Research Paper on Safety and Security of Railway Transport

Introduction

Public transport is of high value and essence in the development of any nation (Hamid, Tan & Faizul, 2015). One of the most utilized public transport systems is the use of railway transport. In the effort to reduce the levels of traffic jam across several big cities, both developing and developed countries ought to upgrade their railway transport systems (Rundmo, Ufarsson & Hennessy, 2011). The railway transport system can be seen as a mass transit measure aimed at ensuring that citizens reach their destinations safely and on time to ensure that the economy of the nation continues to be developing. Several technological advances have been put together to ensure that public transport becomes a safe and secure means of transporting both people and goods (Matsika, Ricci, Mortimer, Georgiev & O'Neill, 2013). This paper, therefore, will research on the safety and security of railway transport, by focusing on the statistics of accidents caused by the railway sector, the potential weaponization of the trains and locomotives, as well the risks of unauthorized people hopping into the passengers at the points of entry.

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The Relevance of the Topic

The topic is vital to the Department of Homeland Security and Defense as it gives clear statistics concerning the state of railway transportation, concerning the fatalities, injuries and deaths caused. It also points out the security risks posed by railway transport concerning the possibility of the evil groups (terrorists) using the train to inflict pain or conduct their terrorist acts (bombing). In this case, the paper will offer some of the recommendations, which will help in further improving the state of security in the transport sector, especially the railway system.

Safety and Security

All stakeholders in the transport system, especially the passengers pay more attention to safety and security levels in the transportation of both people and goods (Hamid, Tan & Faizul, 2015). Safety can be defined as the relative freedom from danger, threat, injury or the death and loss of property (Pietre & Chaudet, 2010). The ability to stay away from such danger that may lead to deliberate or accidental loss of people and property is referred to as safety in the transport sector. On the other hand, security can be viewed as the prevention and the protection of the stakeholders from fraud, damage, assault or any other ill action deliberately executed. As such, safety refers to the proofs given that the unintentional failures and breakdowns of the transport system are mitigated, whereas security relates to the tests that the effects of intentional system attacks are mitigated (Matsika et al., 2013).

The railway consumers (passengers and other stakeholders) expect the administrators to put in upgrades that will help in providing services that aim at increasing their customer values (Hamid, Tan & Faizul, 2015). In this regard, the passengers expect that as they ride the trains, the carriers should be fully aware of their critical needs, which include safety and comfort as well as security. Most importantly, it should be noted that transport sector view safety through the social lenses, whereby a mode of transport will only be chosen if the passenger's perception is that it is safe.as such, the passenger will eventually not take a journey until he/she is sure that the journey will; be safe. At the same time, it should be noted that train passengers expect the trains to be reliable regarding delivering what was promised and at the same time and manner that it was promised (Hamid, Tan & Faizul, 2015).

How Travelers Perceive Safety and Security of the Railway System

Railway system is a type of service. In this case, its consumers tend to comprehend cognitively the state of the services offered by trains before they decide on consuming it (Bachok, Osman, Murad & Ibrahim, 2014). Consumers have the perceived risk, which they use in decision-making concerning the mode of transport to use. For instance, passengers may perceive that it is unsafe to travel at night on the trains, especially for women as they may fear the risks of undergoing sexual harassments (Dunckel, 2013). For example, Ibrahim et al. (2013) researched on the issue of public transport, in which the results showed that seventy-three percent of the participants raised concerns concerning the security issues, whereas only three percent of the participants agreed with the statement that the public transport in the area was safe.

In the same study, robbery and snatched thieves were the leading concerns of the passengers, with peak-hours' overcrowding and overloading of trains that further led to increased fears among female commuters that feared public and sexual harassment from their male counterparts. Besides, the respondents pointed out that overloading and overcrowding led to discomfort among passengers, especially those who take long-distance travels using the trains. In the same way, it should be noted that lighting is an essential factor in the building of safety feelings among passengers. In the same way, the presence of the uniformed security personnel act as a boost in the way passengers feel safe and secured.

Railway Transport Data in the US

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2018), the rate of train accidents has decreased over the past two decades. The levels of deaths were high in the 1990s, with three main train accidents accounting for the rise in the death tolls in the year 1993, 2005 and 2008 (BTS, 2018). In 2007, the US train services recorded two main accidents, which led to the rise in the number of injuries caused by trains. In the same way, the year 1993 was a dark year in the US railway transport system which saw a barge striking a rail bridge in Alabama. The result was the death of forty-two passengers which resulted from the derailing of the Amtrak train into the waterway below. In 2005, a Southern California Regional Rail Authority train struck a jeep at a non-grade crossing location, derailed and struck a UPRR locomotive, which caused the train to hit another Southern California Regional Rail Authority train. The total passenger fatalities from both trains were 10.

In 2008, a Southern California Regional Rail Authority train ran a red signal and collided head-on with a Union Pacific RR Co. freight, which led to 24 passenger deaths. In 2017, eight passengers lost their lives due to the train fatalities (BTS, 2018) while 1,555 injuries were reported. This decline in the death tolls shows that the US transport system has taken various measures to ensure the safety and security of the railway system is maintained. This is because the fatalities per one hundred million passenger train-miles were 7.1, whereas the injuries per one hundred million passenger train-miles were 1,382.1 (BTS, 2018).

Rail Security and the Terrorist Threat

In the past five years, several cases of high-profile terrorist attacks were reported in some of the major cities such as Madrid, Mumbai, and London (Kaplan, 2007). These are cities with some of the most developed and high-capacity railway transport systems. In this case, such attacks demonstrated that the railway transport system is at the risk of being accessed by terrorists at the terminals. Following the attacks, fear levels increased in the US concerning the US public transport system's vulnerability to the risk of attack by such terrorists. Specifically, the threat was expressed as spreading beyond the passengers' transportation system to the more than one hundred and sixty thousand miles served by the railroad freight. The freights of the US rail transportation are one of the significant hazards to the domestic and human life since the dangerous chemicals transported by such rails have minimal security although the trains pass through densely populated areas (Kaplan, 2007).

The US Passenger Rail

The US is one of the busiest railway services as Americans make close to four billion trips annually on intercity trains, commuter rails, and subways (Kaplan, 2007). Notably, the BTS (2018) report that in a particular day, more people in New York City pass through Penn Station than all three major airports which offer their services to the region combined. The high population of passengers and their demands to have easily accessible railway stations makes it difficult and challenging for the providers of such services to offer maximum safety and security (Kaplan, 2007). In this case, it is important to note that it is difficult to achieve absolute security and safety, with transport experts cautioning against taking extreme security measures.

Consequently, rail companies have indulged themselves in different measures and precautions to help in preventing attacks and at the same time minimize the risks of such attacks, hence improving safety and security (Kaplan, 2007). Some of the security measures that the companies have taken include randomly searching passengers and their baggage, increasing the presence of security personnel at the stations and in the trains, installation of video surveillance, which further helps in monitoring the activities taking place in the stations and trains, among others. Besides, bomb-sniffing dogs have been placed in the stations, as well as the trash cans removed to minimize the likelihood of terrorists hiding bombs in such boxes. Passengers have also been encouraged to make reports for any suspicious activities whenever noticed.

Irrespective of the fact that the above measures help in increasing the ease of access to the stations by the passengers, they, in turn, seem to be minimal measures, especially when dealing with a determined terrorist (Kaplan, 2007). This has led to several rail companies to improve on their reaction speed to emergencies for maximum minimization of the effects of an attack. Some of the proactive measures that the US companies have taken towards reaction to the crisis include the hiring and training of emergency personnel (BTS, 2018). Such companies have also installed emergency equipment like the radio to help in mitigating the potential effects of such activities. Besides, introducing such measure may even scare the people with bad intentions from carrying out such plans in the trains.

Recommendations

The nature of railway transportation is very vulnerable to safety and security risks. Experts believe that there is little that can be done to curb the security and safety risks in the sector, at the same time maintaining the need of easy access to such services (Kaplan, 2007). However, the first recommendation is to increase the number of police officers and security personnel in the railway stations and the trains. However, it should be noted that the primary challenge towards achieving this recommendation is that several local governments lack the funds needed to sustain such forces in the transport sector.

We identified that the safety and security of passengers in the transport sector are more perceived. As such, it is recommended for the security personnel to be increased. Such an increase will have the psychological effects of making the passengers feel safe, at the same time pose a threat to the terrorists, in turn solving both the domestic and terrorist hazards. Implementing frequent and random police presence and checks will give a terrorist state of unpredictability, hence deterring them away from such activities. Besides, random searches not only solve the issue of terrorist attacks but also addresses the issue of social concerns, since everyone will have the same opportunity of being searched without considering the race, age or gender (Kaplan, 2007).Similarly, it is recommended for the local government to invest in the counterterrorism investigations and intelligence operations to be proactive but not reactive (Kap...