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On December 16, 1836, the First Congress of the Republic of Texas chartered the Texas Rail-Road, Navigation, and Banking Company. Just 10 years after the first public railroad was chartered in the United States and a mere nine months after the Texas Declaration of Independence was penned, our founders knew that a comprehensive rail system was critical to the future growth and stability of our state. Railroads ultimately made the development of Texas possible and for years, economic growth paralleled railroad expansion. Ensuing decades brought new modes of transportation to the American people, but trains remain important to our nation. They also present a security challenge as America faces the new enemy of terrorism in the 21st century. Congress addressed the most glaring transportation security issues identified by the September 11 attacks. But most of the improvements have logically focused on aviation. Rail security remains vulnerable. Passengers are rarely required to show identification to buy tickets or board trains. Their baggage is hardly ever scrutinized. Worse than that, thousands of tons of cargo are transported by rail every day and the containers in which it is moved from ship to train or airplane are not secured. Our economy relies heavily on rail and our country cannot afford a devastating loss of mobility, or worse – American lives – like the recent attack in Madrid, Spain. A statewide or national rail shutdown would be catastrophic. Communities depend on railroads to carry a huge quantity of cargo, nearly 42 percent of all intercity freight, including 65 percent of coal shipments, 30 percent of grain and important public safety supplies. For example, service disruptions following the 2001 terrorist attacks caused emergencies for several cities awaiting rail deliveries of chlorine for water purification. The U.S. must develop an aggressive, proactive approach to security requirements that ensure safety without crippling the industry. Standards to address passengers and their baggage are a good start. In addition, parameters must be developed between the Department of Homeland Security and affected cargo carriers. It may not be realistic to expect we can physically screen every container on the move in our nation’s vast economy. But instead of leaving immense amounts of cargo completely unchecked, we should lay out a systematic plan to coordinate and expand on existing technologies. Safeguarding rail infrastructure is an important goal. In the last month an explosive device was found buried in the bed of a French passenger line, and a partially assembled bomb was discovered under a high-speed rail line south of Madrid. In our country, Amtrak serves more than 500 train stations and owns just 135 of them. The remainder and overwhelming majority are owned by cities and states. All of the system’s trains travel in close proximity to homes and schools across the country, and a train traveling through a major metropolitan area, such as Dallas, is just as vulnerable as one traveling in the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C. I recently introduced a comprehensive cargo container security bill to better safeguard shipments in the four major modes of our interconnected transportation network: aviation, highways, maritime and rail. Intermodal tracking systems that connect the dots from packaging to delivery are critical to securing our overall transportation infrastructure. Commercial shippers should be held responsible for the contents of packages they choose to transmit, value established relationships and use available technology to determine whether items are safe. Sealed, so-called, “smart” boxes can play a key role in limiting the costs of widespread screening. My legislation would coordinate information collected by “smart” containers, so those which have been deemed safe need not be re-inspected without a specific reason, saving millions of dollars. I want to ensure that trains traveling Texas railways are loaded with goods and products to keep America’s economy moving – not weapons that would bring it to a grinding halt. I will continue to work toward increasing transportation security across the network. It is my hope Congress will develop bolder, more effective standards to address 21st century rail, air cargo, and maritime container security needs.
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