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CNN Live At Daybreak

Greyhound Busses Back on the Roads after Attack

Aired October 04, 2001 - 07:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
O'BRIEN: Greyhound buses are rolling again some 24 hours after an attack that sent shockwaves through an already nervous nation. The FBI says the attack on a bus in Tennessee was, in fact, an isolated incident, not an act of terrorism. Of course, that wasn't immediately clear right after it happened.

With us this morning is the CEO of Greyhound, Craig Lentzsch. Mr. Lentzsch, thanks for being with us.

CRAIG LENTZSCH, PRESIDENT, GREYHOUND LINES: You're welcome, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, if you could just take us through how you heard about this and how you came to the decision, fairly dramatic decision, to cease and desist all operations yesterday morning.

LENTZSCH: Well, I was awakened about seven o'clock yesterday morning. I was here in Washington, D.C. preparing for a meeting with DOT officials. I received the information about the incident including the description, a description of the attack on the driver, the nature of the attack on the driver. After thinking about that for a few minutes, I made the decision to temporarily suspend operations so that we could have time to get better information and hopefully keep everybody safe while we were trying to become more informed regarding the incident.

O'BRIEN: With 24 hours of hindsight do you still feel that was a good decision?

LENTZSCH: Yes. I think if you look at the decision in light of the information we had at the time, it was a good decision. If you want to look at the decision in light of the information that subsequently came out, you could suggest that it was an over reaction. But, in fact, that information wasn't available at the time.

So I think in these days post-September 11 acting with an abundance of caution, acting with the safety and security of your passengers and employees first is the right way to act.

O'BRIEN: What can you tell passengers who might be considering boarding a Greyhound bus this morning about their safety? Is there enough security in place right now to give them a relative degree of comfort? LENTZSCH: Well, bus transportation is the safest form of transportation. It was before yesterday and it will be today. So it is still a very safe form of transportation. We have implemented and did yesterday implement searches of carry on luggage prior to reboarding the passengers. Today, we're wanding passengers and carry on luggage in three locations and also continuing to implement a search of carry on luggage on a random basis in a number of other facilities.

O'BRIEN: Just to clarify...

LENTZSCH: But the bottom line is is that it's still a very safe mode of transportation.

O'BRIEN: But just to clarify for our viewers, wanding means essentially using a metal detector. And I guess the question is should there be metal detectors in place at all your bus terminals much as you would have as an airport?

LENTZSCH: Well, remember, we're a ground transportation mode. As a ground transportation mode, I think the right analogies are not to the airlines, but to being a pedestrian walking from one building to another, using a transit bus to get to work or frankly using your own car to get from your home to the store.

The ground transportation modes are part of the fundamental right of mobility in this country and I think impinging upon that right is a pretty considerable civil libertarian issue.

So I think the system is safe. I think we're doing significant improvements to make it safer. We are taking pictures of people in our terminals. We are removing people that act unusual or suspicious. And as a result, I think people will come back to the bus, they will ride the bus and they'll be comfortable riding the bus.

O'BRIEN: All right, Craig Lentzsch, CEO of Greyhound, thanks for being with us this morning.

LENTZSCH: You're welcome, Miles.

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