EU to fund transit security research

The European Union (EU) has decided to fund a €15 million (US$18.5 million.) research project to design and demonstrate an anti-terrorist security system architecture to better detect terrorist threats on passenger railways.

According to an EU press release, the project will combine information from sensors, remote control or autonomous cameras, ground penetrating radar and line scanners.

The project is one of 13 selected under the “Preparatory Action for Security Research” plan to improve the security of EU citizens and strengthen the European industrial base.

Given a globally increasing emphasis on security, the EU proposed to substantially increase the yearly budget from €15 million to roughly €250 million, or about US$310 million, a year by 2007.