If you've already read today's Guardian you'll know that a trial of 'airport-style' security scanners is being planned for London as early as next month.
According to the paper "Ministers are expected to announce a trial of the scheme at London's Paddington station next month. If it is successful, body scanners and x-ray machines could be installed at other main stations."
The plans, which also includes "armed police scrutinising passengers", will most likely effect all long-distance train journeys, but for now the Paddington trial will be conducted on the Heathrow Express in order to determine how much 'disruption' will be caused.
Well, we can tell you the answer to that right now: loads and loads of disruption. And "a senior source with close knowledge of the scheme" agrees with us:
The assumption at the moment is that it would be impractical. The aim of the scheme is to see the impact of it.
According to the Guardian's source, passengers will have to walk through an 'arch': "It's quick if we don't find something, if we do find something, you're going to miss your train."
We needed an anonymous source to tell us that? And is it really the inconvenience factor that will cripple this idea, or will it be incidents similar to the arrest of David Mery a few months ago that will make the scheme unworkable?
If, by some miracle, the scheme is successful it will more than likely be rolled out to the Gatwick Express and possibly Kings Cross and Euston.
