WASHINGTON – During the Oct. 8 morning and evening commutes, Amtrak Police, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel and law enforcement officers from federal, state, local and rail police agencies around the country are being deployed at passenger rail stations in an exercise of expanded counterterrorism and incident response capabilities.
The multi-force security surge across is not in response to any threat or incident. Rather, today’s deployment is part of Operation RAILSAFE (Regional Alliance Including Local, State and Federal Efforts), a coordinated exercise involving activities such as heightened station patrols, increased security presence onboard trains, explosives detection canine sweeps, and random passenger bag inspections at unannounced locations.
“Joint security exercises like Operation RAILSAFE are designed to make it harder and harder for terrorists to use their preferred strategies to attack our stations, trains, and passengers,” said Amtrak Police Chief John O’Connor. “Operation RAILSAFE will further enhance the readiness and communication capabilities of hundreds of police and security officials stationed in some of the busiest rail passenger areas in the U.S.”
The Operation RAILSAFE exercise is the first to simultaneously encompass multiple regions of Amtrak’s national system.
