New York rail tunnels seen as vulnerable: Report

Washington, Dec 22: An analysis done for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says commuter train tunnels under the Hudson River are more vulnerable to a bomb attack than previously thought, The New York Times report said.

The analysis revises critical aspects of an assessment given the agency last spring, making clear that the PATH tunnels stretching across the Hudson riverbed are structurally more fragile than first thought, the paper said yesterday in an article on its Web site.

The New York Times said it had received a draft summary of the most recent analysis from a government official concerned about what the official felt was a lack of action.

The latest analysis indicates it would take only six minutes for one of the PATH system's four tunnels to flood if a significant bomb were detonated, the official was quoted as saying.

The official told the newspaper that the Port Authority had received the new findings three weeks ago and had yet to share the information with the governors of New York and New Jersey, the US Department of Homeland Security, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg or law enforcement agencies.

A Port Authority spokesman declined to answer specific questions about the analysis or with whom it had been share, the Times said.

''If we believed in any way that passengers were in danger, we'd close the system,'' spokesman Marc La Vorgna said. ''That would happen immediately.'' The spokesman said the Port Authority had taken steps in recent weeks to increase PATH security but he refused to to say what had prompted the actions, the Times reported.

REUTERS