A modern rail operation that partners with railfans????

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP6dafd9c ... 1b223.html

Wow, my feet are cold.

Matt Bumgarner

By your "definition," it's been frozen over since 2006:

http://www.citizensforrailsecurity.com/

(BTW, I'm now a card-carrying member of both groups.)

Wow. Its good to know the organization existed.

Thanks

Matt

So, if you're not a member of "the club", does that mean you still might be hassled while railfanning around Amtrak?

A reply from Steve Barry of Railfan & Railroad, as posted on their Facebook account/page:

"Amtrak's new police chief actually gets it. Even though Amtrak has a (poorly written) photo policy, Chief O'Conner's philosophy is leave the photographers alone."

Now, admittedly, that still does nothing for the Department of Homeland Insecurity wannabes in many transit agency police forces (most recently Maryland MTA, in a case that's getting passed up to the ACLU and the courts), the other railroad police forces, or your small-town "Mayberry" Barney-Fife descendents............

I've got at least a couple of problems (that I've thought of so-far) with programs like BNSF's and Amtrak's. First, it separates out the fans into different classes. Are the ones "in the club" "good" fans because they are registered, and all others not? Second, if an "incident" does happen on Amtrak, or another railroad, does anyone who is a known member of the club living within a given radius of the incident receive an unsolicited "visit" from the authorities asking what they might "know" about said incident - "can you prove your whereabouts on the night of... ". Just strikes me as a slippery slope kind of thing.

I would refer you to Don Phillips' writings on the subject in general. Granted, Don also holds Chief O'Connor in high regard, but realizes that he cannot be around everywhere all the time. As Sandy pointed out, the local officer on the scene may or may not have a working knowledge of the First Amendment or the "Rights-of-Photographers", leading to "inconvenient" situations.

My feeling on this is that if the photographer is not doing something stupid like climbing on equipment or a signal bridge, etc., and is staying out of the "kill zone", leave 'em alone. I've seen the non-fans doing far more stupid things (like drunken teenagers playing around the Thomas Viaduct, which has NO extra walking room, and is in-fact a non-passing area for clearance-implicated loads) and not get arrested.

Interestingly enough, if you look at the link posted in the Amtrak press release, it doesn't work. It is a secured site; https://pass.amtrak.com/ instead of the URL mess in the release.

And if you look at the website, it is nowhere near as 'railfan friendly' as some of the quotes above. The 'registration' process is disturbingly 1934, or 1984,or maybe now 2084 in tone.

I've had BNSF employees at least tell me they have been briefed on the program and are not supposed to think that all railfans are necessarily evil. There'd be a little more credibility here (hopefully over time) to find out that management communicates this to employees of Amtrak as well; there is a program, they are supposed to call, etc.

I'm glad to hear of any attempt, but it still appears wrapped in Legal.

I've personally had a lot of instances in my travels to call the railroads, everything from washouts to tresspassers to a set of locked brakes on an intermodal train climbing Horse Shoe. My biggest issues have been in the post 9-11 world with 'paid security' that hasn't got the message, at all, either on rights, railfans, or for that matter, the railroad itself on such basics as where property lines and public crossings are.

Sounds like the TSA trying to start focusing on Amtrak. I'm all for national security, but I don't like the sound of this PASS program.

I want to know what databases the list of names is being entered into. Maybe I read too many X-Men comics as a kid but I'm waiting for Sentinels to come for me since I'm not in compliance with the Railfan Mutant Registration Act.