Amtrak to Start Sucking Much More

Starting this week, Amtrak will start featuring, no, not decent sandwiches, but automatic weapons on its trains.

From the AP story:

WASHINGTON – Amtrak will start randomly screening passengers’ carry-on bags this week in a new security push that includes officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains.

It has been until now a decent alternative to airline transportation. Now you need to drive if you want to avoid infringement on your Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment protections, and that’s only if you don’t get stopped at a MADD-promoted ‘sobriety checkpoint’. This move is good for the automotive industry, no?

Amtrak has three problems here. First, they’re going to lose ridership. They’re already barely able to keep operations afloat. Second, the move implies there is specific intelligence about terrorism on trains. See problem #1. Third, if they don’t have specific intelligence, they’re just being belligerent towards their customers, so… see problem #1.

This might finally be the straw that breaks mass-transit’s back in the US. Can this policy really be promulgated by those who claim they want to do something about human CO2 emissions?