(Washington, DC) Mass transit and passenger rail facilities in the District are at “code orange (high),” as a result of explosions that hit the London subway and a double-decker bus during morning rush hour today.
The decision to raise the security alert level to orange comes from the Department of Homeland Security and the District.
Code orange means that increased surveillance is taking place, more police are in the trains and monitoring the rail facilities, signal and communication systems are double-checked and there is more supervision of visitors.
“While there is no specific threat as of now, we continue to urge travelers and others to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious to the nearest public safety person or department,” said Dan Tangherlini, Director of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).
Code orange does not apply to highways. The District is ready to go to a high security level with highways, bridges and tunnels if that becomes necessary. Even though highways remain at code yellow (elevated), DDOT has increased security and surveillance on highways, bridges and tunnels including electronic and manual surveillance.
The District, along with Metro, the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Transit Authority are in full coordination with other local, state and federal agencies as well as the military on sound emergency plans and exercises to provide for safe travel as possible on the region’s transportation system.