Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
I have observed, and I do take back the comment. At any rate, my observation/hypothesis about time taken to process a queue stands. The boarding process will take a lot longer if BPs are not issued (either collected or just visually seen) and tickets have to be scanned at boarding.
Controlled access to platforms at larger stations is my hypothesis, compounded with a vagrancy problem (observing homeless encampments on the train is an eye opener). Access is tightly-controlled for whatever reason (pax safety, security) though I can see the reason for the old NYP (very narrow platforms).
I think other places have more-severe consequences for those boarding w/o tickets, or have authorities willing to deal with them. Also travel distances may be shorter in other place to throw them off at the next stop.
So you know the situation in Seattle (and King Street station). Lots of homeless (by some count over 25,000 street sleepers on a given night) and thus very actively-police patrolled station with dogs. If the latter wasn't there, you can bet that there'd be vagrants in the station (as there are in Los Angeles Union) and if access to platforms wasn't restricted/controlled (so staff know if anyone on the platform is a passenger or not), you'd have street people everywhere (probably in tunnels already) or even getting onto trains.
Rode the LA Metro red line 2x last month where there isn't any semblance of ticket checking or even restricted access to ticketed pax. You should check out what it's like on the platforms and on trains.
Amtrak’s employee manual requires ticket scanning only by the relevant employee once passengers are on board. Tickets are not scanned before boarding. (Sometimes Amtrak staff does anyway, as people enter the train, but that’s not standard practice, and only certain employees are allowed to scan tickets.) At most, tickets are visually checked before boarding. But that could be done by people stationed at car entrances; it’s not necessary to have yet another line at the entrance to the platform of that is the reason.
There’s no need to hypothesize about why Amtrak makes passengers line up before boarding. Amtrak has given a range of inconsistent and illogical reasons why it requires that.
And if preventing homeless access to trains is the reason for requiring passengers to line up before boarding, why doesn’t Amtrak require it in places such as Newark, a rough area? And why does Amtrak place an employee at only one end of the platform at Grand Central but not the other? It’s a make-work policy, period.