider from suburban Maryland said uniformed officers began boarding cars shortly after the train crossed into the District of Columbia. By the time it reached a station three blocks from the White House, the sound of security radios crackled through the train.

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Times staff writers Sharon Bernstein and Andrew Wang in Los Angeles; Mark Z. Barabak in San Francisco; Elizabeth Mehren in Boston; Josh Getlin in New York; and Richard Simon in Washington; and Times researchers Lianne Hart in Houston and Lynn Marshall in Seattle contributed to this report.