This particular train incident seems to have gotten a lot of press. I don't think it's a new issue, though. Railroad police have existed for as long as the ra

This particular train incident seems to have gotten a lot of press. I don't think it's a new issue, though. Railroad police have existed for as long as the railroad has existed. The way I see it, the railroad police were napping and as a result, Union Pacific's insurance company is going to make a slightly smaller profit this month. If this becomes widespread, Union Pacific can implement mitigations to reduce the number of trains that are robbed or pay higher insurance premiums. If they raise prices to cover the insurance premiums, then customers can use BNSF instead. I'm not sure what government measures would be more helpful than the free market here. Let's say the state executes everyone who tresspasses on railroad property. This is extremely costly, which takes resources away from other governmental functions. And, we tried this with murder, and the results don't seem that good. Murder rates in areas with the death penalty are not lower in areas that abolished the death penalty. Criminals plan to not get caught, so the consequences aren't a deterrent. My conclusion is that being tough on crime doesn't really change much. A slightly better lock on the containers would probably be the winning solution here.