As a kid my older sisters told be this joke, which took years for me finally to understand:

There's a kid fishing in the park. The fishing inspector comes along and says, "Can't fish here." The kid responds, puzzled, "I don't know sir?"

That's a long way from what I'm talking about but there is a tenuous link in my mind anyway.

A fellow train enthusiast Chris Stratton was taking photographs on Towradgi Railway Station in the Illawarra (pictured at right; the picture is from Wikipedia and used under the terms of their Creative Commons licence). He narrates his experience here:

After listing his sightings, Chris said:

 

 I was also approached by the female station attendant (not sure of job
titles these days) and informed I was not allowed to photograph trains due
to security reasons. I challenged her legal basis for saying this and said
it was OK as long as it was for private purposes and I wasn't in the way.
She then said "you know they can see you on the cameras?". I replied that I
did know and it was OK. I was located at the far south end of the down
platform and behind the yellow line. She came back later and said she had
rung "someone" and was told they were aware of me being there and as long as
I wasn't obstructing anyone and stayed behind the yellow line I was allowed
to stay.

Text from 'ausloco' email discussion group.

A recent Railway Digest article stated that there is no legal impediment for stopping people with cameras from taking photos of trains from public places (like railway platforms). But low-ranking station staffers do not know this. To give the station assistant her due, she may have been unaware of the law but was trying to be a conscientious and earnest employee. That's a good thing to see. 

Nevertheless, methinks Cityrail ought to provide some more education for its employees.

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Stephen   |source122.148.209.184 |07-07-2009 08:00:10 Low ranking staff are not told, because the management don't know what the policy is, and they just bluff. In fact, the policy is still in draft form. If you have a valid ticket, you can't be moved on but it is sometimes better to move on if staff go stupid with the power they believe they have. I've been threatened with arrest by Senoir Transit officers when I asked them what right they had to hassle me. When I informed them of the fact Cityrail has no policy, one started to get in my face. So I then produced employee pass and ID. Asked for their ID's then. After supplying and apologising profusely, they took off after some other poor soul. Reply | Quote 0   0

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