"No way to stop it"

In the New York subways, commuters think of London, 9/11 and the likelihood of more attacks.

By Rebecca Traister

Jul 7, 2005 | In the hours following the terrorist attacks on the London public transportation network, the mood on the New York City subways wasn't exactly panicked. But it wasn't exactly optimistic, either. Instead, MTA workers, riders and police officers wandering around New York's extensive underground tunnels late Thursday morning expressed the same grim acceptance of life in an unsafe time and an unsafe city that they have since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I guess I noticed a few more cops this morning, but I didn't know why," said a token-booth operator at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall stop who'd been on duty from the early morning and didn't want to give her name. There were no cops visible on the platform at the time. The MTA worker hadn't heard about the London bombings until partway through her shift. She wasn't too concerned. "The thing is, since Sept. 11, we always have a bunch of cops here, so it's nothing new," she said.

Further down the platform at the Brooklyn Bridge stop, which is located very close to the New York Police Department's headquarters, white-bearded Andrew Squire was waiting for a train, a briefcase and the New York Times on his lap, his glasses held together with a red rubber band. When asked if he had connected the news of the London bombings with his own commute, he said, "Yes! After I heard the news, I asked my wife, 'Are you going to take the subway this morning?' And she said, 'Of course. I have to go to work.'" Squire stood as his train approached, yelling over his shoulder as he stepped into a car: "In other words, the thought I had was that this is a fact of life."

Down at the Bowling Green station, where local news stations had reported that previously scheduled terror drills had taken place this morning, there was no sign of extra police presence. Some subway riders were acutely aware of their vulnerability. "I don't feel safe," said Keisha Bradberry, a 26-year-old student at Medgar Evers College. "But I have no choice but to ride the trains." Bradberry said she'd been on the trains all morning, and that while she tries to avoid the subway at rush hours, it's hard during the school year, since she has classes and work and two children to drop off at school. "It's hard not to travel on public transportation when you have kids and you don't have a vehicle," she said. When asked if she thought an attack on the New York subways was likely, she laughed darkly. "Well, yeah. I mean, that's just common sense," said Bradberry. "To my mind, all we have a choice to do about it is pray."

Few of the police officers I approached agreed to talk to a reporter. But one, a six-year veteran of the force in his 40s, spoke on the condition that I not reveal his name or the subway station that he was patrolling. According to this officer, there had been no official change in police procedure on Thursday morning in the wake of the London attacks, though he noted that most cops who were normally undercover were in uniform today, in an effort to boost the appearance of a police presence in the subways.

"The London thing just happened, so you'll probably see an increased presence," said the police officer. He added that since Sept. 11, there are always uniformed cops stationed at the entrances to tunnels between boroughs -- the places where trains packed with people snake under the rivers that made Manhattan one of the most thriving port cities on the planet, and in turn one of the financial and cultural capitals of the world, and in turn a key terrorist target. Asked what he thinks the likelihood of a subway bombing in New York is, the officer shook his head. "I think there's no way to stop it," he said. "How can you stop someone getting on a train with a bomb? That's just common sense. There's no way to stop it." He shook his head. Asked if he gets scared himself, he laughed. "I don't get scared," he said, "but I prefer to drive."

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