Retrograde
18th May 2009
Charles Stross, British science fiction writer (and one of my Recommended Writers; see right), finds out that travel in the U.S. is about as much fun as you would expect a government-controlled activity to be.
I caught an Amtrak train — the #513 from Seattle to Portland, business class. It was that, or fly (I don’t drive in the US), and I’m fed up with security theatre.
“Security theatre”, of course, being Bruce Schneier’s term for what goes on at airports — making it look like we have security without actually doing much.
I was gobsmacked by how slow and inefficient the process of catching the train in America feels, compared to even the ghastly suboptimization of Virgin or National Express in the UK, never mind Japan Rail. First you book the ticket and a seat. You have to present photo ID to claim a boarding card —like airline travel in the 1950s — an intrusive and annoying but not actually effective security measure. Then you check your bags — all but the two carry-ons you’re allowed— not less than an hour before departure. For boarding, there’s a long queue while all those folks who didn’t think to book a seat present their tickets at the gate and are issued with seat allocations. Only then do folks get to go on board the train — which makes boarding it a half-hour torment rather than a rapid, relatively painless rush.
Our tax dollars at work.