Terrorism and the Threat to Multimodal Transport – An Overview

Abstract

Terrorist attacks in recent years have demonstrated that the transport sector is the most common target for terrorists due to severe impacts in terms of mass casualties and disruption of the free and safe movement mainly of people, and to a lesser extent, of goods. Such attacks have also further social, economical and political impacts. On-going unsuccessful attempts are testament to the fact that terrorism is a prominent danger to this sector. Transport networks vulnerable to terrorist attacks are being identified as “critical infrastructure” (based on a number of related criteria), and their protection represents a serious challenge nowadays. Limited research in this field has mainly dealt with assessment of vulnerabilities and risks and the development of effective contingency plans that seek to reduce the levels of a given crisis in time and space, mitigate the impact of attacks and restore operations with confidence. Security deficiencies do exist, as well as lack of consistency in terms of provisions and policies. However, since complete protection is unrealistic and economically unfeasible, prioritisation is required. The freight sector, albeit less attractive to the terrorist than the passenger transport sector, demands equal attention, given the fact that the economic values of society depend largely on the smooth operation of the supply chain itself. This paper sets out to provide an overview of the current work and related gaps in conducting threat, vulnerability, and criticality assessments against the potential terrorist attack to the multimodal passenger and freight transport systems, since in most cases a ‘passenger trip’ or a ‘movement of goods’ involves more than one mode. In addition, it looks at the transport supply chain and its resilience to disruptions from such attacks. Finally, measures to prevent, detect, and reduce threats are discussed.