agreeing with dc and soy ...the spector of heavily armed troops wandering Union or Penn Stations kinda scares me .. and what about the other stations .. like the west baltimore station in Baltimore ?? and there's the problem of racial profiling here .. you don't have the luxery of arriving two hours before the train leaves .. or do we .. will we have to present [papers at the front door of the station .. and challenged before we can get on the choo-choo ?? and just where in the heck are we gonna get all these choo-choo troops ?? and for once I agree with eboy .. but disagree with all cops walking around with Belgian FNs or SAWs ..

Good, they should have been carrying those rifles years ago, just like every where else in the world. Overpower the criminals with maximum firepower. Back in my native Botswana the police walked around with FN FAL rofles and I felt safe.

I agree with dcrussell. We are being acclimated to being searched and identified everywhere we go. When I was a kid, we made fun of the countries that did this stuff, "Show me your papers!" "Show me your papers!" we'd yell in a Nazi style voice. Now we are the ones being made to do this. Instead of protecting us (securing the borders, following up on pre-911 warnings, ect), we are treated as criminals simply for existing.

What took so long?

Meanwhile, the bridges remain unprotected. There are dozens of rail bridges between Washington and New York that are unsupervised and vulnerable to attack.

The Police State comes to Amtrak. All passengers are guilty of terrorism until they prove themselves innocent. Constitutional protections be damned!

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. " (Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, 1759)