Elgin - Area Metra riders soon will have to make room for a new kind of passenger along their daily commutes.

Metra announced Tuesday plans to allow security teams from the federal Transportation Security Administration to regularly patrol trains coming in and out of Chicago.

Metra spokeswoman Meg Reile said the measure was not in response to any specific threat to the trains, but rather part of an overall effort to enhance safety.

"We're concerned with the security of our system, and we are always taking measures to ensure the safety of our system and our passengers," she said. "And this is just added personnel who can help us do that."

Known as Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response, or VIPR, teams are composed of federal air marshals, surface transportation security inspectors, transportation security officers, explosives detection canine teams and behavior detection officers, who look out for passengers displaying suspicious activity. VIPR was formed in response to the 2004 commuter train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.

Reile said Metra has employed VIPR in the past during special events such as the election night rally for President Barack Obama in Chicago's Grant Park, as well as the Taste of Chicago.

Though plans will call for uniformed officers to patrol trains, Federal Air Marshals Service Special Agent Nelson Minerly said that although plans call for uniformed officers to patrol trains, other measures -- such as the use of plain-clothes officers -- are an option.

"It's a relationship between the TSA and the local stakeholders in law enforcement as to what kind of security enhancements they want to put in place," he said.

Reaction among those who ride the trains locally were mixed, as some questioned the effectiveness of having added security details especially during times when large and rowdy crowds are on board.

"I don't know how they can really do anything - I mean, how can they really stop anything?" asked Dave McCracken, of Roscoe. "If a person wants to blow up the train and they have a bomb in their suitcase, how are they going to know that - so it's like what's the point?"

"It's not going to stop anything," said Connie Koester of Elgin. "Just more government."

Other riders welcomed the added security measures, such as Willie Bell, of Bellwood, who said such actions probably should have been implemented much sooner.

"Since 9/11, a Metra train or Amtrak is something easy that someone like a terrorist could easily get on," he said. "Just now that they're just now starting I would say is a little too late."