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Comment by kiba | Hacker News Reader

All these security for air travel but not for a train which is also full of lot of people felt bizarre.

Well, the impetus for enhanced airport security was first the spate of hijackings in the late '60s to early '80s, and later 9/11.

While you can hijack a train, you can't fly it to a friendly country, and you can't fly it into a building, so it's a very different threat model.

Locking cockpit doors has already solved both those problems.

Germanwings would like to have a word with you.

Are you referring to this?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525

Yeah, the first officer locked himself in then started descent into a mountain.

But how does a suicidal pilot apply to airport security?

..more like a homicidal pilot.

To be frank about it, trains are a much softer target, since they can be derailed with an explosion on the track, or even a bit of welding.

Blowing up an airplane requires either bringing an explosive on board, or the use of a rocket-propelled grenade or full-on missile. Quite aside from the risks of hijacking mentioned in a sibling comment.

However, blowing up a bomb on a cruising plane will probably kill everyone. Blowing up a bomb on a cruising train will probably not - many people will be far from the blast and derailing trains are more survivable than planes breaking up at altitude.

You can't hijack a train and take hostages to some other country; This was endemic in the 80s.

You also can't hijack a train and drive it into a building.

But is this still true for airplanes, given the switch to hardened cockpit doors?

Then you get Germanwings incidents

Which can't happen on trains and buses?

Buses, maybe. Trains: Nope. Doors are locked from the inside, usually aren't accessible while moving and even someone would get inside, well, you can't get off the tracks. You'll get a red signal and a forced braking shortly afterwards. It's really, REALLY hard (by design) to wreck something on purpose with a modern high speed train.

And in buses you can't really lock yourself out as a driver.

This is why electric trains are so nice: you can shut them off from the ground.

Which wasn't a hostage situation or a hijacking to get elsewhere, and it has nothing to do with the passenger security theater which is what this thread is about...

It is still true; Holding a train full of passengers hostage is foolish because there's no possibility that a train driver could disengage the rails.

Holding a plane full of passengers hostage is less foolish because the pilots/flight attendants can be bribed and bartered- it's not a technical impossibility to do certain actions, so there is more of an incentive.

You can divert it remotely by dispatch if the route is fully signalled. Trains cannot travel except what rails direct them to.

Shhhh, don't say it too loudly! The TSA is already trying to get their greasy fingers into train travel. :-(

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