Garrett votes against rail security
March 28th 2007 08:02 am
Yesterday, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5) voted in favor of an amendment which would prohibit Amtrak from spending security enhancement funds on long-distance train routes. The amendment failed (that’s good), but I wonder why the Congressman from Wantage thinks long-distance passengers deserve less security than other rail passengers.
Jishnu Mukerji responded on 29 Mar 2007 at 1:11 pm #
I wonder if the Honorable Mr. Garrett realizes that a significant number of those LD trains pass through his state. So he essentially voted to deny security within the state of New Jersey. Bravo Congressman!
Joe Versaggi responded on 30 Mar 2007 at 7:28 pm #
Even if Congressman Garrett believes he is attempting to focus security funding by risk, this amendment wouldn’t have done it. That should be left up to Amtrak, not micro-managing politicians. The Cardinal, Crescent, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and Palmetto run on the New York – Washington portion of the Northeast Corridor. The Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited are yarded in Sunnyside, Queens and Ivy City, DC every night alongside the Acela and Regional trains. That is nearly half of Amtrak’s long distance trains right there.
In any case, terrorists, whether foreign or domestic, do not seem to distinguish by class of train or location. Amtrak’s Sunset Limited in the 1990’s, and one of Union Pacific’s “City” streamliners several decades earlier, was the victims of trackage saboteurs out west with fatal results. Neither case has been solved. Prime railroad terrorist targets in WWII included Newark Penn Station, but also Altoona, PA, and Cut Bank, MT. The latter has a trestle, which had armed guards for the duration of the war. You’ll learn that by riding the Empire Builder, but not by driving on US2.
While allegedly picking 10 of the 15 long distance trains ranked descendingly by “cost per seat mile”, the ranking was in fact done by subsidy per passenger, a metric measuring typical distance traveled on a given route, and nothing more. Only the empirically illiterate abuse this figure as an efficiency measure. The defunct “Three Rivers” that ran between New York and Chicago had a very high subsidy per passenger, yet with all the passenger, mail, and express revenue, its revenue/cost recovery ratio was about 90%. The Southwest Chief that runs between Chicago and LA also has a high subsidy per passenger, but has a high farebox recovery ratio too.
The amendment, which failed, got only 30% of the recorded “aye” votes (including just 1 of the 13 from a NJ Congressman), and was actually a veiled attack on Amtrak’s national network, without which there would be no political support for the Northeast Corridor. At the same time, it was despicably shameless about ranking and devaluing human life by economic status according to the class of train a passenger is riding, NOT by risk.
ryanov responded on 01 Apr 2007 at 10:35 pm #
Spending money on security makes no sense, especially on the long distance routes. Please tell me who is going to attack the Lake Shore Limited, for example? It’s just a waste of time, particularly the way security is implemented in most transportation industries. Please tell me how much safer we are after the 3 oz. liquid ziplock bag rules.
Bob Scheurle responded on 01 Apr 2007 at 11:42 pm #
Who is going to attack the Lake Shore Limited?
Well, the Sunset Limited was attacked on October 9, 1995, killing one and injuring 77.
The Colonial was attacked near Newport News on August 12, 1992, injuring 73.