Gazette.Net | Confrontation disturbs railroad enthusiasts

The train’s lights, he thought, would contrast with the blackness of night and create a unique shot Lijewski could sell to a national railroad magazine or post on his railroad enthusiast Web site.

But Lijewski, with his partner Kim Choate, who was also setting up for a shot, never got to snap it. Instead, the two photographers were forced to leave the Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) railroad property Aug. 25 after a MARC station employee called police to report suspicious activity.

‘‘This is a place where you can take pictures,” Lijewski said. ‘‘There’s no law against it.”

The two photographers said a Brunswick police officer asked them to leave, citing what he said was a little-known MTA policy that requires written permission to shoot photos from the area. MTA officials say they are unsure if such a policy exists, and met Monday to determine their policy on allowing or restricting photography there.

Brunswick Police Chief Donald Rough said the department received a call at about 4:45 a.m. from a MARC station employee who was concerned about suspicious activity. The railroad attracts several photographers, who usually take pictures during daylight hours, Rough said.

Police usually allow photographers to continue working once they speak with them.

‘‘Given the atmosphere in this country after the [terrorist] bombings in London and Madrid, people are going to be leery of people taking pictures in the dark,” Rough said of the call from the MARC train employee.

The MARC station employee told police that the Maryland Transit Administration, which owns the property, requires photographers to get written permission to shoot from the grounds, Rough said.

But Lijewski said MTA has no such policy, and said MTA officials even apologized to him when he was removed from a Baltimore station last month.

The Brunswick Police Department, which has concurrent jurisdiction of the property with MTA authorities, at the time was unaware of the exact policy, so the officer took the employee’s word, Rough said, and asked the photographers to leave.

After Lijewski was forced from MTA property and the parking lot, he said he asked the police officer if he could shoot from the parking lot’s road, Maple Avenue, which is owned by Brunswick.

‘‘[The officer] said, ‘I’m here to make sure you don’t do that,’” Lijewski said. ‘‘At that point, we just left.”

Brunswick police officers regularly patrol the railroad parking lot and yard, check on the photographers and usually, ‘‘if they’re just photographing, we move on,” Rough said Monday.

Without a written policy from MTA, Rough decided Tuesday that the department would not enforce it.

‘‘We’re stuck in the middle of this,” Rough said. ‘‘We didn’t make the policy. There needs to be some clarification from the folks from MTA. Do [photographers] or don’t they need written permission?”

This week, Rough sent an inter-department memo that clarified the policy the police department would enforce. Officers will respond to and investigate calls to the railroad yard, but allow photographers to continue working, according to the memo.

On Tuesday, Rough also spoke with an editor at the magazine for which Lijewski was freelancing and explained the police department’s intention to allow photographers in Brunswick until and unless MTA submits a written policy that forbids the activity.

‘‘We’re not going to get caught up in removing [a photographer] from public property,” Rough said. ‘‘They’re covered under the First Amendment.”

Glen Litsinger, an MTA spokesman, MTA Director James Hoover and MARC⁄MTA Director Ira Silverman said Tuesday they were unaware of a policy requiring photographers to submit written permission, however all said MTA policies have changed since the terrorist attacks on mass transit systems in other countries. MTA officials said they planned to meet Wednesday to discuss the administration’s policy, but details of the meeting were unavailable by The Gazette’s press time.

Silverman described three instances nationwide when mass transit systems have implemented no-photography rules.

In New York City, the subway system forbade photography until the ban was lifted for public relations purposes after heavy protest by more than 100 photographers. In Chicago, a no-photography rule that forbade picture taking was also quickly lifted when photographers protested, Silverman said.

And in New Jersey, the transit system still forbids anyone from shooting pictures of trains and buses unless they hold a special license.

‘‘It isn’t unique to the MTA,” Silverman said.

Lijewski, a Hartford County resident who travels roughly once per month to Brunswick to photograph trains, protested the eviction in a recent e-mail to Rough, city officials and local railroad enthusiasts who regularly shoot from the Brunswick station.

‘‘I’m running out of places to take pictures of trains. I can’t let this go on,” Lijewski said Monday. ‘‘At this point, we’re avoiding Brunswick, which is a shame. I don’t see any use in going back down until we get some kind of clarification.

‘‘We have photographed Brunswick trains many times over the past two years, at all hours of the day and night, and have never had a problem before,” Lijewski wrote in the e-mail. ‘‘We don’t mind being checked out by the police, but we do mind being thrown out of public places.”

The Brunswick railroad station at 40 W. Potomac St., is mainly a commuter station for MARC trains running to and from Washington, D.C. The tracks are owned and maintained by CSX for freight. MARC trains and Amtrak trains also use the rails.

The parking lot and station platform where Lijewski and Choate said they were setting up are property of MTA, while the through-road, Maple Avenue, is Brunswick city property.

Brunswick Mayor Carroll Jones said this week that Brunswick city allows and welcomes photographers to work from city property at the train station.

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