Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer proposed "no-ride" lists for U.S. domestic trains, similar to the no-fly lists used in aviation, following intelligence discovered at Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan.

During the raid earlier this month at Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, members of the Navy SEALS discovered information amid the DVDs, flash drives and hard drives that indicated Al Qaeda was considering sabotaging a U.S. passenger train on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 as it travelled over a valley or a bridge.

Even though a 2004 bipartisan Sept. 11 commission recommended the government check passengers' names against terror watch lists before they board passenger trains or cruise ships, that procedure has yet to be implemented, according to a Los Angeles Times report. Sen. Schumer said he wants Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to increase the Secure Flight Program to include rail travel.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Huffington Post, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood failed to endorse Sen. Schumer's proposal, noting that Amtrak already screens its passenger list before boarding.

"Amtrak checks that to make sure that these people are legit people," LaHood said. "They look at the list and then they check to see if somebody's name looks peculiar. They have that manifest there and they can check it out if they want to. They know who is boarding trains."

Despite these measures being in place, the Huffington Post article did also mention that LaHood has met with Sen. Schumer and is ready to work with other members of Congress to improve passenger train safety.

Meanwhile around the nation, larger metropolitan cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, have stepped up their security measures fearing retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden; however, these systems do not have the luxury of a "no-ride" list. Therefore, I am wondering, whether it's a terrorist attack or not, are our nation's public transit systems, including Amtrak, really ready for a major catastrophe?

In case you missed it...

Read our METRO blog, "Raising the bar with bus simulation training" here.