Fortress London not

LONDON — Feb. 16 — There's a more visible police presence in London, and more undercover officers at work, but the scene at the Russell Square Underground station in the popular Bloomsbury tourist area feels more like Tourist Central than Fortress London.

This heavily used Tube stop near the British Museum was one of the four locations where trains were targeted in last July's terrorist attacks. Likewise for peaceful Tavistock Square a few blocks away where a bomb exploded on a bus.

Although it's February, it feels like springtime in London, with sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s. Business goes on at the newsstand and souvenir stall outside the station. The museum is crowded, and visitors such as Janette Bever of Illinois visiting with her mother Lee Poppen of Minneapolis, say they're more concerned about the high prices than safety.

Lugging suitcases out of the Russell Square station Thursday, they had just arrived on an overnight flight and were hunting for the Holiday Inn where they plan to stay for the next five nights while touring London and visiting Bever's son who's studying here.

"My niece was killed outside a Wal-Mart, so I know that things are going to happen to people, and there's nothing you can do to prevent it," said Bever.

Having snagged a $1,400 air-hotel package for two on Travelocity, their "survival strategy" centers around keeping their costs down rather than taking any extra safety precautions, she said.

"We're going to walk everywhere, and visit all the free museums."

Security changes

One of the most visible signs of extra security throughout London is the presence of "Community Support Officers," wearing yellow day-glow vests with silver stripes. Their job is to patrol the streets and stations, but I've approached several with questions on everything from directions to where to find an ATM machine, and all have been helpful and friendly.

Other changes:

• Video surveillance cameras (CCTV) are installed on all buses and across the Tube network. They were the same cameras used to photograph and identify the four July 7 bombers.

• Signs in some Underground station entrances warn of the possibility of random searches.

• Signs outside the British Museum warn of bag searches and advise that suitcases and large bags are no longer allowed.

Some of the security moves have been controversial.

A four-week, counter-terrorism police campaign launched last month included an advertising blitz that encouraged people to report suspicious bags, vehicles or other people's behavior to police either by dialing 999 or calling a confidential anti-terrorist hotline.

Critics said the campaign blurred the lines between acts of terrorism and everyday life by focusing on everyday personal activities and encouraging Londoners to report one another. Police say it's all part of an effort to get locals and visitors to stay alert. Whatever the case, a series of posters mounted around town depict a different view of the gussied-up London than visitors are used to seeing in travel brochures.

"Terrorists could use the river," warned one poster that shows boats plying a darkened section of the Thames. "If you live or work on the river, has anything you've seen made you suspicious? it asked.

Also controversial was a recently completed test of see-through-clothes body scanners for passengers boarding the Heathrow Express, a train that travels between the airport and the Paddington rail station.

The scanners can detect items concealed beneath clothes by showing the screener a robot-like body x-ray image of the passenger.

"It doesn't actually take a picture that's clear enough to show any of your individual features, just what you might be carrying under your clothes," said Miriam Lea, a spokeswoman for the central government's Ministry for Transport that conducted the tests.

Nevertheless, public concern was high enough that the government decided that only male screeners would screen males and females would screen females.

"We've left open the possibility of trying them at other rail stations and Underground stations," Lea said, although there are no immediate plans for Tube trials.

"Obviously we need to bear in mind that we carry three million passengers a day on the Tube and twice that on the buses," says London Transport spokesman Stephen Webb. "We need to balance security with demands for fast boarding."