Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has proposed a "no-ride list" to keep suspected terrorists off the nation's passenger trains, after intelligence gathered from Osama bin Laden's hideout revealed that al Qaeda had considered attacking U.S. railways. Some travelers agree that new safety measures are a must, while others argue that terrorists could simply target subways and regional trains, where such screening would be next to impossible. Would a "no-ride list" make rail travel safer? (Watch a CNN report about train security.)
No, this is just "security theater": "You don't need to get on a train to kill riders," says the Chicago Tribune in an editorial. Bin Laden was thinking about "tampering with tracks to cause a disastrous derailment," and a no-ride list would do nothing to prevent that. It would merely "shackle Amtrak with the kind of security regime adopted at airports after 9/11," without actually making passengers safer. That's not security — it's "security theater."
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