Security scanners for rail stations

UK Daily Mail
Apr. 02, 2006

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Security scanners are to be used at railway stations across the country in a bid to improve safety.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said trials in London of metal detectors to detect weapons such as knives had been "extremely successful".

He told the BBC's Sunday AM programme that the technology would now be employed at stations in other cities including Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff.

"It will be across the country," he said. "It won't be there all the time. Obviously local police have to use their judgment as to when they deploy officers on the scanning equipment.

"We want to make travelling by train as safe as we can."

The trial at Tube and train stations in London, known as Operation Shield, has been running for two months.

British Transport Police officers with stop-and-search powers and sniffer dogs use mobile airport-style scanners to check passengers.

Since it began, almost 10,000 people have been scanned, 100 have been arrested and 68 knives seized.