[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 132 (Thursday, October 4, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10279-S10280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             RAIL SECURITY

  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to speak with strong support 
for an amendment that I know my colleague from Delaware, the senior 
Senator, Joe Biden, will be offering which deals with the issue of rail 
transportation up and down the east coast--actually across the country, 
an amendment that provides about $3 billion to enhance the security of 
our rail transportation network.
  This happens to be an amendment that I think fits extraordinarily 
well and is extraordinarily important in providing a comprehensive 
security package for our transportation network in this country.
  The tragic events of recent weeks have focused attention on our need 
to improve the safety and soundness of our transportation network, in 
particular our airlines. I congratulate the leaders of the Senate, our 
majority leader, Tom Daschle, and the minority leader, Trent Lott, 
along with Senators Hollings and McCain, for their outstanding work to 
bring forward a package that I believe our Nation is asking for, is 
demanding: that we recognize we need to improve the safety of our 
aviation system in this country.
  We need to be a little more forward looking. We need to think outside 
just the events that have occurred to what could occur and where the 
next tragedies might very well occur.
  While we are tightening aviation security, we need to address 
problems that may very well exist in other parts of our transportation 
system.
  Just yesterday we experienced a serious problem in our country's bus 
network. Fortunately, it was not of the same tragic proportions, but we 
saw, once again, a criminal taking over a bus and attacking the driver, 
leading to the death of five innocent passengers.
  We have a vulnerable transportation system in this country. 
Unfortunately, our rail system may be the most vulnerable. That is why 
we need the Biden initiative, hopefully with a number of Senators from 
across the country supporting it. We need to address this issue before 
a problem occurs.
  Talk about proportionality. In fiscal year 2000, Amtrak provided 
ridership for 22.5 million folks. Out of New York City, there were 8.5 
million boardings. It is an enormous contributor to the transportation 
system in this country. It is an important one.
  We learned that it is complementary to our transportation system as 
we saw the shutdown of Reagan National and we saw the aftermath of the 
events.
  It is not just passenger traffic. Freight traffic feeds one of the 
most important ports in our country, the New York-New Jersey port. Up 
and down the east coast, there is tremendous interconnectivity of our 
society through rail traffic. This is one of our most vulnerable spots, 
and I think it needs to be addressed on an emergency basis. I think a 
lot of my colleagues do,

[[Page S10280]]

and that is why we are so impassioned about the need to address this 
now in this time when we are looking at various needs for security.
  When you ride Amtrak, which a number of Senators did when they 
visited ground zero a couple of weeks ago, and as a number of us do 
regularly, you do not have to go through any security checkpoints 
before boarding, no metal detectors, no x-ray machines to check 
luggage, and there are very few security officers. Someone can just 
walk on a train and put a bag in the storage bins. One does not even 
have to be suicidal to accomplish destruction.
  Indications are that security on trains is light. Under these 
circumstances, we have been very fortunate, in my view, to have avoided 
a major terrorist attack on our Nation's rail system. It is not just a 
Northeast corridor problem. It is a problem across the country where we 
have heavy rail traffic.
  It is time to improve that security now. We need to think ahead to 
what could be a major disaster, a human tragedy for our country. That 
is why the Biden initiative, and the initiative of so many of us, is so 
important.
  This amendment will provide the resources to substantially improve 
the security of the Nation's passenger rail system--not just in the 
Northeast but the Nation's rail transportation system. Funds could be 
used for a variety of purposes, including hiring more police officers, 
improving training and security personnel, purchase of security 
cameras, and the establishment of special emergency response teams that 
can respond instantly if we have a problem on our rails. It could 
provide helicopters to check the track coverage to make sure we are not 
being attacked before an event.
  There are a number of things we need to do on a commonsense basis to 
make sure we are more secure in our rail traffic, to make sure our 
economy continues to roll and provide the freight connections with 
which Amtrak and rail across our country use to service our economy. We 
ought to do this now and not wait for a problem to occur.
  It is also important--and this is absolutely more clear every day--
Mr. President, I encourage you to come to New York, New Jersey, and try 
to commute across the various forms of transportation under the Hudson 
River or over it and see the 1\1/2\ to 2 hour lines that are taking 
place because of the breakdown, obviously, of the path tunnel that went 
into the World Trade Center. There were 50,000 riders one way each day 
on that pathway, and now they are looking for other ways to get into 
the city.
  With the entry level of the Holland Tunnel now stopped because of 
security reasons, there is an absolute need for us to understand that 
these are important security chokepoints, risk points in our 
transportation network.
  A lot of these tunnels are extraordinarily dated and, by the way, not 
just the ones in New York and New Jersey, but Baltimore, Washington, 
and other places across the country are not up to scale for the 21st 
century. In fact, some of them are not up to scale for the 20th 
century.
  The ones in Baltimore were put in place in the 1870s. The tunnels 
under the Hudson River were built in the early 1900s when we had the 
Pennsylvania railroad. They have gone through different ownerships and 
struggles to stay current.
  If a terrorist were to attack the ones I know best under the Hudson 
River, there are two exits in a tunnel that is the better part of 6 or 
7 miles long. Lousy ventilation was put in place, as I said, in the 
early 1900s, and a narrow passageway virtually makes it impossible to 
evacuate.
  On an average day there are 100,000 passengers who go through that 
tunnel. It is not just Amtrak, but it is the New Jersey transit, which 
is one of the vital links to have a connected economy in the 
metropolitan New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area.
  I stress that it is not only New York-New Jersey. We have similar 
issues in the Baltimore tunnels, and, frankly, they have a tunnel in 
Washington that runs right next to the Capitol Building. There are 
enormous risks and inefficiencies that occur here.
  We have a safety issue for sure. All one has to do is watch grade B 
movies of days in the West, as we might have seen in South Dakota, 
where people blew up bridges or blew up tunnels to know it does not 
take a genius to figure out that these are places where security 
measures need to be taken and attended to.
  I hope my friends in the Senate will realize this is not about 
porkbarrel spending. This is a serious concern for literally millions 
of folks who are involved in our rail transportation system.
  Finally, this is a vital economic link for this country. There is an 
enormous amount of freight traffic up and down the east coast. There is 
in other parts of the country as well, and our friends need to have 
protection to make sure those links stay in place. If we are ever going 
to worry about where the status of our economy is and how we are going 
to keep it thriving, get it back on the right track, now is the time to 
be thinking about that. That is why I think we have to make sure we 
move on these issues with regard to rail transportation at the same 
time we are talking about aviation.

  There is the old saying: Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, 
shame on us. Frankly, I think we are in that position. That is why I 
feel so strongly about support of the initiative that a number of us 
are taking under the leadership of Senator Biden, and I hope we will 
move that forward. Economic reasons for sure, but when you want to 
think about the safety of the people of America, we do not need another 
September 11 to produce movement on things where we know there are 
problems.
  As a matter of fact, the traffic has increased over 40 percent in 
that Northeast corridor since September 11 because a lot of people 
believe it is an alternative to air transportation. I hope we will move 
on this bill, move on it quickly, so we are looking after our citizens 
in a prospective way, not in a reactive way.
  For all of these reasons, I strongly urge my colleagues to support 
the Biden amendment when it is presented. I hope to come back and speak 
to this again and make sure people forcefully understand this is a need 
that has to be addressed now, not after the fact. I appreciate the 
attention of the Senate, and I hope we will all be attentive to the 
needs of what I think are important rail safety issues, as well as our 
aviation safety.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Johnson). The Senator from Idaho.

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