Brussels subway terrorist attacks highlight US airport security focus

Washington

THE Brussels terrorist attacks show how subway passengers can be even more vulnerable than airline travellers. But that's not where public attention - or federal security spending - has gone in the US.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), created after the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks largely to screen airline passengers, patrols rail systems but assigns 93 per cent of its roughly 50,000 employees to aviation security. The chief federal grant programme to help local subway and transit agencies protect against terrorism has been cut by more than three-quarters since the late 2000s.