BobK

I suppose this was inevitable. Amtrak will start screening passengers’ carry-on bags. They’ll show up unannounced at boarding platforms with bomb-sniffing dogs and all sorts of other equipment. Lovely.

All this might be tolerable if we had a problem with terrorism on intercity trains. But I don’t think there’s ever been a serious terror incident on a long-distance train anywhere in the world. At least none come to mind. In North America, train riders have more to fear from beaver dams than from terrorists.

Which begs the question: Does Amtrak suddenly have some budget to spare? If they do, is this a good way to spend it? If not, then which government agency is paying for it?  In any case, I expect that as long as no terrorists try bringing bombs aboard trains, they’ll tell us it’s working.

Not only is this a waste of money, it’s a completely unnecessary intrusion.