(The following article was posted on Philadelphia television station CBS 3’s website on March 9.)
PHILADELPHIA — Starting this morning, Air Marshals will be working with Amtrak police at three railroad stations but Amtrak says there is no change in the terror alert level.
Todd Quinones reports how this joint program will impact Philadelphia’s 30th street station.
There are new assignments being handed out to beef up security at train stations. U.S. Marshals may soon board trains at 30th Street Station.
Trains can be a soft spot for terrorists as evident by the train attacks on Spain in 2004 and that is why the Department of Homeland Security is starting up a pilot program starting on Thursday.
Undercover marshals with bomb sniffing dogs, and TSA agents and Amtrak police will patrol train stations in Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
Twenty-thousand commuters pass through 30th Street Station daily and it is one of the busiest hubs in the United States.
Many passengers are welcoming the new program and say it makes them feel safer.
Amtrak stresses this new program is not due to any specific threat and passengers will not be affected travel-wise.