Amtrak to Step Up Security Measures

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Amtrak will start randomly screening passengers' carry-on bags this week in a new security push that includes officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains.

The initiative, to be announced by the railroad on Tuesday, is a significant shift for Amtrak. Unlike the airlines, it has had relatively little visible increase in security since the 2001 terrorist attacks, a distinction that has enabled it to attract passengers eager to avoid airport hassles.

... Amtrak plans to roll out the new "mobile security teams" first on the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, the railroad's most heavily used route, before expanding them to the rest of the country.

The teams will show up unannounced at stations and set up baggage screening areas in front of boarding gates. Officers will randomly pull people out of line and wipe their bags with a special swab that is then put through a machine that detects explosives. If the machine detects anything, officers will open the bag for visual inspection.

Anybody who is selected for screening and refuses will not be allowed to board and their ticket will be refunded.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/18/financial/f175459S62.DTL&tsp=1

[Newsjock]

1. I can't fly since 9/11, and now ...

... I guess I can't take the train, either. Fuck you, W.

[LostinVA]

27. Why can't you take the train?

[Captain Hilts]

2. I support this. Amtrak needs tighter security. nt

[catnhatnh]

7. Because so many of our trains....

...are forced to land in Cuba? Or because you picture a Choo-Choo slamming into the Sears Tower?

[Captain Hilts]

8. Are you aware of what happened to rail travel in India, Madrid and London in recent years?

People in New Hampshire ride the train so often, they must be experts!

[high density]

11. Are you aware that random screening is not going to prevent a terrorist attack?

Instead it is just going to inconvenience law abiding passengers that want to get from A to B. "TSA: Rail Edition" is going to have no benefit at all, it's just going to make rail an even less attractive option than it already was.

[harmonicon]

15. I live in England, and this shit wouldn't stand here

I know what happened in London. They don't now have people go through security checks to get on buses. This is bullshit and will only mean I take US trains even less. I guess Amtrack just didn't suck enough already.

[Xithras]

38. Nobody is going to bomb the Acela. They'll hit the Green Line or the A line.

Commuter subways tend to have FAR more people packed into a much smaller, denser area. Unless you plan on bomb screening every person boarding any train, bus, or subway in America, I don't see how you can stop this sort of attack. The kind of checks proposed here simply inconvenience people without doing a thing to improve security.

Besides, a pound of dynamite tucked alongside a track in a high speed section of line makes even the most stringent of security measures moot.

[Dr.Phool]

9. I think it's because I bought my first ever Amtrak ticket last week.

It's bad enough, that because of their lousy schedule, I have to drive 60 miles to catch a train at 3:00am (only train of the day), not even get a cup of coffee. And now put up with more of this shit?

I'll drive next time.

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. Hmmm, "show me your papers" - reminds me of somewhere . . . . .

.
.
.

"Passengers also are required to show ID when buying tickets from station agents, though there is no such requirement from passengers buying tickets from self-serve kiosks."

/snip/

In addition to the screening, counterterrorism officers with bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol platforms and walk through trains, and sometimes will ride the trains, officials said.

___________________________________________________________________

Feel safer now?

[PSPS]

4. "officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains"

Gee, the only thing missing is the orders shouted in German!

[high density]

12. Arbeit macht frei NM

[pinniped]

19. Those dogs are probably German shepherds and can bark/shout in German.

.

[LostinVA]

28. They've already had this in Penn Station for quite some time

Not on the trains, but in the station.

[kineneb]

36. exact mental image- WWII movies

with Nazi soldiers and guard dogs on train platforms...

Haben Sie Papieren?
Nein?
Komm' mit. (barrel of gun poked into ribs)

[Dr.Phool]

5. Oh goody! I'm taking my first trip on Amtrak tomorrow.

Guess I'll leave the vodka in the check-in.

[12string]

6. Terra,Terra,Terra

There has been quite a concerted effort as of late to plant the seeds of terror into minds of the people.Makes me really wonder whats coming.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. "Makes me really wonder whats coming"

The same thing that caused the predictions of gas costs being down 50 cents this summer- presidential elections.

[high density]

10. Oh joy, fascism joins the rail lines now

I figured it was just a matter of time before that was infected.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. It's such a pain in the ass to fly that they have to...

make it a pain in the ass to take a train now? We pay people to think this shit up?

Thing is, though, that the best ways to wreck a train are NOT while in it. And the "best" rains to wreck aren't passenger trains.

But, hey, they'll figure that out if and when someone deliberately wrecks a train. Meanwhile, the biggest problem trains around here have had are stealing the copper signal wire and the occasional potshot from someone's back yard or a crosseyed hunter.

[MisterP]

14. SoCal Metrolink had German shepherds and Marshals making sweeps last week n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

16. so it has taken nearly 8 years to screen trains?

the Bush administration has failed on security of our nation

[khaos]

40. this isn't about security

[Oldtimeralso]

18. Amtrak already has had a terrorist attack.

This link will tell you about a deliberate derailment of an Amtrak train in October of 1995 by a right wing terrorist group. Rumor has it that John McCain's hate for Amtrak stems from this accident. It is alleged that his wife and children were on this train. I do not know this to be fact.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Palo_Verde_derailment

[MetaTrope]

23. Yeah, fact is that rail is much more vulnerable to attack than any other transportation

And it isn't from the passengers. Homeland Security measures are just intended to ratchet up the pressure on Americans to avoid travel.

[atreides1]

32. I guess the security...

...will only question those who are right wingers?

[pinniped]

20. They must be looking for George Kaplan.

.

[Captain Hilts]

33. My train was stopped in a field just outside Canada once, just like they were looking for George.

Cop cars on either side of the train and everything.

[trusty elf]

21. A while ago I was in L.A.

and wanted to visit an old friend in San Diego. I was staying at a hotel in West Hollywood. I took a taxi to the Amtrak station and stood in line for my ticket, only to be told that I had to have ID or they wouldn't give me a ticket. I didn't have any on me because I had left my passport at the hotel and my (Swiss) driver's license I had left at home. Well, I was mighty pissed off that I needed to show ID to get on a train, something that is unheard of in Europe. So I took another cab back to the hotel, fetched my passport and again in a cab went back to the Amtrak station. (about 150 bucks worth of taxi rides!) I again stood in line, showed my passport and got my ticket. But when I went to board the train, there was absolutely no control of passengers whatsoever! What kind of sham fake security procedure is that?! I could have given my ticket to Bin laden and no one would have had a clue! I guess the appearance of doing something about security is all that matters.

[cornermouse]

22. If Amtrak is so unsafe that they need officers with automatic

weapons strolling around on the platforms, I don't want to ride.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. They need to

spend some more money to FIX the damn train rail infrastructure, which kills, injures, and maims passengers every year due to derailments from broken switches and misaligned tracks... And don't let a bunch of CSX boxcars accidentally land on the same track due to the switching malfunctions. This country's rail system is the laughingstock of the world.

[Tesha]

25. Apparently, we're not scared enough. So maybe police armed with automatic weapons will do it. (NT)

[Captain Hilts]

26. Should we abolish airline security?

[LostinVA]

29. Our airline security is already more lax than most European countries

Their's is stricter and more efficient.

[Captain Hilts]

31. Very true. nt

[kineneb]

37. and the EU security is more polite

for the most part. Here, we get people who do not speak English clearly, and act like Nazi goons.

Guess I will have to take the bus.

[grasswire]

30. and when dissent is criminalized.........

....we will rue the day we let these draconian measures stand, without protest.

[spotbird]

34. We can't talk on the phone,

we can't fly, not we can't take trains, what are we free to do.

Safety is important, but I feel much less safe without privacy.

[KamaAina]

35. Great. I just booked a freakin' ticket last week.

(no, not from Hawai'i, silly; we have meeetings in DC, then it's off to NYC and Mom -- I hope... :scared: ) having, of course, no idea that this was in the offing.

If you don't see me around come March, I'll probably be in Gitmo or someplace...

[damntexdem]

39. Hoaxland Security isn't just walling off the borders.

Now they will make it harder to travel inside the country, too.

[lanlady]

41. Amtrak blues

Amtrak hopes the new force can serve as a powerful deterrent to would-be terrorists.

"What we are trying to do is make sure the bad guys know we're out there but don't know where we'll be, or when," Rooney said.

That last bit kinda describes Amtrak's service in general.

[MetaTrope]

42. Brings to mind how the government is testing 1% of beef cattle for mad cow

So every positive found means 99 headed for McDonald's.