Penn Station - Targeted for IED Threat?

There's little doubt that major transportation hubs in the US are potential targets for terrorist attacks. It's in the news fairly frequently here in NYC. This blog discusses the terrorist/IED threat at Penn Station. I thought about this when commuting to NYC and now when I take the subway in the city. I can say that police presence is generally strong at Penn Station, at subway stations and on the subway cars themselves. This doesn't mean there won't be an attack but I've observed a vigilant security presence at Penn Station and NYC transportation systems, it's comforting at least.

NEC continues to be Amtraks busiest route with 5.7 million passengers, increase from 5.4 million from same period year prior

The total number of Amtrak riders reached 14.3 million, a 5 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

The biggest growth between October and March was in Amtra's short-distance routes outside the U.S. Northeast, with more than 12.3 million passengers traveling. Amtrak's NEC continued to be the railroa's busiest route, with 5.7 million passengers traveling during the first seven months of Amtrak's fiscal year.

This is good that Amtrak is seeing increased ridership. Will this keep fares flat? I doubt it, they'll likely continue to push through fare increases year over year. I've heard no news on commuter Smart Pass pricing being revisited, so it's still a lot to commute from Philly to NYC.

This info obtained from the M&C site.

"All of New York is moving to Philadelphia"

Blog posting about New Yorkers relocating to Philly. Interesting post though I don't think all the info is totally accurate.

Phi-NYC commuter story in AM NY: "An eight-hour commute, no joke"

Nice article about a woman's commute from Philadelphia to NYC. Her commute is 4 hours, one way! She drives to her local Septa station in Ambler to train into to Center City, then hops a different Septa train to Trenton, and then gets a NJT to Penn Station and finally takes the subway to her office in Tribeca. Monthly cost is $550 the article says including all train and parking fees. That's tough but for those of you reviewing commuting options to NYC this is an important read. There's a video interview with her as well that's worth seeing.