Comment: Transport security back at the top of the agenda

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The bombings on the London public transport system in July, killing 56 people, reaffirmed what we already knew from the terrorist attacks in Madrid on 11 March last year and in New York on 11 September 2001: that transport is the number one target of international terrorists. They have decided that the best way to destabilise the fabric of society is to try to instil the idea that even getting to work in the morning is not a safe thing to do.

Public transport workers across the world have to cope with the possibility that their daily working environment might not be safe, with the added sense that thousands of passengers will to some extent be depending on them to offset or deal with any further terror attempts.

We have already been awakened to the terrifying fact that transport modes can themselves become lethal weapons, as the passenger aircraft on September 11 became. Their accessibility means that transport services can also be used to turn assembled groups into sitting targets as in Madrid. As they represent key national institutions – airlines are an obvious example – they have high symbolic value.

In the days after the 7 July attacks, security alerts in London interrupted services almost every hour. Passengers were jumpy and easily roused to suspicion. No doubt transport workers felt the same way. Their worst fears, that the attacks might not be a one-off atrocity but the first wave of a new and extensive terror campaign appeared to be realised when a second series of, thankfully failed, explosions, took place just two weeks later.

Against this backdrop, transport unions in London and in other cities have been trying to find a way of adding urgency to their longheld calls for better safety and security provision for their members. The London mayor, Ken Livingstone, was one of the first public figures to acknowledge the role played by transport workers in the immediate aftermath of the bombings. Tube staff were the first people to reach the scenes of carnage underground in order to help rescue survivors. Bus workers ferried injured commuters to hospital and both bus and tube drivers got straight back to work despite a perceived level of heightened risk to their safety.

We cannot abuse this level of commitment by transport workers in cities across the world, who are getting on with the job in hand while more conscious than ever of the need for robust safety systems and facilities in their workplaces.

In London the unions have secured promises for better communication systems – any train without radio contact for example, is to be taken out of service, while procedures for checking suspect packages are to be reviewed, and stronger drivers cabs and breathing apparatus for appropriate staff are under consideration. There may be a need for new approaches to safety training. And perhaps most important, unions will insist that any proposed reduction in staffing levels will need to be vigorously tested against safety concerns.

Transport service guards and many others in the front line of public transport service, will need to be clear where their role in helping to protect the public begins and ends.

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Issue 21 October 2005

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