VIA Rail security breach

[MasonJar]

Interesting how, in the light of London bombings, Amtrak (www.amtrak.com) put up a nice pres release detailing their concern, and highlighting some of their security measures. VIARail (www.viarail.ca) does not do any of this, and now from teh CBC comes this report:

http://toronto.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=to-viabreach20050708

I know that the press releases usually aren't anything new, but it does make me feel better that at least Amtrak seems to be aware of world events. VIA - not so much...

Andrew

 

[stuart_canada]

Union Station never had good secuirty in my personal opinion. I use to walk around the station taking pictures, including on the platforms and no one ever questioned me. I even have pictures somewhere of platforms that are closed off now that end inside one end of the station. ( from the east end i think ). You could go to the info counter on the main level and ask for a pass to go upstairs and photograph the trains. i got the pass twice, never was once asked by anyone what i was doing or wanted to do when i was up there.

I do not think we need armed guards yet to patrol with the machine guns and dogs. It would be nice to know were are being taken care of when in the station. GO train guards seem to be more on the ball.

I found the only place that VIA guards seemed to be alert or even awake was at Mimico, one guard came out of his gaurd house and told me I could not take pictures from the street of the dead line. this was back in 1990s, i told him to stick it i was on the street and was going to do it anyways.
they have to become more alert in the larger cities and stations.
hire me and I will be alert for them

 

[spitfire]

Personally speaking, I would hate to see heavy-duty US-style security in Toronto. It's an unfortunate truth that no amount of security will actually prevent a terrorist attack, however armed gaurds everywhere certainly do increase a sense of paranoia.

I think all this hand-wringing in the Canadian media of late along the lines of "will it happen here?" in it's "me too" attitude is in extremely poor taste on one hand, and simply puts ideas into people's heads on the other. Either way it's extremely irresponsible journalism.

I say leave things the way they are. Why we need to clamp down hard on a population (Canada's) that has done NOTHING is beyond me.

Sorry for the politics folks! I'll step off my soapbox now.....

Val

 

[stuart_canada]

i have to agree I do not want to see police wandering around with a fully loaded mp5 and guardsdogs. that seems over kill to me. but i do want to feel safe when there

 

[Matthyro]

I agree with Val and Stuart. I have used the GO train to Union Station for many years and have always felt safe. I still like to go there every so often if I have a reason to go downtown.

 

[zedob]

I wish they had guards around the Amtrak station in Springfield MA, just to keep the weirdo's away.


I walked out one day while taking pics and this nut was yelling at no-one to get the f away. I immediately decided that I wasn't going "that way" and walked (at a fast pace) away from him.

As a matter of fact. There wasn't anybody at the station. I walked in, went up to the tracks, wandered around and took my pics. I never saw anyone. It was Sunday, but trains still arrived.

BTW, If Amtrak wants to increase passengers, they need to clean up their stations. Talk about a nasty trash pit. I'm sure there are nicer ones, but egad, I sure wouldn't want to hang around there waiting for a train.

 

[60103]

Zedob:
I had to change trains in Springfield about 30 years ago, with a several hour wait. The station looked as if it were in the middle of renovations; there were no working lockers and no satisfactory waiting area. I took my luggage and walked to the bus station.

 

[zedob]

Zedob:
I had to change trains in Springfield about 30 years ago, with a several hour wait. The station looked as if it were in the middle of renovations; there were no working lockers and no satisfactory waiting area. I took my luggage and walked to the bus station.

It still isn't an appealing place to go wait for a train. They really need to think about commuter service. They have it, but the infrastructure needs an overhaul. Springfield sits as a nice hub between Boston and Albany, and lots of places up north down to New Haven through Hartford.

With the proper marketing schemes, inter urban service would be workable and nice. Especially considring the fact that SPringfield just blew a bunch of money on a brand new civic/convention center and stuck it right in the middle of downtown, which has to be one of the biggest nightmares for some one to drive around. And that's for someone who lives around here. I hate to see people from out of town trying to find a parking space (you could park in one of the pot holes downtown and then someone could park on top of you. That would provide some extra space).

The train station is within walking distance, but kind of hairy and scary, especially at midnight when concerts and such finish up. I'd take a train to Hartford for a night on the town or to visit the museums, but not in its present state.

From what I've read, Metro North is supposed to take over the route between NH and Springfield, but they have to double track the line, that was just singled tracked a few years back. One step forward, two steps back?

Ok, I'm finished with hijacking and ranting.