The dastardly would-be evildoers (picture is from the article)"A TSSA spokesman said: “At our meeting in York with National Express management we were categorically told that trainspotting is being banned without exception."
Total number of rail crimes committed by trainspotters or accidents involving them after so many years? Zero.
Yes, barring the harmless rail nerds from taking pictures of their favorite choo-choos will do much to stop terrorism, I'm sure.
One spotter named Roger comments on how ludicrous this whole action is:
"'Trainspotters may be seen as a bit odd but we are friends of the railways. We don’t smash it up, steal cables or blow ourselves to bits — so why are they picking on us?'"
Actually, I think maybe Roger's on to something: Why not use these enthusiasts' great love for the trains and enlist them as volunteer watchmen? I would wager that no one cares for the rail system more than these people, and they would probably hang, draw and quarter anyone with nefarious intent who got anywhere near their precious trains.
Free security, and the spotters get to watch to their heart's content. It's a win all around. Makes perfect sense, which is precisely why none of the powers-that-be over there will ever think of it.
In addition, most of the peasants there probably don't even care about the issue, as they have already been brainwashed to meekly give up ever-increasing amounts of their freedoms on demand anyway, as evidenced by one anonymous (and illiterate) commenter on the story:
"It would be better to loose [sic] a few so called civil iberties [sic] and perhaps bring an end to this hobby for a few people than to have go around picking up body parts like they had to do in London and Madrid"
Sickening, and not a little frightening. I wonder which "iberties" such as freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the like it would take losing for that person to finally say "enough is enough"?
Probably not even all of them, sadly.
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It's true about it being an old hobby. I'm reading "The Railway Children," a circa 1900 book, which discusses this.
For my kids. Really. But yeah, I'm enjoying it, too.
Of course, if the threat of sabotage is so great at Britrail, maybe they should cut subsidies, eh? You can't bomb a train that never took on a passenger, after all.
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