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Comment by cheerlessbog | Hacker News Reader

> Slow security is not inherent to air travel; it's something that was tacked on by politicians.

Air travel requires security because it's uniquely vulnerable to bombs and hijack. That is why high speed trains require little or no security checks.

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While there might not be much value in hijacking a train, it’s still a tube full of people packed in close proximity. At the point US train travel picks up, expect to see DHS running the same kind of security checkpoints for high speed rail that they do at airports.

Whether it's the same type/degree of security as airports, which likely adds very little over basic scanning, it wouldn't take a lot for calls to have long distance train travel institute the same level of security as is common at concerts, government buildings, some libraries/museums, etc.

Having people go through a metal detector and scanning their baggage on entering a train station is very viable and occasionally done (I think Paris did that). But usually checks are fast since they have to conform to existing train schedules.

High speed trains go through city centers and are vulnerable to bombs

Yes, but it's hard to use a train the way the 9/11 attacks used planes. They were able to take the planes and magnify the damage, casualties, and spectacle and they had a high degree of freedom in picking targets. Much harder to pull that off with a train; you'd make the news, but not stun the world.

I have never understood why, post 9/11, planes were not modified to remove the cabin to cockpit door, and make the cockpit door a separate entrance. This would more or less completely remove the possibility of a second 9/11 attack, and would render airplanes no more attractive a target than any other group of several hundred people.

That might be inconvenient, because aircraft staff sometimes needs to talk to pilots or make them sign some documents.

Also, the pilots would need their own bathroom.

The cockpit door was reinforced and can’t be easily broken down now. That has achieved effectively the same thing.

Pilots need access to a toilette, but also there are rare cases where pilots need to look out of side windows. There's also flights with crew changes. And the very rare case of crew incapacitation. A case where a pilot needed to gain access to the cockpit but couldn't, Germanwings Flight 9525.

Likely cheaper to make a tougher door than build a new entrance and moving arm for people thing.

How is that any different than roads and sidewalks?

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