On another website a nice forum poster posted that he was rob-attempted (of his camera) but successfully discouraged the would-be robbers with his cane! The event took place at the train depot in San Bernardino, Calif., a Metrolink and Amtrak stop. The report of that incident hit home because that depot is a place I frequent often, if for nothing else, to make a quick restroom stop! But everybody should be forewarned that the depot could be a danger to one, and other such depots as well.
BUT THERE IS MORE TO THAT STORY THAT WAS LEFT POST-UNSAID BUT THAT WE ALL CAN TAKE TO HEART!
There is a sign clearly posted that warns of a severe fine (I think $1300) if one is found on the platforms without a ticket!
There is roving security, but that security cannot be everywhere at the same time.
THUS …
Stay off Depot property. Use ingenuity and telephoto lenses.
Railfan with a friend or friends, the sight of which more than likely would give would-be assaulters severe second thoughts.
As for a camera, bring the cheapest one you can, take many, many photos, review the result, and select the best one or ones, and revisit the Depot site with you’re better, million dollar camera later.
A News Broadcast today;mentioned a factoid: That over a million folks have fled California inmthe last couple of years. It was further noted that their reason for leaving was due to a high cost of living… { The previuous fine,mentioned by OP would be like telling folks to ‘go away’… Certainly,Unwelcoming… }
I never trespass…when I go to CA i always rent a car…that way I’m treated like a customer, and I avoid the rude signage. And what if I’m on the platform without a ticket and simply helping an elderly person with her bags? I guess I qualify for the $1300.00 fine. Nice…
What’s particularly vile to me about this is that the “$1300” fine is actually the cost if you’re caught riding the train without a properly-validated proof of fare payment. To eliminate some of the issue with homeless and transients, California started restricting access to the platform area so they could extend the authority to check for valid proof to those “about” to board the train, not just those physically present aboard it.
No problem with accusations about, say, racial or socioeconomic profiling, or warrants for any kind of search – any officer is entitled to request proof of currently validated fare at any time, for any reason, and failure to produce is the crime. Off you go! I have seen how efficient the zugpolizei were when riding the San Jose light rail a few years ago – the looks on people’s faces as the fully-armed blackshirts swung through the cars gave me a good idea what it must have been like during the pass-law era in South Africa, and the efficiency with which one culprit was arrested, cuffed, and hauled off in a squad car at the next stop, theater in full view of the passengers, was a sobering deterrent for anyone who might be tempted to cheat the ‘honor system’.
You see, it costs lots of money to gate and access-control all the platforms so you need the ticket to get near or on the train. And for security to maintain the gates. It costs even more to have conductors who can sell you a ticket onboard if you get caught without one. So the rule is you pay at the open platform and ride until someone confirms you paid as you should.
Of course the option to just buy a ticket then is off the table, pour decourager des autres, and to make it really, really, really undesirable not to pay your ~5% contribution toward your fair share of the cost, the fine and associated fees are made out of all proportion to the “offense”. Plus all the public shaming and police arrogance.
I guess I’m from another era… I liked it better when public shaming and police arrogance weren’t part of the equation…but who knows… maybe that’s the best way to go.
Have you tried asking for permission to be there? I think they would write you up a nice letter if you have permission and allow you to take photo’s to your hearts desire. I think most railroads would.
It’s not that your on the platform, it’s more they have no clue who you are or why your on the platform that is the issue. Your forcing them to guess and most companies when they are forced into guessing will guess worst case scenario.
Not around here… yet. I pick family up at the local train station all the time… When the train arrives the platform is usually packed with people anxious to meet those who are arriving by train. Hopefully that never changes… No need to ask for permission to be there… not yet anyway. Probably that will change… it’s a slippery slope and we’re already on it and well underway. Shame will go some to make the honor system work better… nobody wants to be shamed and humilated. But fear works even better than shame… replace shame with fear and now you’ve got an honor system that works perfectly…
The track 2 platform at Utica, NY is completely open to the public - there’s public parking adjacent and no fences. Track 1 is equally open, but you have to go into the station in order to use the overhead walkway.
Several years ago, I saw TSA there checking things out, but I don’t know as they did anything.
Railfans can hang out on the platform, or in the overhead walkway (during the day) - a popular place if the weather is foul. The station building is closed overnight.
Let me explain my experience at the San Bernardino Depot, and then everybody will have more of a bit of sound footing to make enlightened comments.
Security for all practical purposes has no way to distinguish railfans from non-railfans. HOWEVER, if you have a camera, or obviously are watching trains, expect to be targeted by security if you are by the platforms.
Arresting a hoodlum or troublemaker has its obvious benefits, and the costs incurred would be little. But arresting a clean-cut railfan is another story and a hornets nest. Most railfans I think would immediately get a lawyer and viciously fight back, and Metrolink, Amtrak, and/or the Depot would immediately incur thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in unexpected expenses, and who knows what horrible, prolonged bad publicity might find them. I think those that put up that sign just hoped it would discourage people and they would simply comply, the cheapest things for everybody, even if they are escorted off the platform! The sign may simply be a ruse that has teeth if need be.
I was escorted off the San Bernardino Depot platform once. (The single, small sign hadn’t been seen by me yet.) The whole thing actually was kind of funny. Almost by the street, I was escorted by security with a long walk to the depot’s main doors “What are you doing?” I asked. He said he wanted me off the platform. I said I was done for the day and was going home, but my car now was way back where we had just been!
At airports, only ticketed passengers enter gates. I don’t believe the guards would be too pleasant when they arrest someone entering without a ticket so he could get a good photo.
Riding trains through Europe this past summer, we found some stations that did not allow platform access without a ticket. I have no idea what the penalty would be, but it didn’t seem to be too much of a problem to have guards at the platform entry gates checking tickets.
One train had four teenage boys run through the car knocking into everybody in their way, followed by train personnel chasing them them. We assumed they didn’t have tickets.
There’s really no problem for those of us who have acquiesced…i.e. those of us who have accepted having to ask an “authority” for permission for almost everything… and for those of us who have accepted as normal public shaming and humiliation and being hauled off in a squad car into the darkness of night for not having a train ticket in hand. There’s no probem at all. The problem lies with those of us who have pushed back on that… but don’t worry… there are fewer of us every year, and we too will either acquiesce or die off, making way for the New Order.
I travel througout Europe extensively every year, and things are changing there too. For the most part platform access is completely open to anyone in most smaller and midsize towns, while the larger cities do limit access to ticket holders. But there are still some areas that are refreshingly free… Zurich for example… one can walk right into the train station and to the platform and onto a train completely unimpeded… I did that. on my way from Zurich to Munich. The only contact I had with any train personnel was a friendly hostess who asked if I would like another glass of wine. No one aske
At airports, only ticketed passengers enter gates. I don’t believe the guards would be too pleasant when they arrest someone entering without a ticket so he could get a good photo.
Riding trains through Europe this past summer, we found some stations that did not allow platform access without a ticket. I have no idea what the penalty would be, but it didn’t seem to be too much of a problem to have guards at the platform entry gates checking tickets.
One train had four teenage boys run through the car knocking into everybody in their way, followed by train personnel chasing them them. We assumed they didn’t have tickets.
There’s really no problem for those of us who have acquiesced…i.e. those of us who have accepted having to ask an “authority” for permission for almost everything… and for those of us who have accepted as normal public shaming and humiliation and being hauled off in a squad car into the darkness of night for not having a train ticket in hand. There’s no probem at all. The problem lies with those of us who have pushed back on that… but don’t worry… there are fewer of us every year, and we too will either acquiesce or die off, making way for the New Order.
I travel througout Europe extensively every year, and things are changing there too. For the most part platform access is completely open to anyone in most smaller and midsize towns, while the larger cities do limit access to ticket holders. But there are still some areas that are refreshingly free… Zurich for example… one can walk right into the train station and to the
At airports, only ticketed passengers enter gates. I don’t believe the guards would be too pleasant when they arrest someone entering without a ticket so he could get a good photo.
Riding trains through Europe this past summer, we found some stations that did not allow platform access without a ticket. I have no idea what the penalty would be, but it didn’t seem to be too much of a problem to have guards at the platform entry gates checking tickets.
One train had four teenage boys run through the car knocking into everybody in their way, followed by train personnel chasing them them. We assumed they didn’t have tickets.
There’s really no problem for those of us who have acquiesced…i.e. those of us who have accepted having to ask an “authority” for permission for almost everything… and for those of us who have accepted as normal public shaming and humiliation and being hauled off in a squad car into the darkness of night for not having a train ticket in hand. There’s no probem at all. The problem lies with those of us who have pushed back on that… but don’t worry… there are fewer of us every year, and we too will either acquiesce or die off, making way for the New Order.
I travel througout Europe extensively every year, and things are changing there too. For the most part platform access is completely open to anyone in most smaller and midsize towns, while the larger cities do limit access t