BRITAIN: While British Transport Police launch a fresh campaign urging Londoners to be vigilant to the risk of a terrorist attack, the UK's rail regulator has emphasised that Britain's transport links and railway stations are vulnerable. Frank Millar, London Editor, reports.
The appeal and warning came amid heightened fears of an al-Qaeda-linked attack on London in the aftermath of the Madrid train bombings. "We are profoundly threatened by terrorism at the moment and we can't ignore it," the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme.
The rail regulator, Mr Tom Winsor, said he believed the British Transport Police and other security services, together with Network Rail and the train operators, were taking every possible step to ensure constant vigilance through closed-circuit TV. However, he acknowledged that "nothing is going to be 100 per cent safe" and said it would be "completely impractical and unaffordable" to bring railway safety to the same level as airport safety.
His comments came as a police spokesman denied a newspaper report yesterday that anti-terror marshals are to be deployed on Britain's railways amid fears that the rail network or London Underground could be a prime target for bombers.
"Surface land transport is vulnerable because you don't need to put the explosive device in a railway station or on a train," Mr Winsor told GMTV's Sunday Programme: "It could be on the track at any part of the national rail network." However, he expressed confidence that "the maximum steps are taken to protect the railway against these kind of attacks". He added: "And I believe that if more could be done it would be done."
That attempt to reassure the public came as the transport police launched a new poster campaign reminding more than 3 million daily Underground passengers of potential terrorist situations and urging them to report any concerns or suspicions to the police. If the answer to "who owns this bag" is no one, then passengers are urged to contact station staff or the police.
That message was echoed by the British Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, when he urged people to overcome what he called "British reserve" and voice suspicions in an effort to thwart terrorists.
Mr Hoon said the Madrid bombings underlined the need for alert. He told the BBC's Politics Show: "I know there is a view, perhaps, that we should not necessarily disturb the police. But what we are really saying is, if something is strange and surprising, people really ought to warn the authorities of their concerns and not worry about being wrong. If there are packages, any briefcases and suitcases that don't appear to belong to any particular individual, they should ask each other. They should ask fellow passengers, they should bring it to the attention of guards and those in authority. It is that kind of action that can make an enormous difference if the public will co-operate, as I'm sure they will."
Declining to comment on specific new measures under consideration by transport police, Mr Hoon stressed the need for continuing appropriate action "to protect us as best we can" and said this could include further temporary posting of troops such as at Heathrow Airport.
However, Mr Hoon also acknowledged "there are limits to what British forces can do to be effective", adding: "Perhaps a more important change we have made is to make available to each region of the country some 14 rapid reaction groups of reservists who will assist the civil authority in the event of there being a crisis."
Denying yesterday's Observer report, a spokesman for the transport police in London said the idea of putting anti-terror marshals on trains was not under active consideration. Questioning the point of such a deployment, he said there had been no intelligence suggesting any plot to hijack a train.
The Spanish national anthem was played at Buckingham palace yesterday. Troops marched to the Marcha Real in a revised Changing of the Guard ceremony, in a gesture of solidarity with the Spanish people approved by Queen Elizabeth.