Amtrak Workers' Union Attacks Plan to Allow Guns on Trains

By Olivia Hart

A policy scheduled to take effect in January 2027 would allow passengers to carry firearms in lock boxes at their seats on roughly 1,500 additional Amtrak trains a day — and the union representing 360 onboard service workers calls the plan "sheer lunacy."

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) denounced the forthcoming protocols this week. The plan permits passengers to bring guns aboard US intercity trains in personal lock boxes, a departure from Amtrak's current practice of storing firearms in secure baggage cars on a limited number of long-distance routes.

"You can't walk on to a plane with a gun, it has to be checked with your luggage and stowed away," John Feltz, International Rail Division director of the TWU, said in a statement. "So why allow guns in passenger cars on trains where there are also passengers in confined spaces? This is sheer lunacy."

How would the lock box system work?

Under the protocols as described by the union, a gun owner would bring a cased weapon to an Amtrak station agent. The agent would attach an Amtrak-owned combination lock. The passenger would then carry the locked case onboard. At the arrival station, another agent would remove the Amtrak lock.

Feltz flagged two failure points. "A case or lock could be defective, or an enraged rider could use brute force to access a weapon," he said. "Either scenario will endanger the lives of riders and our members working on trains."

The system's mechanics matter more than its framing. A lock that two strangers apply and remove at different stations leaves no one accountable in between.

What changes from today's rules?

Amtrak currently allows guns only on a few long-distance trains, stored in secure baggage cars away from passengers. The new policy would bring locked firearms into passenger cars on an additional 1,500 trains a day nationwide, according to Brian Delucia, staff representative at TWU International.

The expansion covers routes carrying about 750,000 riders daily in Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, including the carrier's busiest services connecting Washington, New York and Boston. That is a shift from a niche baggage-car allowance to a daily default on the most crowded trains in the country.

Why is Amtrak doing this?

Amtrak had previously said it was considering the policy amid pressure from the Trump administration to ease restrictions on transporting weapons, but it had announced no timeline. The January 2027 start date, disclosed by the union, is the first concrete schedule attached to the plan.

Amtrak did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company's silence leaves the union's account as the only detailed description of the protocols in circulation — a gap worth noting before January 2027 arrives.

The administration's role deserves scrutiny too. A national carrier changing firearms rules under stated political pressure raises the question of whether the policy responds to operational evidence or to lobbying priorities.

What is the union demanding?

The TWU called on the federal government to reverse the policy. It noted that many Amtrak stations have no Amtrak staff and no law enforcement presence to respond if something goes wrong.

That staffing gap turns the lock box procedure into a logistical problem, not only a safety debate. An arrival station without an agent cannot remove an Amtrak-owned lock, and an unstaffed departure station cannot apply one.

The bottom line: the policy's viability depends on station staffing levels that the union says do not exist, and Amtrak has yet to explain how it will bridge that gap before the January 2027 launch.