Executive Summary

The EastWest Institute Consortium on Security and Technology organized a roundtable discussion on April 25th, 2006, on the topic of public transport security in Europe. Over 30 public sector officials, public transport operators, and technology providers participated in the discussion. EastWest Institute President and CEO John Edwin Mroz opened the meeting and welcomed guests to this inaugural event at the EWI’s new Brussels Centre. The discussion resulted in the following key conclusions:

• To improve public transport security, in particular the rail and urban transport sector, a risk analysis needs to be undertaken. Public transport companies differ in character, and have different security needs. The likelihood of an attack and its impact determines the specific need for human or technological resources.
• Technology has a high potential to make public transport systems more secure, and should be developed on the basis of a safety and security analysis. The dialogue between governments and operators needs to be enhanced to determine and where possible standardize specific needs of the public transport sector. Solutions such as trace detection technologies are available for application in public transport systems.
• Burden-sharing between governments and operators of the costs for increased security in public transport needs to be more systematized in Europe. Governments need to coordinate this process via regional and local authorities and cooperate closely with the operators.
• The human factor is of great importance in public transport security. Staff need to be trained to prevent and mitigate attacks and to use the technology. Having uniformed staff at stations has a deterrent effect, and it reassures passengers. Passengers need to be involved in the debate on security, to ascertain the balance between surveillance and privacy – which can differ from country to country.