Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Faulty Underground Radio Systems Undermine Rescue Efforts

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 05:55:06 -0400

Rescues at Risk

Faulty Underground Radio Systems Undermine Rescue Efforts

By Richard Esposito
ABCNEWS.com
May 20, 2004

One of the most significant and chilling failures found in U.S. rail
security is the breakdown of many underground police radio systems in
heavily-populated urban areas where terror attacks are deemed likely to
occur, ABCNEWS has learned.

It is a topic virtually overlooked by the 9/11 Commission, despite
concern voiced repeatedly that an attack on the nation's urban transit
systems is considered highly probable.  In response to widening alarm,
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today issued "Security
Directives" requiring protective measures to be implemented by passenger
rail operators.

"Millions of Americans travel by rail every day and recent world events
highlight the need to ensure they are kept safe from acts of terror. 
These protective measures, along with others already in place, advance
our mission to ensure rail passengers are protected," said Asa
Hutchinson, Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security at
DHS, in a statement.

Today's issuance from the DHS marks the first time in history that
federal security standards have been mandated for rail and mass
transit.  The directives, which take effect May 23, apply to all
passenger rail owners and operators.

But in New York City, for example, where most of the nearly 600 miles of
subway tracks run deep below ground, city officials told ABCNEWS many
public safety radios do not work. The same is true beneath the Madison
Square Garden complex, which proves to be of increasing concern as the
date of the National Republican Convention draws closer.

The failure to install critical infrastructure and the lack of
interoperability in radio systems becomes starkly visible when
considering underground security. Firefighters have to rely on
cumbersome, mobile repeater transmitters to get their radios to work
underground, according to New York Fire Department officials. In
addition, police tactical radios often cannot find an operable signal
underground, and other public safety agencies' radios do not link up to
either the police or fire radio system.

Well before terrorism was considered a major American threat, faulty
underground radio systems put the lives of both passengers and
first-responders at risk. Improvements on the system have been few and
far between.
When Bill Bratton was commissioner of the New York Police Department in
the mid-'90s, he pointed out many of the weaknesses and directed $20
million for system upgrades.

But as recently as last week, rescue drills inside the New York City
subway system revealed major radio problems for both police and fire
responders.

The radio system in New York's subways and in the regional commuter rail
tunnels has been a problem for more than 20 years. Recently, the New
York Metropolitan Transportation Authority received a $100 million
federal grant to upgrade its system with the installation of a new
control room and mobile repeaters, expected to be completed next year.

In other urban and suburban areas, railroad radios are piggy-backed
along the dispatcher radio system and, as a result, do not work in
crisis situations and lack interoperability with other agency
communication systems.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/US/WorldNewsTonight/faulty_radio_systems_040520-1.html

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