Germany Focuses Security Increase on Country's Railroads

BERLIN (AP) - German officials moved Monday to boost security on the country's railroads, opening a new information center in the capital and announcing more police patrols at railway stations.

Hartmut Mehdorn, who heads Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail company, and Interior Minister Otto Schily said the center would receive pictures from video cameras across the German rail network and would improve cooperation between railway security staff and police.

While the establishment of the center was not a direct response to the 2004 train bombings in Madrid or the recent attacks on the London Underground, it was connected to those events "in the broadest sense," Schily said.

He said federal police would also strengthen their presence in German stations, but he did not give details.

Deutsche Bahn, which has more than 2,000 security staff, previously ran a similar center in Frankfurt. Schily said video cameras at German stations last year recorded 703 crimes, of which 411 were solved.

(c) 2005 Associated Press