I've taken an awful lot of pictures at LA Union Station and have never had a problem, with Amtrak, Private Security or Sheriff's, with and without my tripod. Commercial shoots are another matter, you definitely need permission. Alway's follow the direction of the security staff, and if there is a problem, post it. I have spoken with the Sheriffs on this, and they don't seem to have much of a problem in public areas.

Safety and the level of threat are the two real concerns. Since those doing nefarious surveillance could use a cell phone camera, stopping overt photographers wouldn't make much of a dent. Photographs are not that critical of intelligence about security of public facilities, and stopping it has shown no real benefits. Two issues appear to be the cause of these incidents 1) enforcing legitimate tresspassing and safety issues, and 2) low level types who are sometimes prone to throwing their weight around. The first is a legitimate reason, the second isn't, and does nothing for our safety or security in a free country, so report it, get the information and reportt that type of behavior to their superiors.

Amtrak's "policies" are another matter, the policies have been inconsistent and have even been clearly "screwy", and have vascillated based on the fear or bureaucratic mentality of the previous week. All security types would inherently take away all of your freedom, because they are naturally somewhat paranoid. So report any incidents and we will continue to try to work with these people to acheive some level of sanity regarding taking pictures of trains?