I was talking to a friend and he told me that it took an hour to get back into Chicago Union Station because of security.
Is this true?
Is this true?
I was there on the 9th of May. One Amtrak police-person asked in a gate area for all to show thier tickets(this seems to be routine now). Of course many had them locked in a suitcase so it did take time. It was crowded(train day) and I think some non riders(homeless and train day guests) were catching up on CNN news or just resting. JimI was talking to a friend and he told me that it took an hour to get back into Chicago Union Station because of security. Is this true?
No problems noted on May 1st. Came in on the CONL, spent the day in CHI and went back out on the LSL.I haven't been in CUS in over a year. Do they have security check points, now? I've never seen any before.
I wonder if the commuters are part of what save us from some of the airport idiocity. Inflicting airport style security on daily commutes would probably have a huge negative impact on the economy, which is probably part of what prevents it from happening.The only obvious security measure at Union Station in Chicago is the barricading of most traffic, including taxis, from the indoor ramp in the Great Hall building ever since 9/11 -- an idiotic waste of a good facility, especially when you consider that the central post office just down the street has unregulated, underground parking in the building..
Other than that, it's basically what I would call an open station. No ticket barriers or anything. Pretty remarkable given that including commuters it handles more than 30 million passengers a year.
If President Obama decided to take the train from Washington to Chicago, I suspect that they'd have CUS buttoned down pretty tight. Other than that, I can't imagine why it would take an hour to get back into CUS. We've been there several times and we're smokers, so we wander in and out several times during a layover. We've never been stopped, or questioned. It's simply up the escalator, out the door --- smoke --- then back in the door and down the escalator.I was talking to a friend and he told me that it took an hour to get back into Chicago Union Station because of security. Is this true?
Unless he went somewhere in Chicago other than CUS, which might make sense depending on the purpose of the trip. (Admittedly, if the trip is an ``Obama supports trains'' publicity stunt / photo op, CUS may be the right place for the photo op, and for anything other than that, the security hassles might make the train trip not worth the effort at all.)If President Obama decided to take the train from Washington to Chicago, I suspect that they'd have CUS buttoned down pretty tight.
My point was only that was a "potential" reason to have heavy security at CUS. <_< I doubt that the President would take the train unless it was a photo-op. He's got Air Force 1 at his disposal, and that plane would land and taxi to a distant part of the airport where his supporting entourage of security would put him in an armored SUV, and whisk him off to wherever it was that he was going. The President doesn't have bother with the airport security that we have to put up with.Unless he went somewhere in Chicago other than CUS, which might make sense depending on the purpose of the trip. (Admittedly, if the trip is an ``Obama supports trains'' publicity stunt / photo op, CUS may be the right place for the photo op, and for anything other than that, the security hassles might make the train trip not worth the effort at all.)If President Obama decided to take the train from Washington to Chicago, I suspect that they'd have CUS buttoned down pretty tight.
But the question is, what security? There isn't any there. So, how can it be long?Sorry about my vague post, but i'm pretty sure my friend meant that it took him an hour between walking in the door and arriving at the platform due to long security. I don't have any info beyond that.
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