So far, most of the discussion concerning safety and Sounder has been directed at the risks of trying to run freight trains at 60mph and passenger trains at 80 mph through downtown Puyallup, Auburn, and Kent. There is another aspect to risk associated with mass transit.

I'm sure many of you have read about the individual who was recently picked up in Port Angeles with a hundred pounds of assorted bomb making goods, four timers, detonators, and two jugs of nitoglycerin. Not a real bright fellow in my estimation, unless he was so dedicated he didn't care about the dangers of handling unstabilized nitroglycerin.

Unfortunately, as the bombings in New York have demonstrated, international terrorism has come to the US. One of the principle ways we protected ourselves, back when I was in the military, was by dispersion. Concentrating people in fast moving vehicles creates a high value target for such potential terrorists, by increasing the damage that can be done by one act.

Of particular concern for the Sounder, is the underground tunnel in Seattle that was built years ago, with no provision for emergency access and little provision for even good ventilation. A simple derailment in the tunnel could be a disaster. A terrorist act could greatly exceed the deaths that happened in London recently with their train collision.

Don't think it can't happen. The subway system in Japan was the successful target of a nerve gas attack by a cult, and this in a country with much lower crime, much tighter control of weapons, and much less of a history of groups with radical causes.

Before we spend a lot more on Sounder, it'd be real nice if the Seattle Fire Department would look at the tunnel and tell us what needs to be done to make it safe for frequent passenger trains, and to decide just how they would respond to a terrorist attack on the Sounder. Since we will be doing environmental impacts up the ying-yang to ensure it doesn't foul up any salmon spawning grounds, it would seem appropriate to have plans for avoiding the deaths of a couple hundred passengers too.

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), December 19, 1999

Answers

Let's think a little farther on the person picked up in Port Angeles. Could he be a decoy? Just a thought.

-- Jim Labyak (jimlab@msn.com), December 20, 1999.

Actually, they believe he was a materials courier, and that another individual just walked off the ferry. The individual captured apparently had ticket stubs for two people.

-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), December 20, 1999.

100 pounds of unidentified white powder. I have my doubts about the veracity of law enforcement and the media when they use speculation and misdirection to generate public panic. Yep the timers and the nitro is bad stuff but what about the powder?? Talc? Soy flour???

They use these little unidentified and misdirected hints to generate fear.

Like a few months ago there was ane explosion and fire in an old travel trailer and the report was "It could have been a meth lab!!!"

OOOOO scary hold up your crucifix!! Because the MOST likely scenario is what is normal for old travel trailers. Defective propane heaters. But propane heaters aren't newsworthy and they don't make people beg for more 'War on Drugs'

Now back to the safety of Sounder... We don't need terrorists to cause problems. The government engineers who plan these things are dangerous enough. If government engineers are as well qualified as Social Security doctors then we know we have a bunch of people who aren't good enough to be in private practice

-- maddjak (maddjak@hotmail.com), December 20, 1999.