Amtrak officials, who declined to be interviewed for broadcast, said security procedures at Union Station and others had been as they put it -- "recently upgraded." The procedures include a new requirement that passengers 18 years and older must have a photo identification card -- such as a driver's license. Also, riders will no longer be able to buy tickets on board a train after it's left the station - only at the ticket counter. Passengers are also advised to come earlier than usual before departure time because of expected delays due to "security checks such as bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling the rail tracks and helicopter surveillance of the station.

Some of the passengers waiting in the ticket line or strolling through Union Station had this on their mind.

Person: I have no problem traveling. I don't worry about it. I could get hit crossing the street near my house - at least in my neighborhood. Just taking it a day at a time here and making sure I cooperate with everybody's here to make their jobs here and trust they're taking care of us and doing the right things. I'm taking the train for the first time in years.

Reporter: It's not because you're worried about taking a plane?

No. but my wife is…. You have to worry, you have to be concerned. It's just a fact of life at the moment. I really don't know how one deals with it. You have to go about what you go about doing …I had a plane ticket and I just didn't do it [take the flight]. So far I feel really safe. I had a plane ticket I didn't use. I just didn't feel comfortable and knew I'd be a little more comfortable on a train -- so what matters is what makes somebody feel comfortable or not especially in these times. …I flew from Denver to Pittsburgh and then I felt a little apprehensive. But not on the train. It just doesn't seem as menacing as the plane. It doesn't hurt as much if it falls. [LAUGHTER]

As a steady stream of people queue up at Amtrak ticket counters inside Union Station, in downtown Washington, D.C.the scene at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia,is far different. There is an almost eerie silence, which one passenger sums up this way:

Passenger: It's awful[ly] slow. I think you can play a soccer game in the middle of the terminal and not hit anybody. This place is as empty as you would expect at four a.m. on Christmas morning.

At many concession stands inside the airport which sell things like jewelry, sunglasses, or pretzels and drinks -- employees sit or stand motionless behind booths with nothing to do.

Judith Ware is a volunteer with the Travelers' Aid Society, whose members answer travelers' questions. When I met her at her information desk, she was reading a paperback novel.

Ware: Normally, I've had maybe 50 contacts. Today I've had maybe 20, if that many. So people just are not flying right now. It really bothers me. TWA isn't flying , and of course that means jobs. I'm just really worried about what's going on right here. Some stores are opening at one clock [p.m.] that were opening in the morning, some at ten, some at nine. I don't know what's going to happen. We've got to get people more confident about flying. Then they'll show up.

Judith Ware turns around to look out the giant glass window at the airport runway. Two planes are parked. Nothing is moving.

Ware: Too few planes. One of the reasons I volunteered at the airport, is I love watching planes take off and land. But that doesn't mean I'll stop volunteering. I'm hoping it'll pick up.

Reagan National Airport was closed for three weeks following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, and when it re-opened October 4th, service was sharply curtailed. The Department of Transportation severely limited flights from about 700 to only 190 a day because of the airport's close proximity to the White House and the U-S Capitol buildings. Transportation officials recently announced they would double flights starting in a week. But the airport will still be serving only half the number of travelers it did before the September 11th attacks. The Transportation Department is reportedly monitoring the effectiveness of the airport's new security system before it approves a return to normal flight schedules:

Reporters talked to an airline ticket sales agent named Adrienne, she declined to give her last name -- and she described some of the security system:

Adrienne: Every day you come and see [soldiers with] the army reserves with the M-16's standing at the security point. We have policemen standing at the gate, watching the passengers going on the aircraft. So that is something we'll have for a long time, but at the same time we're kind of happy about it. The passengers seem to feel that they like it. When we have searches on board the aircraft, things like that, the passengers seems to be very happy that's what we're doing.

There are many things we look at but we can't reveal and many people [in plain clothes] wandering around that are observing, also.

It is the directive to have sky marshals [armed police] aboard the aircraft. They [security officials] don't want everything revealed, but, yes, there are sky marshals flying aboard. How many and at what point, I won't say.

Reporter: Is the [sky marshal's] gun visible?

Adrienne: No.

Reporter: So he or she could be a passenger, looks like a passenger?

Adrienne: One would think.

In Dallas Texas, at the corporate headquarters of Greyhound Bus Lines, spokeswoman Kristin Parsley describes a new security practice put in place at some of its 26-hundred bus terminals nationwide. Ms. Parsley says an officer waves a hand-held electronic sensory device or wand -- around a rider who's about to board a bus. Ms. Parsley says passengers refusing to be "wanded" would not be allowed on board but would get a full refund. One observer of the nation's transportation woes says he wishes somebody would "wave a magic wand" over transportation security in the hopes the troubles and worries would go away.