Three current railfan magazines (Trains and Railfan & Railroad) August, 2005) and (Railpace, July, 2005), had articles, editorials, or both which were critical of New Jersey Transit’s proposed photography permit policy; let me be the devil’s advocate before going further.
- MBTA has required permits for photography from its vehicles or its property for many years – well before
September 11, 2001. - SEPTA forbids photography from its stations
- The railroads have always had, and they continue to have, the authority to control the access to their platforms.
- If the stations had been privately owned by say the Pennsylvania or the Lackawanna then the stations would have been private
property so there would have been no question whether their stations were public property. The railroads could have required
a permit for photography from their property or their vehicles, or banned it altogether. - The access to many government facilities is restricted even though they are publicly owned.
The questions are whether public transit authority stations are public property in the same sense as streets or parks? If so, can New Jersey Transit require permits to photograph trains from its facilities or its vehicles? The writers of the editorials and the articles seemed to feel public transit authority stations are public property, and one writer contacted some attorneys who seemed to feel that requiring permits to photograph trains from public transit authority station platforms might not be constitutional.
I mostly agree with the articles and the editorials, and I think the permitting process is flawed. The permitting process is complex in that the applicant has to go to New Jersey Transit’s headquarters in Newark, NJ to get a mug shot for a photo ID badge. The photo ID badge must be displayed while taking photographs from New Jersey Transit’s facilities or