Inter-ops?

[FireRescueMedic11]

I hear alot of local RR police activity on 161.2950mhz in New York City and Connecticut in New Haven from Amtrack,
but why is it that they have no Mutual aid freqs?...what system would transit police be on during an incident involving the rail road?

 

[DaveNF2G]

How do you know they have no mutual aid frequencies available? Just because you haven't heard any? Why would they use the mutual aid frequencies when there is no incident happening that requires their use?

 

[jaymatt1978]

I have heard "Amtrak Police" come up on NJ's SPEN1(154.6800) every now and then while they were at Penn Station. Also I know from previous listening both around here, in Philidelphia and Washington DC that they have 155.4750.When I was on the train I heard NJ Transit Police (160.8300) come over a portable. David's right just because you don't hear them, doesn't mean they can't transmit on a frequency.Another thing to keep in mind, even with the new V-Call and V-tac Channels, nobody said 155.4750 is going to be abandoned!

 

[N9JIG]

There are several Railroad Police agencies in the Chicago area that come up regularily on ISPERN (155.475) and other mutual aid channels. They also have access to local CPD Zones and Citywides owing to a program that Chicago PD started in 1980 to provide a radio to area police departments to facilitate Mutual Aid.

I imagine that railroad police in other Metro areas have similar arrangements.

 

[HM1529]

For the record, SEPTA (Philadelphia's multi-modal mass transit system) Police have probably the best interop arrangement in the entire Philly region. In fact, one of the Lt's at SEPTA PD has been a major driving force in getting the Philly metro area to think about interoperability.

SEPTA maintains a RIOS set-up that can be activated locally or remotely and can link numerous disparate systems together, if needed.

The biggest stumbling block, as I see it, is getting the people sitting at the consoles and the people holding mics in their hands to understand what they have available and what it can and cannot do.

SEPTA Transit Police operate on a conventional analog repeater in the 500MHz band. Philly PD J Band (flash announcements, admin traffic, etc) is continuously broadcast on SEPTA's dispatch channel since the majority of their work is in Philly.