Transportation22 Jul 2005 07:12 pm
Harry Potter and Transit Security
Favorite Onion quote of the month: “Report: Unreleased Harry Potter Book More Secure Than U.S. Trains”. Before the recent London bombings the Senate was considering cutting mass transit security funding from $150 million to $50 million for the next fiscal year. Compare that to the total homeland security budget of $31 billion, of which about $5 billion are slated to go towards airline security. While transit systems are inherently open systems, there are a lot of measures that can be taken to enhance security. $50 million, or even $150 million, however, won’t even make a dent. Which reminds me that I should look up where the rest of the $31 billion are supposed to be spent.