Paris calm in the face of terror threats

By CATHERINE FIELD

PARIS - The passengers on bus number 172 were crammed in like sardines, but their mood was good.

The monotony of commuting had evaporated. Gone were the sullenness and avoidance of eye contact that are part of the daily routine of trudging into Paris and back home again.

Instead, people chatted, swapped jokes and good-naturedly rolled their eyes at the inconvenience of having to take a slow, crowded bus home instead of the normally efficient express suburban trains.

There were good reasons why they were packed, and why they endured the hardship in such good spirit.

Without any warning, the authorities had closed one of the main suburban train lines, the RER A, which snakes from western Paris, through the capital's centre and off to the eastern suburbs.

It was 8 o'clock Thursday night and the authorities had received a terrorist alert from the CIA.

More than 40,000 passengers suddenly had to get home as best as they could. Bus number 172 was one of many that had been laid on to ferry passengers from the business area on the edge of Paris out to the western suburb of Sartrouville.

The next day, the chatter among suburbanites was still of the threat. In St Germain-en-Laye, another of the outlying towns cut off when the trains were suspended, everyone was talking.

"They say it was a very serious threat," said one shop owner, shaking his head.

"It took more than three hours to get back from Paris," said another. Yet there was no anger or even resentment in their voices.

Security is a daily cause for angst in Europe at the moment. Transport officials say there are about 12 bomb alerts on public transport in Paris each day.

Last Christmas, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin ordered the cancellation of six Air France flights on the Paris-Los Angeles route because of a terrorist threat and at the end of January, a series of Paris-Washington flights were cancelled for the same reasons.

But there has been no rage at airport terminals, bus stops or railway terminals, and this unusually stoic mood seems to be reflected across Europe.

A month after the Madrid bombing in which nearly 200 commuters were murdered and thousands injured, people across the continent appear to be patient, willing to put up with extra vigilance in return for feeling safe.