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Boston transit agency now encourages photography
This is not rocket science. Railfans are not the criminals. The average rider is not either. The criminals are the criminals. This concept is very difficult for big government to figure out.
Good news! It is encouraging to hear a police official admit that it is almost impossible to control the taking of pictures. But what constitutes “suspicious behavior”? As long as some people believe that a big camera is a tool of terrorists and that photographing transportation infrastructure is suspicious, innocent photographers will be stopped and questioned about their activities.
Hurrah for Boston Transit allowing people to take photos. A
lot of people who live near or ride railroads regard that railroad
as “theirs”. If some thing suspicious was going on, they would
surely report it. With all the smart phones and other handheld
devices available , how could any agency police a NO Photos
rule.
I’ll believe it when I don’t get harrassed!
As a former MBTA official, I can add that one of the reasons for the T’s long-standing policy to discourage or prohibit photography on or even near its property was to protect employees who were goofing off while or drinking alcoholic beverages while on duty or to prevent unsighty conditions or equipment or facilities in dire need of repair from being documented, and to save the agency the embarassment of having to defend itself when such photographs were provided to the news media and published. CYA was the main agency concern; not terrorism. After 9/11, “prventing terrorism” became a convenient cover obscruing the real reasons for the policy.
Railroads are now finding out something the BNSF and CP have known for some time, that railfans, in particular rail photographers, can be of help to the railroads in deterring crime and vandalism. They’re beginning to understand that railfans and railroad photographers want to protect railroad property because it is in their best interests as well as the railroads’.
Finally someone figures out what we all knew all along: 1) railfans are not the enemy. 2) with so many cameras already built into our various electronic devices, there is no way to control who is taking photos, or of what. People out in the open with cameras are the least of your worries. Credit MBTA with a constructive, sensible forward looking approach. Let’s hope they have enough common sense to make it work in practice as it should in theory. Let’s hope that other agencies see this and implement similar policies.
I live near Boston and love taking the T but have always hated the anti-photographer/anti-railfan stance. I would love to be able to take photos without worrying about being harrassed or arrested.
Think outside the rails. This application could have tremendous value for crime prevention in general. Let’s make this available nationwide.
Great they’re lifting the anti-photo rule, but the tip line is just an outlet for those without enough productive work to do, plus an avenue for unproductive security bureaucrats to create an empire.
Back when I first visited Boston in 2000 or so I took photos all over the MBTA system, including all four rapid-transit and streetcar lines, blissfully unaware of the no-photograpy policy. I went so far as to walk to the far end of a platform in North Station to catch a couple of regional rail trains departing. Fortunately nobody called me out on it.
A couple years later Railpace news magazine did an article on MBTA’s PCC cars. They showed several locations where you could photograph the cars from public property, since taking photos on MBTA property was against the rules. Oops.
I’ve been out here in California this past month and had no problem taking pictures of trains in both the Bay Area and in Los Angeles. In fact, someof the security personnel were helpful on giving me advice on where to get my best photographs of the trains. I have created myself a gallery of San Francisco’s cable cars, streeetcars, BART, Los Angeles Metrorail, Metrolink, Caltrain, and Sprinter, as well some good looking buses.