[dijit]

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.

[anticensor]

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

[amelius]

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

[dijit]

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.

[Uberphallus]

Then you get Germanwings incidents

[amelius]

Which can't happen on trains and buses?

[endymi0n]

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.

[namibj]

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

[Uberphallus]

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

[slazaro]

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...