Stringent measures, screening mark U.S. travel
(CNN) -- A test program to screen rail passengers for explosives got under way outside Washington D.C. Tuesday and federal officials have recently begun requiring more stringent security measures for "flights of interest," but neither is a result of new terror threat information.
Transportation Security Administration personnel started screening commuters passing through the train station in New Carrollton, Maryland, which serves about 1,000 Amtrak and commuter rail riders per day. During the monthlong pilot program, officials plan to screen passengers only during the busiest hours.
Before boarding, passengers walk through a portal where they stand for a few seconds and feel a couple of puffs of air. The machinery analyzes whether the person has come into contact with explosive material.
The March 11 terrorist attacks on trains in Madrid, Spain, involved explosives in carry-on bags.
Unlike the checks that airplane passengers undergo, rail travelers will not be screened for metal items such as scissors, box cutters and tweezers.
Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security undersecretary of border and transportation, said that once the test program is concluded, the plan is to screen rail passengers only if there is a specific threat and not routinely.
"The purpose of this pilot project is to test the screening systems in passenger rail environment so that in the event there is a specific threat or a specific need we have the knowledge, the capability to put inspection in place in a particular threat environment," he said.
'Flights of interest'
Hutchinson also said Tuesday that additional preflight security measures are in place for certain routes in the United States but said the steps are not based on new intelligence.
"This is not any new threat information that we have. This is simply an ongoing security measure that we've put in place. This is the kind of thing the public will see from time to time whenever we are concerned about a particular route," Hutchinson told CNN.
Two federal law enforcement officials also told CNN there is no new intelligence regarding threats to flights in the United States. They said the concerns arose from the processing of threat information received late last year.
Both aviation and law enforcement officials said special scrutiny for flights evolves as the intelligence is collected and analyzed.
Hutchinson said there are other flights -- which he did not name -- that also "have particular security measures in place."
One senior law enforcement official said that for one of the flights concerned -- United Airlines Flight 200 from Los Angeles, California, to Washington Dulles Airport -- authorities did indeed receive detailed information.
The concern about UA Flight 200 came to light after the publication of a memo, which appeared first in the Washington Times and has been obtained by CNN, from a chief pilot at United Airlines to his colleagues.
"Recently, the TSA [Transportation Security Administration] has designated certain flights as 'flights of interest.' Flight crews [pilots and flight attendants] are receiving a thorough second security screening by the TSA which includes flight bags and all personal belongings," said the memo, written in late April. "In addition, the pilot conducting the preflight may be shadowed; if not, the pilot is patted down."
