Train spotters are potential terrorists in the UK
31st May 2003 by Simon
There was a story in the UK last year when fourteen English plane spotters were arrested on spying charges in Greece after they had been sitting outside air bases making notes and taking photo’s. It was viewed with some amusement in the English press, that the Greek authorities could have thought these plainly harmless people might have been a threat. In fact one BBC news headline was “How did plane-spotters end up as spies?”
Now there’s reports that train spotters in the UK are being forced to move off railway platforms in the UK for “anti-terror security”. I know it sounds like a joke, but this is actually happening. The National Rail spokesperson is quoted
“We do have issues with people coming along to take photographs on our stations. We do allow people to do it if they phone us in advance so we can arrange for the station to be told that people will be turning up, they know they are there and who they are.How ridiculous is this? The stations are drenched in CCTV coverage so the chances of a hostile train spotter bring a weapon on to the platforms is near to zero. It also supposes that either terrorist don’t know how to use a phone to get advanced clearance, or that they wouldn’t be prepared to lie to get it.“It could be any sort of terrorist activity or whatever. Unless we know who these people are, and what they are doing, it’s best to be on the safe side.”
Reading the stories from people who have experienced this, it appears that the security personnel are using heavy handed, bullying tactics to move them on and are taking advantage of the implicit good nature of the trainspotters.
It’s not clear where the “security” guidance is coming from but the final paragraph is telling
a meeting of US security officials in Washington in March reportedly classified “people sitting on train platforms who appear to be monitoring the timing of arrivals and departures” as suspicious behavior.I’d like to know where the security risk actually is and if the danger is that they might note down the arrival and departure times of the trains, well, isn’t that the kind of information that the timetable is supposed to provide - oh no, of course, this is the UK - it will bear no correlation. Perhaps that will be the next excuse for the trains not running on time - it’s an anti-terrorist measure.
What is happening to the UK that in a year we can go from sniggering about another countries paranoia, to actually implementing the same draconian rules?
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we need to start a trainspotters organisation in order to prevent our hobby becoming exstinct!
reply with comments,
lee