Amtrak Steps Up Security

Just ran across this on MSN:

http://www.mail.com/Article.aspx?articlepath=APNews/General%20Business/20080219/Amtrak_Security_20080219.xml&cat=money&subcat=business&pageid=1

Looks like Amtrak is joining the security measures of airports, just not as intense...well except for the guys with the automatic weapons and the bomb sniffing dogs...

 

This is my big worry. Amtrak is already in trouble with cost and time to destination, this will most certainly cost them some riders...

 

I hope this doesn't become as much of an all-show and not-much-go as the airline security provisions. I don't object to going through security lines before getting on a plane, but it's ridiculous that it still often takes more than 10 or 15 minutes to get through security lines at several airports. If this were truly a priority we would have more screeners and screening machines at the airports by now.

Also, I hope the randomness is truly random. I don't really believe that what they call random at the airports is random. If that were true, my wife (who retained her Arabic surname) wouldn't get the "random search" every time we go through the airport.

I want to be mindful of security - of course I do - but sometimes I think the measures employed just add to the general level of hassle and don't actually increase our security.

Adam

 

Agreed... some screeners are very good and professional, but sometimes it's like the keystone kops.

I still can't believe that my cousin, who had attained, at that time, the rank of Major in the Marine Corps, and had received an honorary discharge, was TURNED DOWN for a TSA airport security post.

I hope we get more honest about what actually works and more intelligent about our approach. I think we could learn something from other countries that have been dealing with some of this garbage longer than we have.

Adam

 

In reality this is no different than what has been going on in Europe for some time. Don't know how many armed folks I saw standing on platforms in England. And, of course, all trash cans have been removed from the platform areas for obvious reasons.

I suspect that this will be a slow process at first but will smooth out as time goes on and everyone gets used to it. Frankly I am surprised that this sort of thing was not put into play right after 911. I think it is the right move, Amtrak just needs to make sure that it is perceived as that and not as a hassle for no good reason.

 

The TSA, as experienced by my wife and me at two of the highest density airports in the US, is a pathetic joke. I am sure that AMTRAK, being one more federally controlled bureaucracy, will fare no better, and probably worse as no one in our Government takes AMTRAK seriously.....but that's another story.

My wife has a titanium left knee. After triggering every walk-thru magnetometer, she is immediately wanded which shows nothing outside of a 2 inch perimeter of that knee. Yet in every case she is escorted, under guard, to a non-secure temporary enclosure (in one case, three light-weight movable 4'Wx6'H screens) and given a thorough pat down, once in Atlanta by an extremely red-faced 21-year old (his admission) lone male trainee.

Shortly after 9/11/2001, it was reported in a brief press release that the US officially turned down an offer from El Al, the state airline of Israel and one of the most secure in the World, to provide extensive security training and consulting at no cost for as long as was required. It was reported that the newly formed Department of Homeland Security believed they had ample resources within the Government to establish airline security, and therefore needed no outside assistance.

Dr. John, I agree with your observations of the threat response in the UK. The Brits take terrorist threats very seriously, as does the rest of Europe. I truly believe that we in America will not take any of this seriously until we have experienced 70 years of assaults on our Country like the Battle of Britain, IRA bombings, and many more unspeakable attrocities.

 

Well on te plus side, maybe it won't be as bad since there are fewer riders of trains in the US than there are of airplanes (unfortunate but true). Perhaps Amtrak will take advice from European rail lines...but then again probably not!!

 

Yeah, judging from what I've seen of these people, your cousin probably failed the IQ test, i.e. it was too high for their standards.
:tb-biggrin:

 

LOL! He was one of those 4.0 students all through high-school, or close to it, plus he graduated with honors from college when he went through ROTC.

Thinking back a minute, I think he might have *only* been a captain at that point. He went back into the Marine Corps Reserves (is that what it is called) and did two tours in Iraq and attained Major then, I think it was. I am not entirely sure on the details. Maybe they turned him down because he was *only* a captain.

Turning down help from El Al was just stupid. When you are in a situation like that you accept all reasonable offers of help you can get. I would love it if we would adopt some of the more effective measures that other countries have hit upon and quit doing "random" searches on the same mother of two every time, or pat downs by a male on a woman with a titanium knee joint implant - that second one is highly inappropriate I must add. I had thought that they were only to do pat downs with TSA personnel of the same gender.

Anyway, I hope Amtrak can learn from some of the mistakes and blunders of the TSA and do it right.

 

My wife was offered to be patted down by a female, but turned that down when she was told it would require about 45 minutes to locate one.....:tb-shocked:

(I withold editorial comment since this is a family forum!)

 

They should try harder to get them. This is ridiculous. Hytec's wife should be able to choose to have a woman do the required pat down. They should have at least one man and one woman on shift at all times to do this kind of thing.

I better stop because I am just getting angry about the TSA situation.