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Regional - August 2008
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Amtrak’s on track with security
Amtrak has undertaken heightened security measures for the benefit of its customers. Passengers at the Union Stations in Washington D.C. and New York City will see armed security personnel periodically screening passengers while other agents scan bags for explosives.
Most passengers don’t seem to mind the mild inconvenience; in fact, most people overwhelmingly welcome the sweeps and understand that the agents on the platform are a deterrent to terrorists. Some agents even ride the trains undercover while they watch for suspicious passenger behavior. Another agent may pose as a homeless man pretending to sleep on a bench while scanning the crowd in the Union Station waiting area.
That's the idea behind Amtrak's new security push—to let the bad guys know that the nation's train stations and rail cars aren't the open, easy targets they once were.
Since February, a new team of highly trained and heavily armed counterterrorism agents has been working Amtrak's East Coast stations, which are considered to be the highest threat for terrorist attack. They show up without warning and ask passengers to present their bags to be scanned with explosive detection equipment.
This fall, Amtrak will expand its USD $10-million-a-year counterterrorism explosives-screening program to the West Coast, with the addition of a 19-member mobile unit that will check passengers at random in stations from San Diego and Los Angeles to San Jose and Oakland.
Source: USA Today
