Amtrak is now conducting random ID checks "as a precaution against terrorist attack", according to a CNN.com article. The program is designed to ensure that the name on the ticket is the name of the individual traveling on Amtrak.
This, to me, seems more designed to keep people from reselling Amtrak tickets than from keeping terrorists off trains. The only way I see this being a "terrorist deterrent" is if Amtrak is checking people against the terrorist watchlist. Given the low-key nature of train security in the U.S., however, I have a feeling that Amtrak is simply using the terrorism cover as a way to increase profits and keep people from using tickets that they had not originally purchased.
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amg | 05:54 PM |
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Terrorist deterrence sounds like so much piffle to me.
However, if they're enforcing their conditions of sale, I can't see anything unreasonable about that.
Exactly. I wonder why they didn't give that as the reason for checking.
I also wonder why amg seems to think that the use of ID checks to increase revenue is a bad thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't all the Amtrak-related whining and moaning occurred because they don't have any profits in the first place?
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not opposed to ID checking as a revenue-increasing tool. I'm opposed to veiling it in terrorism-related terms when it's clearly obvious that terrorism prevention isn't the point.
Also, one of the nicest features of Amtrak is the ability to run to the station three or four minutes before a train is departing and then catch the train. I'm worried that implenting any plans that restrict that ease of access with make taking the train less of an appealing alternative to flying. It's already just as expensive to take the train as to fly; if it becomes just as time consuming and tedious, business people especially will turn to the shuttle rather than Amtrak.
I don't see anything in the ID check program that would prevent on-board ticket purchase.
Personally, I think the ability to buy tickets onboard is the least of Amtrak's problems. Both times I've ridden Amtrak, it's been from Chicago to Detroit. The first time, because I thought it'd be fun. The second time, because I'd forgotten how mind-bendingly slow the journey was. It easily took us well over two hours to get from Dearborn, MI to Royal Oak, MI -- a trip that takes maybe 20 minutes by car.
Maybe it's different in the NE corridor...
In my personal opinion, some huge percentage of Amtrak needs to just go away. Let the government waste my money on something else.
