The security videos shown at the station

[MARC Rider]

A couple of years ago, Amtrak installed some video monitors in the waiting area of WUS, and while we waited for the train, we were "treated" to a security and safety video. While I suppose it was mildly informative, after about the thrid viewing, it got to be tiresome to watch. These were interspersed with some infomercials for the Amtrak Police, touting their bomb-sniffing dogs and generally puffing up the Amtrak police department. Again, after watching once or twice, I found them very tiresome, but one couldn't escape from them while in the cattle line preparatory to boarding. This is no longer an issue for me at WUS since I qualified for Select Plus, becuase I now wait in the Clun Acela, where the video assault consists of CNN. (which may be worse, but at least its not Fox News.)

However, in the last few months, these video moniters have now migrated to BAL. Select Plus doesn't help, becuase there is no Club Acela in Charm City. I am thus forced to endure these videos on both ends of my commute.

Have these video abominations migrated to other stations in the Amtrak systems? I didn't notice them when I was recently in Chicago earlier in the Month, and at NYP in September. (But then I used the Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago and Club Acela in New York.

I wonder how much these videos cost to produce and whether the money might have been put to better use (like keeping the restrooms on the trains and in the stations clean.) The safety videos don't bother me as much, except for the contant broadccast of them. I think the same information can be transmitted by silent signs at much lower costs. The promotional videos for the Amtrak Police Department, on the other hand, seem like a waste of money to me,

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Chicago coach waiting area has them next to the guarded gates repeating the video over and over along with the announcement "in the interest of security" speech.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

WIL has had them probably since the remodeling was completed a few years ago. Can't remember if PHL has them even though I just spent 3 days there during the AU gathering.

 

[Donctor]

NYP has them in the normal waiting area.

 

[Alexandria Nick]

I think the same information can be transmitted by silent signs at much lower costs.

Nope, people are dumb and won't read a sign. They will, however, sort of look at a TV because they're bored.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

It is for situations like these that ipods were made.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I think the same information can be transmitted by silent signs at much lower costs.

Nope, people are dumb and won't read a sign. They will, however, sort of look at a TV because they're bored.

Dumb people include the folks that think those annoying videos make anyone safer. The only thing they're accomplishing at this point is to bore the hell out of people with functioning brains.

 

[me_little_me]

Dumb people include the folks that think those annoying videos make anyone safer. The only thing they're accomplishing at this point is to bore the hell out of people with functioning brains.

Does that mean only me and a few of you are bored? :giggle:

 

[Alexandria Nick]

I think the same information can be transmitted by silent signs at much lower costs.

Nope, people are dumb and won't read a sign. They will, however, sort of look at a TV because they're bored.

Dumb people include the folks that think those annoying videos make anyone safer. The only thing they're accomplishing at this point is to bore the hell out of people with functioning brains.

Thanks for the personal insult.

I had no idea what the evacuation process for an Amtrak train was until I paid attention to that video.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I think the same information can be transmitted by silent signs at much lower costs.

Nope, people are dumb and won't read a sign. They will, however, sort of look at a TV because they're bored.

Dumb people include the folks that think those annoying videos make anyone safer. The only thing they're accomplishing at this point is to bore the hell out of people with functioning brains.

Thanks for the personal insult. I had no idea what the evacuation process for an Amtrak train was until I paid attention to that video.

Personally I find it offensive that some folks feel it's the alert and/or frequent riders responsibility to quietly acquiesce to being routinely interrupted with more and more noise pollution just so that some lazy and/or infrequent rider can be sucked into the millionth repeat of a propaganda clip. A clip that may or may not give them a clue as to what to do in the extremely unlikely event that the train is stopped fully intact but also requires immediate life saving evacuation. You have no clue what to do because there wasn't a television nearby whaling away on endless repeat? Fair enough. Please get out of the way so the rest of us can go about our business saving our own lives while you sit and wait for a television to tell you whats happening.

I feel the same way about the "how to use a seat belt" routine on airlines. I don't care if it means a handful of hapless folks will be stuck in their seats if nobody walks them through the seat belt routine. I'm tired of living in a society that focuses our efforts on always looking after the laziest and least educated among us. One of the things I noticed when I started traveling abroad is that many countries don't see a need or a benefit to endlessly interrupting alert citizens with the same regurgitated warnings just so that maybe they'll reach some lazy or ignorant traveler and remind them that they should keep an eye on their luggage or be suspicious of unusual requests from strangers. Maybe it's time we simply accept that some people are going to do stupid things no matter what. Then maybe we can go back to focusing on protecting people who are alert enough and intelligent enough to educate themselves while allowing the less capable folks to eventually remove themselves from the gene pool like nature intended.

 

[Anthony]

The money to produce the video clips was probably from some kind of special capital appropriation for the police department. You can't use that money to clean the bathrooms. Welcome to the way things work. Spend it by September 30th, or lose it and then your department gets less money the next time around because you don't seem to need it.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The money to produce the video clips was probably from some kind of special capital appropriation for the police department. You can't use that money to clean the bathrooms. Welcome to the way things work. Spend it by September 30th, or lose it and then your department gets less money the next time around because you don't seem to need it.

That sort of "waste it now or lose it forever" financing is the kind of clueless bureaucracy you'd expect to read about toward the end of the Roman Mongol Ottoman Spanish Russian British American empire. You'd think we'd be a little worried about the potential for following in the footsteps and hardships of those who came before us, but after watching our troops reenact the disastrous war between the former Soviet Union and a militant little hovel known as Afghanistan I guess nothing worries us anymore. Except for lazy people wondering why a dog is sniffing their bags or when it's time to leave a stalled train and where to go. That scares us half to death. :wacko:

 

[Acela150]

It is for situations like these that ipods were made.

TDC it's the iPhone now.. Or the "Crackberry", or Andriods. AKA Smartphones.. :lol:

They are at PHL. It was one then moved on to two. It's so loud at PHL you can't hear it unless your next to it.

 

[Nathanael]

I had no idea what the evacuation process for an Amtrak train was until I paid attention to that video.

I haven't seen these videos. I've seen a *lot* of dumb security videos which presented no useful information at all, and appeared to be propaganda intended mainly to scare and annoy people -- so I'm impressed that Amtrak is actually providing actual useful information on their security videos rather than the usual nonsense. I doubt the trend will spread.

 

[Nathanael]

You'd think we'd be a little worried about the potential for following in the footsteps and hardships of those who came before us, but after watching our troops reenact the disastrous war between the former Soviet Union and a militant little hovel known as Afghanistan I guess nothing worries us anymore.

Have you read any Dmitri Orlov? I found "The Collapse Gap" very informative -- and entertaining in a gloomy way. I sort of think in terms of "how do we rebuild things after our empire collapses" now.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

It is for situations like these that ipods were made.

TDC it's the iPhone now.. Or the "Crackberry", or Andriods. AKA Smartphones.. :lol:

They are at PHL. It was one then moved on to two. It's so loud at PHL you can't hear it unless your next to it.

Steve,

I use to work at a place where we would joke that our motto was "Yesterday's technology tomorrow." I guess some things never change. Could it be why I like riding Amtrak? :lol:

TDC

 

[user 1215]

Ever notice in all those pictures of the Continental Airbus that landed in the Hudson Bay? 100% survival. Most weren't even wearing lifevests or clinging to the seat cushion.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Ever notice in all those pictures of the Continental Airbus that landed in the Hudson Bay? 100% survival. Most weren't even wearing lifevests or clinging to the seat cushion.

Wonder if they even had time to grab them before it "landed" on the river. Of course, they probably should have grabbed them before leaving their seats to exit.

 

[Trogdor]

US Airways. Continental hadn't operated Airbuses since the early 1990s when they got some A300s from Eastern Airlines.

 

[haolerider]

The money to produce the video clips was probably from some kind of special capital appropriation for the police department. You can't use that money to clean the bathrooms. Welcome to the way things work. Spend it by September 30th, or lose it and then your department gets less money the next time around because you don't seem to need it.

That sort of "waste it now or lose it forever" financing is the kind of clueless bureaucracy you'd expect to read about toward the end of the Roman Mongol Ottoman Spanish Russian British American empire. You'd think we'd be a little worried about the potential for following in the footsteps and hardships of those who came before us, but after watching our troops reenact the disastrous war between the former Soviet Union and a militant little hovel known as Afghanistan I guess nothing worries us anymore. Except for lazy people wondering why a dog is sniffing their bags or when it's time to leave a stalled train and where to go. That scares us half to death. :wacko:

Sounds more like a political comment as oppposed to an Amtrak/train comment; however if you feel the safety videos are innappropriate, don't watch them. I understand you can't turn them off as you can with your television, but with your superior intellect you can certainly look the other way!

 

[haolerider]

I think the same information can be transmitted by silent signs at much lower costs.

Nope, people are dumb and won't read a sign. They will, however, sort of look at a TV because they're bored.

Dumb people include the folks that think those annoying videos make anyone safer. The only thing they're accomplishing at this point is to bore the hell out of people with functioning brains.

Thanks for the personal insult. I had no idea what the evacuation process for an Amtrak train was until I paid attention to that video.

Personally I find it offensive that some folks feel it's the alert and/or frequent riders responsibility to quietly acquiesce to being routinely interrupted with more and more noise pollution just so that some lazy and/or infrequent rider can be sucked into the millionth repeat of a propaganda clip. A clip that may or may not give them a clue as to what to do in the extremely unlikely event that the train is stopped fully intact but also requires immediate life saving evacuation. You have no clue what to do because there wasn't a television nearby whaling away on endless repeat? Fair enough. Please get out of the way so the rest of us can go about our business saving our own lives while you sit and wait for a television to tell you whats happening.

I feel the same way about the "how to use a seat belt" routine on airlines. I don't care if it means a handful of hapless folks will be stuck in their seats if nobody walks them through the seat belt routine. I'm tired of living in a society that focuses our efforts on always looking after the laziest and least educated among us. One of the things I noticed when I started traveling abroad is that many countries don't see a need or a benefit to endlessly interrupting alert citizens with the same regurgitated warnings just so that maybe they'll reach some lazy or ignorant traveler and remind them that they should keep an eye on their luggage or be suspicious of unusual requests from strangers. Maybe it's time we simply accept that some people are going to do stupid things no matter what. Then maybe we can go back to focusing on protecting people who are alert enough and intelligent enough to educate themselves while allowing the less capable folks to eventually remove themselves from the gene pool like nature intended.

Please tell me: Who is it that decides who is removed from the gene pool and if nature intends this to happen on a regular basis why do random acts of nature seem to happen to all types of people?

 

[sportbiker]

What I find interesting about the "this is how you buckle a seatbelt" demo is that the attendants have to then walk the aisle and check that each person't seatbelt is fastened. So, for the 99% of us who have mastered the 1950s technology of a seatbelt, why not simply announce "Buckle your seat belts" and let the attendants walking the aisle offer individual help to anyone they find unbuckled and fummuxed?

 

[Trogdor]

What I find interesting about the "this is how you buckle a seatbelt" demo is that the attendants have to then walk the aisle and check that each person't seatbelt is fastened. So, for the 99% of us who have mastered the 1950s technology of a seatbelt, why not simply announce "Buckle your seat belts" and let the attendants walking the aisle offer individual help to anyone they find unbuckled and fummuxed?

Part of it is how to release a seat belt.

And, to be fair, the seatbelts you find in cars are fastened and released differently than those found in airplanes. When is the last time you were in a ground-based vehicle where the seatbelt was released with a flap rather than a button?

That said, a few months ago, the guy next to me on a plane (who didn't speak English) couldn't figure out how to release his seatbelt. Fortunately, there wasn't an emergency evacuation in progress at the time.

 

[sportbiker]

Part of it is how to release a seat belt.

And, to be fair, the seatbelts you find in cars are fastened and released differently than those found in airplanes. When is the last time you were in a ground-based vehicle where the seatbelt was released with a flap rather than a button?

That said, a few months ago, the guy next to me on a plane (who didn't speak English) couldn't figure out how to release his seatbelt. Fortunately, there wasn't an emergency evacuation in progress at the time.

…which sorta proves the pointlessness of the demo, doesn't it? The dude saw a live demonstration of a 1-step process and still couldn't do it himself.

 

[Trogdor]

Part of it is how to release a seat belt.

And, to be fair, the seatbelts you find in cars are fastened and released differently than those found in airplanes. When is the last time you were in a ground-based vehicle where the seatbelt was released with a flap rather than a button?

That said, a few months ago, the guy next to me on a plane (who didn't speak English) couldn't figure out how to release his seatbelt. Fortunately, there wasn't an emergency evacuation in progress at the time.

…which sorta proves the pointlessness of the demo, doesn't it? The dude saw a live demonstration of a 1-step process and still couldn't do it himself.

Well, he also didn't speak the language in which the demo was provided.