Today on WTOP, I heard about Amtrak’s new security procedures – randomly screening bags. Now, supposedly, the randomness of these searches has been vetted through NY courts, because they’re using the same techniques.

I, personally, take the train to NYC – for multiple reasons, the biggest being that I can practically get to NYC in about the time it takes to be at the airport waiting to go through security. I can also show up at the station literally as the train is leaving and get on it (yes, I’ve done it, no, I’d rather not repeat that adventure).

One of the major “Excuses” given for the increased security is that terrorists have targeted other train service in other countries, Madrid, London, etc. What the officials in the US don’t seem to understand is that in Europe, the train service can be considered essential infrastructure. Not so in the US. Amtrak consistently lose money, and the only route that actually makes money is the Northeast corridor – from Washington, DC through NYC to Boston. And once you start traveling past NYC, it becomes cheaper (*much* cheaper) to fly. I’ve also found that it’s cheaper to fly to NYC on most flights, but it takes the same amount of time or longer, and the train dumps me right into the center of the city.

Terrorists tend to go after infrastructure systems, they’re well used, and their loss is felt quite keenly. I don’t know that many people who would be choked up over the loss of Amtrak. We’d just have to fly instead.

Fortunately, the government/Amtrak is not spending an enormous amount of money on this security. Not near as much as if they had instituted checks like we go through at our airports. To my mind, it’s still just “feel good” security theater, but at least they’re not wasting taxpayer’s money on it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 3:04 pm by Laura Raderman and is filed under rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.