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No U.S. rail security devices pass muster
(UPI Top Stories Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) A $7 million U.S. government program to develop bomb detection systems for train and subway riders hasn't produced anything viable, USA Today said Wednesday.
A Homeland Security Department assessment not made public but presented at a recent rail-security conference in Arlington, Va., said all of various technologies had significant shortcomings.
About 12 million people use trains or subways in the United States each weekday, and the report said some technologies, such as bomb-sniffing dogs weren't cost-efficient. For the New York City subway's 6 million riders, dogs would cost about an extra 40 cents per passenger trip, while Cleveland's 19,000 passengers a day would have to pay an extra $3.45 per trip, USA Today said.
The report said many of the systems tested triggered too many false alarms and others took too long to screen to be practical.
We're years away from any technological solution, Brian Jenkins, director of the National Transportation Security Center in California, told the newspaper.
Copyright 2007 United Press International
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