Security and the US rail infrastructure

Railroads play a significant role in the United States economy, transporting a wide variety of goods across a geographical disperse network. Hardening this network against all forms of attack is not possible. This paper will address the role of freight and passenger rail in the United States, provide an unclassified set of relatively easy attacks that can be used to disrupt rail traffic, outline actions by industry and government to reduce the probability of an attack occurring or mitigate the consequences of a successful attack, and identify shortcomings in the current rail security program.