ID required on board

[amamba]

Yesterday afternoon I decided to change my travel plans for this morning by taking an earlier train from PVD down to PHL and skipping the regional up to BOS and the wait in the Club Acela. Since I wanted to board the train after the train had left BOS, and I wanted to stay ticketed from BOS, I went down to the station to just complete the entire transaction and print my tickets.

One of the more persnickety ticket agents completed my transaction, but the strangest thing happened at the end. He looked at my ID, had me sign my ticket and the ticket of my husband, and then took out a stamp and a red ink pad. He stamped "ID required on board" on the top of my H's ticket in red ink. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

When our tickets were pulled by the FC car attendant, said he had never seen anything like this before. He dutifully checked my H's ID but it seemed strange.

 

[Shortline]

2 of our last 3 tickets had that too. Maybe we're on the TSA's new "No Train List" and are therefore subject to additional screening in the interest of safety!

 

[Nickrapak]

It may be since you signed the ticket and not your husband.

 

[SubwayNut]

I have noticed that when you pick up a prebooked online ticket at a Quick Track Machine it always says 'Sign Here - ID Required on Board' beneath the sign here line but if you pick the ticket up from the Ticket Office it just says 'Sign Here.' I guess the idea is that your id's already been verified by the ticket agent. Strangely its only boarding at odd smaller stations I am ever asked or ID from the conductor. Technically there must be a rule that tells the agent to stamp all tickets that way if that rider was not up at the ticket window since there ID has not been checked yet.

 

[me_little_me]

It may be since you signed the ticket and not your husband.

Silly! She's not supposed to sign her husband. At least not in permanent ink. He'd look foolish with her signature on him. :giggle:

 

[caravanman]

It always surprises me that so much emphasis is placed on I.D... Here in the UK we can buy a train ticket, and travel where we like by train without any I.D.

If you have a ticket, why do you need to prove who you are as well?

Ed

 

[Exiled in Express]

Strangely its only boarding at odd smaller stations I am ever asked or ID from the conductor.

My experience has been the opposite. MSP and MKE are the only stations to ID me. MSP on every visit. Waiting in RDW with only a conductor code on a scrap of paper I was taken at my word for both identity and fare owed.

It always surprises me that so much emphasis is placed on I.D... Here in the UK we can buy a train ticket, and travel where we like by train without any I.D.

If you have a ticket, why do you need to prove who you are as well?

In the US, appearance is nine-tenths of the security. -_-

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Though I haven't been asked for ID yet, the tickets that I've bought online using my AAA discount (and recently bought one using the disability discount) have "ID Required" on them. I suppose they may randomly ask you to show your AAA card to verify that you are the "owner" of the AAA membership that was used. I have some documentation that I will take with me tomorrow in case they ask for it in regards to my HoH/deaf disability discount, though wearing two BTE hearing aids should be enough ... unless they think I'm wearing two BT ear pieces (now, who would do something like that?).

 

[dn4192]

If they didn't check ID what would stop people from buying say "senior" fair tickets which are cheaper.

 

[George Harris]

I have been asked for ID when paying for tickets with credit card at the SF Ferry Building station, and thought nothing about it. Have neveer been asked for ID traveling on the SJ trains. Did get asked for ID on a Sacramento to Emeryville train once. Was it because it was three men traveling together with some plans open in front of us? Maybe they thought we intended to blow up things? After all we were three middle aged (or more for me) white men. How much more suspicious looking could we have been?

 

[Henry Kisor]

Well, there were Three Stooges, and nobody could have been more suspicious looking than Curly, Larry and Moe. And, of course, Shemp.

 

[George Harris]

Well, there were Three Stooges, and nobody could have been more suspicious looking than Curly, Larry and Moe. And, of course, Shemp.

I resemble that remark :lol: :giggle:

 

[the_traveler]

1336770521[/url]' post='366841']

1336766176[/url]' post='366825']Well, there were Three Stooges, and nobody could have been more suspicious looking than Curly, Larry and Moe. And, of course, Shemp.

I resemble that remark :lol: :giggle:

Which one - or all?

 

[AlanB]

It may be since you signed the ticket and not your husband.

Silly! She's not supposed to sign her husband. At least not in permanent ink. He'd look foolish with her signature on him. :giggle:

:lol: :lol:

 

[AlanB]

It always surprises me that so much emphasis is placed on I.D... Here in the UK we can buy a train ticket, and travel where we like by train without any I.D.

If you have a ticket, why do you need to prove who you are as well?

Ed

Ed,

It's part of the security circus here in the US that is supposed to make us all safe from terrorists. Actually all it really accomplishes is to make some people feel good, inconvenience the rest, and allow a few people to justify their jobs thinking up ways to keep us safe.

The fact that several of the 9/11 terrorists had valid NJ drivers licenses doesn't seem to matter to those who create these rules.

 

[Anderson]

For me, the best argument for ID/ticket requirements isn't on-board security, it's potential abuses with AGR. For example, if I bring a friend of mine down to NPN from WAS, if there's no ID check then I could simply put the ticket in under my name instead of hers and get the points in question for myself. I could also get other friends who only incidentally take Amtrak to input the same, and as long as I wasn't egregious enough with my actions to raise questions (such as having six people put in my name on different trains on the same day), there's no reason that Amtrak would have to even raise the question of who was "really" traveling.