CHICAGO (CBS) – Some stations on the Metra Electric Line and South Shore Line could be shut down during the upcoming NATO summit, and passengers at other stations could face airport-style security screenings, due to the Secret Service security plan that could be released as soon as Friday afternoon.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/05/03/summit-could-mean-airport-style-security-on-metra-electric-south-shore-trains/
If done once for a high security event, will it be done again on a regular basis for whatever reason?
Great, now the TSA is going to make train travel a pain just like they did with air travel. I hope it's only a one time thing.
Scott EspinRailfan - Reno NV
Everybody's being quite vague about the security plan for the NATO summit. While there will be some extra steps taken on the IC/South Shore routes because of their location, I really don't think that they will become a regular practice.
Maybe they were actually refering to the patdowns by the secret service of the strippers in many "gentlemens" clubs in the Chicago metro area ?
Seriously, it's a meeting of the North Atlantic Treat Organization. Why have it in Chicago? How 'bout somewhere practical, that pose less security issues, like Iceland? What better place than in the middle of the Atlantic? I bet you wouldn't have to worry about airplanes straying into secure airspace, or passengers getting on the Iceland Comuter(?) railroads.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
I agree, someplace out of the mainstream .. like Bikini Atoll
Murphy Siding Seriously, it's a meeting of the North Atlantic Treat Organization. Why have it in Chicago? How 'bout somewhere practical, that pose less security issues, like Iceland? What better place than in the middle of the Atlantic? I bet you wouldn't have to worry about airplanes straying into secure airspace, or passengers getting on the Iceland Comuter(?) railroads.
Isn't Chicago home turf for somebody important in D.C. - like POTUS???
Just to show how bughouse paranoid the Secret Service is, when POTUS visited an intercontinental ballistic missile base some years back, the SS insisted on locking all of the shop doors leading onto the corridor the Prez would use with their very own SS padlocks. Hey, folks. You couldn't even get into the building without a Secret clearance - and it took Top Secret to be allowed to touch most of the equipment that went into the hole with a Minuteman.
I wonder if they're that squirrely about visits to the Pentagon...
Chuck [MSgt(ret) USAF]
Oh joy.
Randy Stahl I agree, someplace out of the mainstream .. like Bikini Atoll
Dan
Better Yet on a Nimtiz Class Carrier for the Summit. Portable and has its OWN Air Cover 24/7 Plus the Firepower to deal with any Protesters in the Form of the Air wing or teh Surface Escorts and the Submarines that loiter around it. That and the World Leaders could leave their SO's behind along with the Press and MAYBE GET SOME WORK DONE FOR ONCE.
As long as Americans tolerate it, the fist will keep getting tighter. The only thing that will stop it is if people stop using the facilities in which the Gestapo tactics get installed. That will not happen.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I want see 'em try to do some "pat downs" at Union Station at, oh... say around 5pm on a weekday. Just try to slow that human cattle train down. Now everybody just line up... (If you've seen the rush at Union Station - or any other large urban commuter station - around 5pm you get the joke.)
If the Chicago authorities don't want them there they should just tell them to keep out. Chicago's transit stations are city, not Federal property, TSA has no business there unless the city asks them to be there.
Say what you like about the late J. Edgar Hoover, but back when he was Director of the FBI he was VERY careful not to intrude on local authority unless he was asked for assistance by the local law enforcement people. Some of the Federal people nowadays could use a bit of Hoovers probity.
Rgds IGN
Firelock76 If the Chicago authorities don't want them there they should just tell them to keep out. Chicago's transit stations are city, not Federal property, TSA has no business there unless the city asks them to be there.
Sure.....You do realize that both O'Hare and Midway are also owned by the city of Chicago, right? The TSA DOES have the authority to go onto private and public land.
Just to make sure that I mention something with trains in this thread, so the site censors moderators don't delete the post, the TSA was inspecting hazmat cars last night at a large yard in the Chicago area. They do show up and inspect things quite a bit, and it is all legal.
An "expensive model collector"
Firelock76 Say what you like about the late J. Edgar Hoover, but back when he was Director of the FBI he was VERY careful not to intrude on local authority unless he was asked for assistance by the local law enforcement people. Some of the Federal people nowadays could use a bit of Hoovers probity.
Back when J. Edgar Hoover was director, that was the law. Then they passed the USAPatriot Act and created the Department of Homeland Security...
Don't bet that the train stations are too busy. Have you ever looked at the volume of passengers and crew going through the largest airports? They wouldn't think twice at the prospect of throwing that big monkey wrench into the works at a busy train station.
n012944 TSA was inspecting hazmat cars last night at a large yard in the Chicago area. They do show up and inspect things quite a bit, and it is all legal.
TSA was inspecting hazmat cars last night at a large yard in the Chicago area. They do show up and inspect things quite a bit, and it is all legal.
CNW 6000 Randy Stahl: I agree, someplace out of the mainstream .. like Bikini Atoll Or the moon. What a joke.
Randy Stahl: I agree, someplace out of the mainstream .. like Bikini Atoll
Or the moon. What a joke.
mmmmm...I think Resolute might be a better location....or the Falkland Is....
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Murphy Siding n012944: TSA was inspecting hazmat cars last night at a large yard in the Chicago area. They do show up and inspect things quite a bit, and it is all legal. What would TSA know about inspecting hazmat cars?
n012944: TSA was inspecting hazmat cars last night at a large yard in the Chicago area. They do show up and inspect things quite a bit, and it is all legal.
What would TSA know about inspecting hazmat cars?
The TSA is quite a bit more than airport security. They have people working for them, many are former FRA people, doing different checks.
http://www.tsa.gov/who_we_are/index.shtm
"We look for bombs at checkpoints in airports, we inspect rail cars, we patrol subways with our law enforcement partners, and we work to make all modes of transportation safe."
n012944 Firelock76: If the Chicago authorities don't want them there they should just tell them to keep out. Chicago's transit stations are city, not Federal property, TSA has no business there unless the city asks them to be there. Sure.....You do realize that both O'Hare and Midway are also owned by the city of Chicago, right? The TSA DOES have the authority to go onto private and public land. Just to make sure that I mention something with trains in this thread, so the site censors moderators don't delete the post, the TSA was inspecting hazmat cars last night at a large yard in the Chicago area. They do show up and inspect things quite a bit, and it is all legal.
Firelock76: If the Chicago authorities don't want them there they should just tell them to keep out. Chicago's transit stations are city, not Federal property, TSA has no business there unless the city asks them to be there.
Not trying to get into a "you-know-what" contest here, but airports are a different matter. No-one's going to hijack a train and fly it into a building. As a matter of fact, no-one's going to hilack an airplane anymore either. The old days of "sit down, shut up, don't resist, enjoy the flight to Havana" are over. Every airliner that flies now is full of passengers ready to be the next Todd Beamer, God rest his soul! And the rest of those heroes and heroines on Flight 93 as well!
At any rate, didn't an Amtrak police official throw the TSA out of his station last year? As far as I know Amtrak stations are Federal property and still that "top cop" wouldn't put up with any interferance from anyone outside the "family". I have no beef with TSA, they've caused me no problems at all in any of the airports I've been to, but like any government agency they're going to try to expand their influence, or at least try to show SOME kind of results or risk getting their budget cut.
Phoebe Vet Firelock76: Say what you like about the late J. Edgar Hoover, but back when he was Director of the FBI he was VERY careful not to intrude on local authority unless he was asked for assistance by the local law enforcement people. Some of the Federal people nowadays could use a bit of Hoovers probity. Back when J. Edgar Hoover was director, that was the law. Then they passed the USAPatriot Act and created the Department of Homeland Security... Don't bet that the train stations are too busy. Have you ever looked at the volume of passengers and crew going through the largest airports? They wouldn't think twice at the prospect of throwing that big monkey wrench into the works at a busy train station.
Firelock76: Say what you like about the late J. Edgar Hoover, but back when he was Director of the FBI he was VERY careful not to intrude on local authority unless he was asked for assistance by the local law enforcement people. Some of the Federal people nowadays could use a bit of Hoovers probity.
It wasn't so much the law back in the J. Edgar days. When the FBI started coming into it's own many people across the country in positions of authority, and many congressmen and senators as well were suspicious of the FBI as a possible national police force, which is something that Hoover himself was NOT in favor of. So, he played it very corrrectly and made sure not to usurp local authority. Remember the time of the early 30's was also the time of Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Stalinist Russia. No-one wanted anything that smacked of a secret police in this country and Hoover realised that. Wise man!
n012944 n012944: The TSA is quite a bit more than airport security. They have people working for them, many are former FRA people, doing different checks. http://www.tsa.gov/who_we_are/index.shtm "We look for bombs at checkpoints in airports, we inspect rail cars, we patrol subways with our law enforcement partners, and we work to make all modes of transportation safe."
n012944:
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