Britain to begin airport-style security checks at train stations: report

LONDON, Oct 30 (AFP) - Britain plans to introduce airport-style security checks using body scanners and X-ray machines at mainline railway stations in the wake of the London bombings, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Passengers will have to pass through security scanners, while their baggage is put through by X-ray machines before boarding trains, The Sunday Telegraph said, citing a source familiar with the plan.

They may also be frisked by security staff, it added.

The four suicide bombers who blew themselves up on subway trains and a bus on July 7 killing 52 innocent people arrived at London's Kings Cross mainline station from Luton, north of the capital.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling drew up the new security measures following the attack. They will also include increased security on the transport network, newspaper said.

Trials will be carried out at certain stations, starting with Paddington, west London, to see how the measures work at rush hour, it reported.

"The reason Paddington has been chosen is that there are diesel fumes and high-voltage power lines there," the person familiar with the plans told The Sunday Telegraph.

"Nobody knows whether the scanning equipment is going to work in that environment. We think it will, but it has never been tried. If it does work it will be rolled out across major rail and Tube stations."

Rail experts, however, doubt a method of screening passengers fast enough to prevent huge crowds building up will have any real security benefits.

A spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies told the newspaper: "We have an open access rail network and it is simply not practical to put in airport-style security at every station -- and there is also the question of who will foot the bill.

"Security is a high priority but it has got to be practicable."

Darling is due to outline the measures when giving evidence to a transport committee in parliament on Wednesday.

Surely this isn't practical. It would take hours to scan everyone travelling at rush hour - stations can be cramped enough as it is.

I suppose ticket gates will need to be widened much more if it were to happen- sometimes there are queues at ticket gates at Leeds anyway, and surely this is only practical at large stations, which then raises the issue that people could just get on the trains at smaller stations. In principle its a good idea but in practice maybe not... Possibly for long distance services they could start a thing of arriving at least 1 hour, for example, before the train departs to get luggage scanned and onto the train...

Possibly for long distance services they could start a thing of arriving at least 1 hour, for example, before the train departs to get luggage scanned and onto the train...

I know that on the Toronto - New York train they say arrive 30mins before departure (Though not for security reasons) and there aren't many problems.
In the UK though, as you say, there will be too many holes to make it work. The cost would also be massive and who would pay?

Surely it only makes sense if every railway station in the entire is protected by security. It doesn't take a terrorist mastermind to figure out that you could board at a local station. It works for air travel because they've created a closed system. The railways never could be.

What a stupid idea. It will cost tons which could be re-invested into the railways and will cause cues and more delays at the stations. Plus people waiting to go through these searches could be bombed as there will likely be a group of people. Also, all this effort could go to stop bombs on railways but the terrorists have many other potential targets such as buses which render this idea invalid.

It makes sense, I guess. But I don't really see that much of a thread, knock on wood. How much security is in the Eurostar services to Paris?

How much security is in the Eurostar services to Paris?

Similar to airports.

I trust they will single out young asians for a particularly detailed search. More petrol on the fire! Keep pouring, keep pouring guys. Well it's that or actually try and figure out why there is so much hatred.

hear hear Bob.

What a ridiculous idea anyway. Although they do it in China I suppose but still.

Surely it only makes sense if every railway station in the entire is protected by security. It doesn't take a terrorist mastermind to figure out that you could board at a local station. It works for air travel because they've created a closed system. The railways never could be.

And even if every station had this kind of security a terrorist could still put something on a line and do the same amount of damage. The whole thing seems like a bit of PR and hopefully it will soon be forgotton.

Can't see them doing it for every train, just the main Intercity ones. They do a similar thing in Spain on the high speed intercities and it doesn't cause any problem at all, an example being the EuroMed between Barcelona and Alicante stoping at Tarragona, Castellon, and Valencia. There is no way they could do it on the regional or commuter trains.

Then what is the point if you can't do it everywhere?

Surely this isn't practical. It would take hours to scan everyone travelling at rush hour - stations can be cramped enough as it is.

This is just the beginning - next they'll want to see Passports, and then the argument will be "we might as well have ID cards now." This is coming, and we're walking into it with a "if you've got nothing to hide, what's the problem?" attitude. I imagine these people will be the first to be up in arms when they're turned away from their train/toll road/city boundary/etc because they haven't got their ID.