| Costs to business of a terrorist attack on US rail services calculated "The threat of terrorism is real on strategic rail corridors with passenger and freight rail service and we believe that Al Qaeda's apparent interest in rail attacks should be a call to action," said counterterrorism expert Elsa Lee, who contributed to a-new-one-of-a-kind Homeland Security report released yesterday. Entitled: ‘OnTrac trade impact study: national economic significance of rail capacity and Homeland security on the alameda corridor east,’ the study was commissioned and published in cooperation with the Orange North-American Trade Rail Access Corridor (OnTrac) Joint Powers Authority and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC). It was completed as part of the environmental review process for the Alameda Corridor East strategic rail system that goes through Placentia, California. "The disruption cost of shutting down the Alameda Corridor East represents a $414 million disruption value each day that it is shut down," said LAEDC director of Public Policy, Greg Freeman. "A 10-day disruption due to a terrorist attack would cost $4.1 billion, and 30-days duration would cost $12.4 billion." "Southern California has become the nation's primary gateway for two-way international trade," said Executive Director Christopher Becker, of OnTrac. "The Alameda Corridor East rail lines moved about $116 billion in goods based on the manufacturer's value in 2000. The street value was much higher for these products. The street values of rail cargo travelling on the Alameda Corridor East in 2000 were $166 billion." Read the 13 page executive summary
•Date:
12th September 2003 • Region: N.America •Type:
Article •Topic: Terrorism
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