Amtrak’s New Photo Policy

by Steve Eshom on March 12, 2009

According to Trains news wire Amtrak has released a new photography policy. The new policy states that only photographers with tickets may photograph from station platforms. According to the article this comes in the wake of the photographer who was harassed in New York’s Penn Station and is to establish a uniform policy system wide.

So what does this mean for Vancouver where so many people photograph? Well strictly speaking its off limits to photographers without tickets. Does this make sense for a platform like Vancouver? I don’t believe so because there is really no way for Amtrak to enforce the policy. Sure, the agent can run people off if they are out on the platform, but honestly do they have the time?

Does this policy make sense in Penn Station, 30th Street, or any of the major stations where platform access is strictly controlled? I think so because Amtrak has monitored entrances to these locations and can easily verify the passengers ticket status. Additionally with the volume of trains that visit these stations moving and controlling people is very important so allowing unticketed passengers to remain on the platform may cause confusion or even a safety issue (have you seen how small the platforms are in Penn Station?)

What about all the platforms at stations without an agent? How would those be monitored? Where does the platform stop and start? Sadly I think this policy raises more questions than it answers. One thing is for sure the policy is clear so if you don’t have a ticket and you are on a platform be prepared to be asked to leave. Now will you get run out of Bingen Wishram or Essex…hard to say?

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  • oliver

    That sounds so strange to me from a European perspective. I hope that the Swiss Railways will never consider similar steps!

  • http://www.transitsleuth.com Adron

    That policy is rather frustrating (even though I often have a ticket – but that doesn’t change the fact). Once again this sounds like policy being put down based on the north east corridor only. I understand the decision making having a slant toward the east coast, as about 60% of all ridership is in that one small area. But that doesn’t provide a very good excuse for these other platforms. What about small towns along the way? Centralia? Everett? Some other stops aren’t going to prevent photographs being taken; Picayune(Mississippi), Bingen, Libby, etc… come on Amtrak, get with reality here.

    But I digress, the real harm is to Amtrak itself in this scenario. Photographs are free POSITIVE publicity, and they’re banning them? That’s just outright retarded.

  • Lon

    From Amtrak’s perspective, it’s simply easier to ban something and deal with the exceptions than it is to try to name all the exceptions in advance.

    I’m sure they were getting pressure from Homeland Security types, plus the many people who don’t like their pictures taken.

    The problem with the internet today is that once that image is posted, no one controls it anymore. People don’t like that. We railroad photographers don’t always care about the people in the photograph, but the people do care they are being photographed.

  • Jim D.

    The law of unintended consequences at work. Thanks to the well-meaning efforts of some photographers who were tired of getting harassed at big-city terminals, photographers everywhere are now at the mercy of small-minded Amtrak employees who hate railfans or otherwise don’t want to be bothered with train watchers. Let’s hope that the majority of Amtrak employees recognize that the railfans aren’t bothering anyone and stash the memo away without any further action.

  • http://steveeshom.com Steve Eshom

    I like your thoughts Jim D. I will hope that the Amtrak employees at my local platform do just that.

  • kitanis

    It seems that Amtrak is reversing itself.

    There was a contest sponsored by them to have people take photos and send them in for a supposed calender project.

    But.. since that contest was announced there has been many cases where Amtrak employees have been harassing photographers including the Penn Station incident.

  • http://imaginephotographics.com/rrphotography/ Lorne Miller

    Steve
    …seeing as I’m a frequent inhabitant around the Vancouver station and the wye whenever I’m down your way, I’m wondering after digesting the Amtrak info who actually owns the station. The published info says the ruling only applies to Amtrak owned property, I thought I’d heard at one point that the old station is actually owned by the city of Vancouver…

    cheers,

    Lorne

  • http://steveeshom.com Steve Eshom

    Interesting point Lorne. After I moved to Vancouver in 1993 I do recall the BN/BNSF (don’t remember the year exactly) selling the depot to the city for $1.

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