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Yesterday (Sunday 9/11/2011) there was a minor panic about an unattended package at the back edge of the Fresno platform. Got there at 11:40 to catch the 12:05 train back to the Bay Area. A few minutes before train time a city policeman asked those of us about mid-platform to move to the south end and those nearer the station building to move up to, and after a few minutes to inside the station building. (The Fresno station building is the former AATSF building, nicely restored, and with enough business that there are usually two ticket agents on duty.)
The bomb sniffing dog came out and barked enthusiastically.
After a few minutes those of us on the south end were told to go around the back of the, apparently now unused, freight station building and up to the passenger station.
The city bomb squad came out after about an hour. The robot got the package and carried it to their truck, where I would assume it was X-rayed. Turned out to be a bag of golf clubs, they appeared to not be particularly good clubs, either.
After that, the crime scene tape was taken down, the train, which had been held out at Calwa yard came in, and we were under way just at 1 hour 45 minutes late, which crept up to two hours and they back down to being 1 hour 40 minutes late arriving at Emeryville. (There is not a lot of slack in the San Joaquin schedules.)
This event made about a 15 second or so spot on the evening news on one Fresno TV channel, so far as I know. No publicity elsewhere. I regard little to no publicity of these happenings a very good thing.
All was handled very professionally by all involved. The passengers sitting on the train during its indefinite wait south of Fresno got a free meal out of it.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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Sounds like everything was handled perfectly. I wonder what made the dog give a false positive? That's pretty unusual.
SubwayNut Member # 3948
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I wonder if that happend because someone dumped there clubs after being told they couldn't take them on the train. Amtrak has a complicated and recently revised <a href="http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1249229183989&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-disposit ion&blobheadervalue1=attachment;filename=Amtrak_MidwestGolfBagCarryon_201107.pdf">Golf Bag</a> policy.
Well Amtrak baggage office employees and there cops often don't communicate with each other either, I was accused by a an Amtrak Cop for an unattended package after putting a bike box I just used for a trip from Kewanne, IL aside in a place where I was told by the nice baggage office at Penn Station: <a href="http://subwaynut.com/updates/?tag=lake-shore-limited">TripLog</a>. In the same trip I was left unattended in an unused kitchen on the <a href="http://subwaynut.com/updates/?p=1088">Carl Sandburg</a>, and basically unattended in the main baggage room at Union Station in Chicago since I was traveling with my bike.
George Harris Member # 2077
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quote:Originally posted by SubwayNut: I wonder if that happend because someone dumped there clubs after being told they couldn't take them on the train.
Highly unlikely.
The California trains seem very relaxed on baggage policy. Basically, it is an, if you can get onto the train, you can take it with you. there is also checked baggage available at Fresno. We come close to one round trip a month between Emeryville and Fresno, and havve seen a little of everything brought on.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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Yup, I agree with George. You can bring everything AND the kitchen sink and it would be okay. Especially if you're carrying and loading your own stuff, they don't really care.
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