Will Amtrak's increased security slow passengers?

This week,

Amtrak

announced plans to beef up security at stations and on trains. "Mobile Security Teams" made up of Amtrak police, plus "explosives-detecting K-9 units and armed counter-terrorism special agents in tactical uniforms" (does anyone know what a "tactical uniform" is?) will be screening passengers, randomly inspecting baggage, and patrolling stations.

In its

press release

, Amtrak insists these procedures won't affect train schedules. It says, "Random passenger baggage inspection is a quick process and typically will take less than a minute. The randomly-selected boarding passengers can expect the Mobile Security Team to move swiftly and in a minimally intrusive manner to ensure passenger travel time is not affected."

Let's hope so, because Amtrak's main selling point is that passengers don't have to spend a lot of extra time jumping through all the hoops (airport check-in, security lines, baggage claim, and so on) that make air travel a time-consuming process. Take the convenience factor away and you just have a slower, albeit often more comfortable way to get between cities.