The Sept. 11 hijackings forced officials at train stations, bus stations and airports nationwide to implement stricter security procedures and to assure the traveling public that trains, buses and airplanes are safe.
The visible changes -- which have been ordered by federal, state and local authorities -- have impacted the way people across America have traveled since last month's confidence-shattering atrocity occurred.
The Dartmouth visited two local hubs of transportation to find out how such national issues are impacting service, passengers and employees in the rural Upper Valley.
Lebanon Municipal Airport
Less than a month ago, passengers would have been milling through the tiny Lebanon Municipal Airport at 3 p.m., waiting for the 3:23 p.m. flight to Philadelphia, but the terminal was quiet and empty last Wednesday afternoon.
The daily flight was canceled in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack, becoming another casualty of the terrorist hijackings, which have pressed airlines economically and challenged the carefree attitude about air travel that used to exist in this country.
U.S. Airways Express, the only commercial carrier serving Lebanon, previously offered three daily flights to Philadelphia, two to New York and two to Boston. The number of flights per day has been slashed to four: two to LaGuardia, one to Boston, and one to Philadelphia.
In addition to the reduced commercial flight schedule, the airport has undergone constant reevaluation and revision of security procedures since the attacks.
Airport Manager Tim Edwards said the airport has received new procedural guidelines and security regulations every day from the Federal Aviation Administration since the attacks.
Maintaining a secure environment is "a changing, revising, evolving process," he said.
Traditionally, airlines have been solely responsible for passenger screening and aircraft security, Edwards said. But now Lebanon police officers assist airline employees during the passenger screening process. Police have also increased their visits and regular walk-throughs of the airport terminal.
Edwards said as far as he knew intensified screening had not yet resulted in anyone being prohibited from boarding a plane departing from Lebanon.
In addition to new screening procedures, Edwards said all of the combination locks to airport gates have been changed and efforts have been made to ensure that all airport employees identification badges are up-to-date.
He added that vehicles are now required to park further away from the airport building than was previously allowed.
According to Edwards, passengers "appreciate [security cautions] as opposed to the alternative," and they "have been very cooperative and understanding."
While he said "it is impossible to make a prediction" about how the attacks will affect air travel in the long run, he expects that passenger totals will decrease overall.
Prior to the terrorist attacks, the airport had seen an eight percent year-to-date passenger increase. For several years, the airport had also been trying to add additional commercial carrier service.
The current climate in which the economic stability of many airlines is uncertain has changed the prospects for the future of the airport's commercial passenger service.
Other current tenants of the city owned and operated airport, including car rental agencies and private planes, have resumed regular operations and routes.
White River Junction
Across the Connecticut River, at the train station in White River Junction, Vt., the travel schedule remains the same, but the security landscape has seen the same sort of elevation of intensity that has taken place at the airport.
Last week, Station Manager Bill Brigham asked Donna Greenwood of West Palm Beach, Fl., "Are you patriotic?" when she approached the ticket window.
"Yes, I am," she replied.
"Then let me see some ID," he said with a grin.
Greenwood wore a sweater designed as an American flag -- red and white stripes across the bulk, and a square of blue and stars at the right breast -- and responded enthusiastically.
It's a small procedural modification, but the ID check is just one of the changes in policy by the U.S. intercity rail service since the Sept. 11 incidents.
Prior to the attacks, passengers were able to simply arrive a few minutes before departure, pick up a ticket and hop aboard.
"We didn't have to do anything," Brigham noted, adding, "Now we have to make sure."
To that end, Amtrack's website now advises all passengers aged 18 and older that they will be expected to prove identity, by means of either a driver's license, state-issued non-driver ID, passport, employee or student ID.
Additionally, Amtrack employees are now required to ask passengers planning to check baggage the same questions posed by airlines in recent years ("has your bag been out of your immediate control"), according to Brigham.
Passenger and Dartmouth '98 Sarah Rainwater said simply asking travelers about their bags assumes that respondents will tell the truth about the contents of their luggage and packing methods they used. She said such a policy might not be stringent enough to ensure that harmful materials stay off of trains.
"I guess it's sort of strange that they ask for ID, but don't check out what's in your bag," she said.
Sentiment among the handful of passengers spread about the nearly silent terminal on Sept. 28, as they waited for the Vermonter route south, was largely relaxed on issues of both safety and new policy.
"People don't mind [the new security measures], they realize why it's happening," Brigham said, a point backed up by others who spoke to The Dartmouth.
"I feel good about [train travel]," Odessa Marks offered, "I think it's much safer than flying."
A man reading a novel in the corner concurred, stating simply that he felt, "Ten times more safe" with Amtrak.
Marks' mother, however, whispered only that she was "scared."
Rail safety concerns are likely far greater at more urban stations such as those in the Boston-Washington DC corridor. Brigham said that one issue to arise at Amtrak in recent weeks is the security of their tunnels.
Curiously, Brigham reported that the volume of Dartmouth students returning to school by rail, with massive bags in tow, has declined significantly this year.
None of the passengers contacted by The Dartmouth had elected to travel by train with the specific goal of avoiding the airports.
"I enjoy going by train -- I always take this to Connecticut," Lillian Mullally of St. Johnsbury, Vermont said. Mullally wore a U.S. flag ribbon pinned at her heart.
Next door at the New England Transportation Institute and Museum, a facility headed by Dartmouth Professor of Environmental Studies Norman Miller and bearing an entrance flanked on both sides by American flags rising out of plant pots, assistant curator and researcher Elizabeth Clark-Heider offered a theory on the relative calm.
"I expect rail travel to increase ... I think they're hiding out here," she said.
