The TSA is Amtrak's Best Friend

Remember all the talk about "Opt-Out Day" the day before Thanksgiving when air travelers were to show their disdain for invasive TSA procedures by opting out of the nakie scanners?  Turns out many of the busiest airports shut off the nakie scanners to keep from having problems, and many people just decided to skip air travel altogether and take the train:

Amtrak carried a record number of passengers during the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the latest figures from the rail agency.

Amtrak said it carried 704,446 passengers during the Thanksgiving travel week, an increase of 2.7 percent over 2009. The day before Thanksgiving was the busiest day in the railroad’s history, officials said in a statement, with 134,230 passengers.

You can board most Amtrak trains with no security screening whatsoever, and to my knowledge nobody tried to hijack any trains or drive them into places they weren't supposed to go.  Amtrak had a good weekend, though the rest of us paid for it since I believe taxpayer subsidies are required for every Amtrak passenger in order to keep the system solvent.