If Amtrak and The US Government beleive that terrorist may target our passenger, freight, and transit trains in America, what since does it make to keep furloughed employees unemployed. Why not put these employees back to work so we will have not only experienced employees to get the work done, but also to be the extra eyes and ears to be looking for suspicious activity in and around the terminals and on the trains...Wake up America, we are losing jobs, and our ablity to defend ourselves...
Posted by CK (Member # 589) on :
Well Said ! I appreciate the work that the Amtrak Police perform, however, the entire workforce is needed ("eyes & ears") to assist in making rail travel safer against outside threats that exist today.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
You two are soooo silly. Don't you know that Amtrak is supposed to pay for everything under the sun out of ticket revenue? Only airlines and highways and waterways get public funding for police and security. Everyone knows that!
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
Mr Toy, good point! I am interested in how the $$$ now earmarked for "security" improvements will be spent. My experience is there is no real attempt to screen baggage or parcels being brought into passenger or freight cars. Only the major stations provide any sense of a law enforcement presense to create even an element of a deterrent. Tunnel, bridges, & rail security is a whole other area of concern. Since Amtrak operates mostly on freight RR's rail lines, Amtrak must rely on the RR's (non govt funded) police forces that they employ for their security. Some degree of comfort can come from the fact that passenger trains are built like tanks & are probably not the #1 target of terrorists today.
Posted by David (Member # 3) on :
Mr Toy makes an excellent point about railways having to pay for their own security. The situation is the same here in Canada. I remember a few years ago approaching Toronto on the ONR's Northlander when I heard on the scanner that some young people had been throwing rocks at passing trains. They had shattered some windows on a GO Transit commuter train and the CN police had been notified. (In their usual wisdom, both of our major railways had severely cut back their police forces.) A few minutes later when our train passed the same spot, it was attacked by these hooligans and several windows were shattered. Compare this with the reaction of the municipal or provincial police when a report is made of someone throwing objects at cars and trucks. One must hope that the police would respond if it was bullets and not stones that were being fired at a train, but in North America train travellers do not have the same high status as those using other modes.
