Amid the festivities, there's one thing we can safely assume no one will be singing about: Amtrak's draconian new security measures. These reflect a drastic change from Amtrak's heretofore easygoing policies that allowed you to pretty much just show up and board – no searches, no wandings, no pat-downs. Whatever one might say about Amtrak otherwise, this was its great advantage over air travel in the months and years following September 11, 2001.
Now, though, Amtrak is sending police to perform random screenings of passengers' carry-on bags. It's also deploying bomb-sniffing dogs and police armed with automatic weapons to patrol trains and platforms.
If a passenger doesn't want to have his bag searched, he's free to decline, not board the train, and have his ticket price refunded.
How any of this will increase passenger safety remains a mystery.
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