Riding The Rails
Oct 25, 2011 | 4:21 pm
#16
Join Date: Jul 1999
Programs: QF WP, AA EXP
Posts: 3,655
Amtrak's actual ID checking policy revolves around your ticket number. A random number is chosen at the beginning of each train trip, and if the last digit of your ticket number matches that, the conductor is supposed to check your ID.
The conductor who usually works my morning train says apologetically "It's like a strange lottery with no prize"... He doesn't like doing it.
The conductor who usually works my morning train says apologetically "It's like a strange lottery with no prize"... He doesn't like doing it.
Oct 25, 2011 | 4:26 pm
#17
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Pacific Northwest
Posts: 118
Amtrak's actual ID checking policy revolves around your ticket number. A random number is chosen at the beginning of each train trip, and if the last digit of your ticket number matches that, the conductor is supposed to check your ID.
The conductor who usually works my morning train says apologetically "It's like a strange lottery with no prize"... He doesn't like doing it.
The conductor who usually works my morning train says apologetically "It's like a strange lottery with no prize"... He doesn't like doing it.
On the other hand, I have never been asked for ID on the Coast Starlight.
Oct 25, 2011 | 9:27 pm
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 5,051
Seems kinda tricky. There are three or four places on the train a passenger could be. Lounge, cafe, dining car, seat, room if sleeping car. It is one thing to know where the passenger is supposed to ride. It is another thing to actually find them there. But maybe that varies by the route.
Oct 26, 2011 | 6:50 am
#19
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 959
Amtrak's actual ID checking policy revolves around your ticket number. A random number is chosen at the beginning of each train trip, and if the last digit of your ticket number matches that, the conductor is supposed to check your ID.
The conductor who usually works my morning train says apologetically "It's like a strange lottery with no prize"... He doesn't like doing it.
The conductor who usually works my morning train says apologetically "It's like a strange lottery with no prize"... He doesn't like doing it.
Oct 26, 2011 | 5:28 pm
#20
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: PDX
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt Globalist, Amtrak peon, Colbert Lifetime Platinum, Walk Score 100
Posts: 4,553
I can put it out there on my FT profile, but such public disclosure is my prerogative, not that of anyone else.
Oct 26, 2011 | 5:34 pm
#21
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: DCA
Programs: DL Diamond, HH Diamond, Avis First
Posts: 555
Not to engage in schadenfreude, but on my Amtrak trip, the closest we got to TSA is the brown uniforms in Havre MT asking those in the lounge car "Are you American?" When they left the car, there were a few jokes. "What if I answered, 'Yes, infidel', or 'Just visiting, eh'" Of course any of that would be like saying "bomb" or "hijack" in an airport. Given where Havre is, no one wants to be put off a train there.
Oct 26, 2011 | 11:21 pm
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 5,051
It's been a while since I've been asked for ID on Amtrak, but discretion does go a long way in my book. Starting a conversation or making a public remark based on any of my personal data on the ID is definitely a turn-off. Back in 2005, boarding the northbound Silver Meteor in Jacksonville, the conductor collecting tickets in the station looked at my California ID and loudly exclaimed, "California! Well, you're sure a long way from home!" I'm sorry, any innocent intentions aside, my home location is no one's business. I can put it out there on my FT profile, but such public disclosure is my prerogative, not that of anyone else.
I can put it out there on my FT profile, but such public disclosure is my prerogative, not that of anyone else.
Oct 31, 2011 | 12:42 pm
#23
Used to be Sydneysider
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: CPH
Programs: AS MVP/Gold (and 75K aspirant)
Posts: 2,984
But what I'd really like to know is how Amtrak can justify this? They claim to be a private company, and so what authority do they have to demand my ID? Other private companies could never get away with that.
Oct 31, 2011 | 1:25 pm
#24
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: IAD
Programs: *wood Gold
Posts: 1,780
Private companies can place whatever restrictions and requirements they wish upon people in a business relationship. If you don't like it, you're free to conduct business with someone else. (Subject, of course, to market forces making such choices imprudent for them.)
Oct 31, 2011 | 3:10 pm
#25
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 156
Amtrak is only a private company in organization, it's owned by the government and funded by the government. If it was truly private, then first amendment issues would be moot because as was pointed out, there IS no first amendment with private entities. Otherwise, the outrage about Amtrak arresting the photographer, and the ACLU getting them to change their photographic policy wouldn't have worked. Greyhound prohibits taking pictures, but you don't see the ACLU suing them over it.
Nov 1, 2011 | 1:41 pm
#26
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 11,670
Obscenity if not protected under the First Amendment.