• National Security and Railroads

  • General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.
General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.

Moderator: Robert Paniagua

  by OldBull
 
You are hitting the nail-on-the-head, Russ, when you say "We live in an open society and it is inherently insecure."

We are reminded of our insecurities as a result of your posting.

  by jb9152
 
cifn2 wrote:not exactly, sure what the plan should be,...
And that's exactly the problem. I love it when people demand something be done, but they don't know what "something" is. That's a sure road to "Security Theatre" (that was a REALLY good one, Russ).

You know, the chemicals in my shed could be used to poison the local water supply. Think the government should require me to post guards 24/7?

  by powerpro69
 
I am suprised that they are not signing on more police officers and security type agents to ride trains cross trained as conductors or something to save money
You're joking Right, if management had their way, there'd be no conductors at all!

  by jb9152
 
cifn2 wrote:I am suprised that they are not signing on more police officers and security type agents to ride trains cross trained as conductors or something to save money....
What makes you think cops and/or federal agents WANT to work as railroad conductors? And how much do you think the railroads should pay these double-duty workers? Under which labor contract?

There are reasonable things to be done to help secure transportation assets, including railroads, against exploitation by terrorists, as someone noted. This is not one of them.

  by COEN77
 
CN_Hogger wrote:Last week we had the TSA at one of our yards and everyone had to take a 7 or 8 question survey about railroad security. They seemed to be quite surprised to hear that we recieved almost no training in regards to security.
That seems to be the norm on all the railroads. :(
  by Cowford
 
That certainly contradicts many of the posts on this site of foamers complaining about rr employees calling the cops on what was viewed as suspicious behavior.
  by RS115
 
Not really - it takes no training to make a phone call. Consider that the phone call about the actions (or mere presence even in legal proximity to a rail facility) of a fan could be based not on training but on a) (for a quasi or actually legitimate complaint) common sense or general training regarding treaspassers having nothing to do with "terrorism" or b) (for the rest) paranoia based on anything from a perceived threat to buying into media hysteria that al queda members are lurking under every third rock.

While I strongly support the rights of railway companies to protect themselves from treaspassers or worse, there have been enough documented cases of over-reaction to legitimate railfanning to warrant concern and, indeed, a need for true training of rail employees (including, especially, railroad police). Given the combination of our free society and technology, the real threat is unlikely to come from someone taking a picture or watching a train roll by. If someone has evil intent, there is enough easily observable or publicly obtainable information about most modes of transport, including trains, for them to accomplish their goals.

The current firestorm surrounding the christmas eve bomber on the flight from europe only reinforces this. People that want to be assured that they are at "no risk" should neither use any form or public transport nor come out of their steel reinforced concrete bunker to shop. It's not an attainable goal and I, for one, don't want to endure that which would be necessary to get us even close attaining it.