posted
Does Amtrak perform baggage searches/checks before passengers board the train? If not, they should start. As I posted before, until they do so, I just don't feel safe on the rails. If they do, please someone let me know, It is impossible to get a straight answer on their 800-hotline...
Posts: 4 | From: hartford, Ct. USA | Registered: Jun 2003
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If you don't feel safe without your bags being searched then take the plane. Your chances of making it to your destination won't be any better, but if it makes you feel safer, go for it.
Posts: 71 | Registered: Apr 2003
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See my post under topic "luggage". I have never heard of a train incident where searching luggage would have had any value. It would not be possible for someone to take control of the passengers with a weapon, as they are spread all over and some are behind locked doors. An explosive device could only damage part of the train.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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If you are checking bags, you have to show tickets and ID. Carryon bags are not searched. What exactly are you afraid of...Do you really think the bogus check at the airport really stops anybody from sneeking things on....Oh yeah, they dont search your shoes either....so now you should be really scared.
Posts: 35 | Registered: Oct 2002
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I'm fairly new to this website and have found most answers to be very kind and imformative. As a first time train traveler people have a lot of questions,and yes, fears. With everything going on in this world these days, people are even more afraid of the unknown. I've always been told that no question is a stupid question if you don't know the answer, and if a first time train traveler has a question, and asks a group of people that are seasoned train travelers, that they shouldn't be made to feel bad for asking. I apologize if I've read the replies with the wrong vibes, but it seems like there are a lot of people out there kind of poking fun at the question.
[This message has been edited by JudAnnS (edited 06-12-2003).]
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I understand your feelings, JudAnnS, and I also understand the feelings of the people on this board (well, some of them!). The trouble is there are people who are extremely paranoid and demand unrealistic expectations. The same people often disappear just as quick as they came with no further replies.
Airplanes are extremely fragile and bags *must* be searched to gain a reasonable level of security. Trains are nowhere near as fragile but, being their open nature, even searching the bags wouldn't be a complete solution as anybody could board a slow-moving Amtrak train (I've seen it done).
Not to scare you or anything, but people can do far worse things *off* the train than on. Somebody tried to blow up a section of embankment near Britain's busiest station, but luckily they didn't have the brains to pick a section that wasn't lightly used at low speed. A person in Germany tried to derail an ICE at high speed, again with failure. Unintentionally, somebody drove their Landrover off a bridge and onto the UK's East Coast Mainline where even a 3 ton Landrover managed to derail an 80 ton loco and send it into the path of a coal train, 7 dead (Great Heck, UK).
While the question in itself was fairly innocuous, I think the way it was worded prompted the answers it received. Theodore also seemed to suggest that driving was safer than rail travel. All statistics will show that you're far more likely to die while driving *to* the station than while *on* the train, something in the order of 5-15 times more likely depending on the stats you believe.
That's my reading of the situation anyway!
Geoff M.
Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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Last year I was on the South West Chief, and at Albuquerque, three plain dressed DEA agents left the train, two young men and one young lady searched one passengers luggage in the sleeper section. I was told they boarded the train in La Junta and rode to ABQ. This one young couple complained to the attendent about their lugguage being searched and wondered why and the attendent could not give a reason except they do board every now and then and pick some person to search luggage for some unknow reason, at least she did not know how they selected families. I believe they were looking for drugs. So, I guess sometimes searches do occur.
Posts: 14 | From: denver, colorado usa | Registered: May 2002
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Oh yeah Denver Bob, they were definitely looking for drugs. Some people seem to think that they can transport drugs on Amtrak, and the Southwest Chief in particular and get away with it. This just isn't the case.
A good cop or border guard is trained to be a bit of a psychologist and they *know* when a person is up to something. They take careful note of a hesitation in a response or the way a person may look askance when asked a simple question. These guys were by no means born yesterday. They have definitely been around the block.
And if the cops don't discover the drugs, those german shepard will. They're beautiful dogs, but let's face it, it's they're job to find those drugs and they take their jobs quite seriously.
Posts: 324 | From: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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On several occasions, I have seen plain-clothed agents with drug-sniffing dogs around AMTRAK. Last year on the Empire Builder, some DEA agents boarded at Havre, I believe, and they did pull someone off the train -- I assume it was drug-related. I agree with what others have said about hijacking, bombing, etc, -- you shouldn't really worry about those things on a train, especially the hijacking part!
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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