I had not heard about the Times Square car bomb incident, which occurred while I was on the train to New York City, and did not expect what I found at Penn Station: armed men in military uniforms with bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling the station.

I did not find that nearly as intimidating as going through airport security, though.

“The Transportation Security Administration has been one of the largest, most expensive and most visible blunders of the post-9/11 homeland security reformation,” reads a WhiteHouse.gov petition created by Eran C. of Philomath, Ore. “It has violated countless constitutional rights of average Americans, caused miserable and expensive delays in an already-overburdened air travel system, and allowed multiple known instances of harassment, theft, extortion and sexual abuse by its employees. It has failed approximately 70 percent of undercover efficacy tests, and for all its excesses, has been unable to catch even a single terrorist since its creation.”

The fickle measures taken to secure airports in the U.S. limits use of air travel. It is far less time-consuming and invasive to step onto a train with a suitcase than to stand in line with a backpack for 45 minutes only to have your undergarments searched, your toothpaste examined, and your body scanned.

These measures are inconsistent across airlines and airports. TSA guidelines are not the final say on what is allowed in an airport or on a plane; the airline and the airport itself are. The lack of uniformity makes the presence of the TSA even more confusing.

Given the security measures with other forms of mass transportation, the TSA’s presence is even more questionable.

The train route I take when I travel home runs directly through Washington, D.C., where there is an hour-long layover. This stop is made at Union Station, a major transportation hub in our nation’s capital. Passengers are allowed to step off the train to smoke at this station.

After Union Station, the train’s final destination — New York’s Penn Station — is only a few hours away. This same station had a military presence in the wake of Sept. 11 and following the Times Square car-bombing incident, but apparently is not deemed worthy of protection by the TSA.

The inconsistencies in regulations make air travel frustrating and confusing, and make the TSA’s protection less effective. Moreover, the lack of TSA protection in modes of transportation besides air travel makes the complicated protection of airports seem meaningless.

Protecting only one form of transportation ineffectively undermines the entire system.