Yes, I'm calling Amtrak a liar.

I'm not sure how you made that leap of logic. I'm just saying I think it's improbable that an Amtrak janitor will ever demand that you produce ID. As you point out, it would appear to be technically possible for this to happen. From a practical standpoint, I'd wager this has never happened.

Here's another way of looking at things:

Despite the hand-wringing on this thread, traveling by train is indisputably less of a hassle than traveling by air, when it comes to security. I've never had to remove my shoes to board a train, never had to worry about the size of my shampoo bottle, never been patted down at a train station. Etc.

So maybe, just maybe, the head honchos at Amtrak are implementing these measures as a way of saying "Look, we're doing something". Whether intended or not, this has the effect of holding off the TSA bunch from implementing much more draconian security measures. It's easy to imagine someone at TSA wanting to require metal detectors at NYP, 30th St, etc.