Via Rail mulls ID checks in wake of abortive terror plot

Passenger trains and buses have been blessedly free of the kind of security screening that turns modern airline travel into a time-consuming ordeal.

You buy your ticket and get on the train (or bus). That's it.

But in the wake of last month's abortive rail-terror plot, Via Rail now says it's thinking about asking all passengers for identification, something it now does only occasionally as they board.

“We only check ID when necessary,” Marc Beaulieu, Via's regional general manager for eastern Canada told the Commons public safety committee Thursday, The Canadian Press reported. “In other words, [we check] if we have a doubt as to the transaction that is going on. We do not, as a rule, ask all of our customers for ID.”

The idea follows the arrest last month of two men who RCMP allege were plotting to mount an unspecified terrorist attack on a Toronto-New York passenger train with guidance from al-Qaida in Iran. Raed Jaser of Toronto and Chilheb Essghaier of Montreal face charges and the Globe and Mail reported Thursday that a third man, Ahmed Abassi, a Tunisian living in the United States was arrested and charged in connection with the plot.

[ Related: Third arrested in VIA Rail terror plot: FBI ]

The alleged conspiracy has spooked security experts into reviewing how Canada's sprawling transportation infrastructure can be safeguarded.

The conventional wisdom is that introducing airport-style screening at railway and bus stations would be unworkable and slow rail and bus line schedules to a crawl.

But Beaulieu told the committee an ID check is "being assessed" as part of Via's review.

Via has responded to eight to 10 security- or safety-related incidents so far this year, CP said Beaulieu told the committee. It appears none were terror related. Via spokesperson Jacques Gagnon said they ranged from protests blockading tracks to collisions with vehicles, CP said.

Gagnon wouldn't offer any further details on the idea of asking passengers for identification.

“We are constantly upgrading our services,” Gagnon told CP. “So in the context of what has happened recently, we are looking at this. But I cannot speculate as to what [we] will do.”

Beaulieu said passengers' tickets are scanned as they board the train, giving Via a list of names. Presumably passengers could be asked to produce photo ID at that point, as airline travellers do now.

Committee members had their own ideas for tightening security, including running passengers' names against police lists for potential threats, even if they're not terror-related, and giving Via access to lists of lost and stolen passports.

[ Related: Will Canada’s railway systems ever be completely secure? ]

Beaulieu gave the committee some insight into what Via does now, including observing passengers for behaviours that might signal a potential threat — such as buying a one-way ticket — and flagging tickets paid for with cash.

Aboard its trains, Via also has the equivalent of sky marshals who are trained to deal with security incidents, CP reported. Beaulieu wouldn't say how many trains have such oversight.

“To reveal more information about some of our measures would defeat the measures that are in place, so I’m going to choose not to answer that," he told the committee.