Security Checks Friday for MARC Commuter Train Stations

If you commute using Maryland’s MARC commuter trains, you’ll notice increased security on Friday. The Maryland Transit Administration Police will launch a program of random security checks at MARC commuter train stations, using bomb-sniffing dogs to screen passengers’ luggage and packages to detect explosives.

The MTA warned riders that delays could occur and urged passengers to allow extra time to board trains on the Penn, Camden and Brunswick lines.

Lt. Col. John E. Gavrilis, chief of the MTA police, said the tighter security is not a response to a specific threat but part of a general effort to “target-harden” Maryland transit facilities. He said the effort will begin at MARC stations but would eventually extend to the Baltimore Metro and light rail stations.

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TSA Hopes To Keep Terrorists Off-Guard With Security Checks

Hoping to keep terrorists and others off-guard the TSA conducted a random security check of nearly 700 Bus passengers in Orlando Florida yesterday, using the agency’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response, or VIPR.

Bryce Williams wasn’t expecting to walk through a metal detector or have his bags screened for explosives at the Greyhound bus terminal near downtown Orlando.

But Williams and 689 other passengers went through tougher-than-normal security procedures Thursday as part of a random check coordinated by the U.S.Transportation Security Administration.

The idea is to keep off guard terrorists and others who mean harm, thereby improving safety for passengers and workers. There was no specific threat to the bus station on John Young Parkway south of Colonial Drive.

Although the TSA is best known for its agents at airports, the agency’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response, or VIPR, teams stage periodic operations at bus and train stations, ports and other transportation centers. They began work in December 2006.

Thursday’s daylong event was the first at a Greyhound station in Florida, said John Daly, TSA security director for the Orlando region.

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