4 ms·
All these security for air travel but not for a train which is also full of lot of people felt bizarre.
by kiba 8y ago
All these security for air travel but not for a train which is also full of lot of people felt bizarre.
- dijit 8y agoYou 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.
- amelius 8y agoBut is this still true for airplanes, given the switch to hardened cockpit doors?
- Uberphallus 8y agoThen you get Germanwings incidents
- amelius 8y agoWhich can't happen on trains and buses?
- endymi0n 8y agoBuses, 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.
- Uberphallus 8y agoAnd in buses you can't really lock yourself out as a driver.
- namibj 8y agoThis is why electric trains are so nice: you can shut them off from the ground.
- slazaro 8y agoWhich 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...
- dijit 8y agoIt 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.
- anticensor 8y agoYou can divert it remotely by dispatch if the route is fully signalled. Trains cannot travel except what rails direct them to.
- donaltroddyn 8y agoWell, 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.
- hanoz 8y agoLocking cockpit doors has already solved both those problems.
- Uberphallus 8y agoGermanwings would like to have a word with you.
- JamesBarney 8y agoAre you referring to this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525
- Uberphallus 8y agoYeah, the first officer locked himself in then started descent into a mountain.
- vonzeppelin 8y agoBut how does a suicidal pilot apply to airport security?
- ant6n 8y ago..more like a homicidal pilot.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- samatman 8y agoTo 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.
- NLips 8y agoHowever, 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.
- phyzome 8y agoShhhh, don't say it too loudly! The TSA is already trying to get their greasy fingers into train travel. :-(