Everyone’s joking but this is a serious problem. Imagine you’re a billionaire and someone wants to assassinate you. The would-be assassin could figure out when you have a doctor’s appointment (or similar) and force a train to get stuck, blocking their route.
It would leave the billionaire stuck in traffic with no escape until the train(s) started moving again. An entire cavalcade of security personnel would also be stuck (if they had one).
Aside: It could also work for robbing something like a Brinks truck but let’s be honest: In this dystopian world it’s more likely that this vulnerability would be used to rob a food shipment 🙄
Temporarily stopping a train has only so many useful applications for crime, sabatage or terrorism. Might be useful to rob a train if you can stop it in a remote location and steal some high value goods, but realistically most goods are either bulk commodities or shipping containers which are intentionally difficult to identify the contents of when closed. Basically you’re just forced to open some containers and hope you find goods valueble enough to resell and make the risk worth the reward
Potentially you could stop a train with some auto racks and steal the vehicles but the VINs will be immediately marked as stolen so the resale value is immediately trashed, plus you’d have to figure out the logistics of getting the vehicles off of a train stopped in the middle of nowhere (they use specialized ramps to drive the vehicles onto and off of the ends of the train when loading and unloading)
From a terrorism/nation state perspective maybe if you can fly some planes overhead and keep spamming a stop signal for a few days you might be able to cause some logistics chaos by stopping all trains in the vicinity of a busy railroad yard, but given modern flight tracking that’s extremely identifiable. Better to setup unmanned ground transmitters but that runs the risk of being caught/identified too quickly, and wireless signal triangulation is so easy there’s even hobbiest events where people try to manually triangulate a signal for fun. Maybe if an attacked setup several base stations around the country and only sent the brake application signal extremely rarely they could lower rail reliability enough to cause some issues but to cause enough trouble to actually be useful from a nation state/terrorism point of view they’d have to show their cards. Honestly a terrorist or sabatuer is probably better off just blowing up a few bridges and tunnels which would be far more effective
I’m curious to see how you’ll haul away 19,600 gallons of corn syrup, 3,900 bushels of grain, 100 tons of random auto parts, 80 tons of paper reams, 70 tons of logs, 13,000 gallons of ammonia (or other dangerous chemicals), and the various other things that typically get shipped via rail these days.
You might get lucky and find a boxcar full of canned goods 👍
…or maybe even actual cars but… How would you get them off the train without the necessary equipment/track setup? 🤔
You know a good heist always needs that genius mechanic who can bodge a mechanical solution to such practical problems, or just have a flatbed truck with a crane or something.
If this were a movie, it’d end up with an 18-wheeler and whatever nonsense would be required to steal a whole train car. XD
The 18 wheeler gets picked up by a heavy lift helicopter and the hero has to jump on the truck from the top of a parking garage, fight the driver, then climb the cables to get to the gunners and pilot.
Or they can just get their IED on if they know the route and timeline to the degree that they can stop a train AFTER the point of no return. Otherwise it is just “Oh. 4th street is closed. I guess we’ll take 8th street instead”
Its a problem. On the grand list of problems… it should be higher than it is but not all that much higher.
Everyone’s joking but this is a serious problem. Imagine you’re a billionaire and someone wants to assassinate you. The would-be assassin could figure out when you have a doctor’s appointment (or similar) and force a train to get stuck, blocking their route.
It would leave the billionaire stuck in traffic with no escape until the train(s) started moving again. An entire cavalcade of security personnel would also be stuck (if they had one).
Aside: It could also work for robbing something like a Brinks truck but let’s be honest: In this dystopian world it’s more likely that this vulnerability would be used to rob a food shipment 🙄
Imagine being so poor you’re driven to a doctor’s appointment rather that having them come to you.
Temporarily stopping a train has only so many useful applications for crime, sabatage or terrorism. Might be useful to rob a train if you can stop it in a remote location and steal some high value goods, but realistically most goods are either bulk commodities or shipping containers which are intentionally difficult to identify the contents of when closed. Basically you’re just forced to open some containers and hope you find goods valueble enough to resell and make the risk worth the reward
Potentially you could stop a train with some auto racks and steal the vehicles but the VINs will be immediately marked as stolen so the resale value is immediately trashed, plus you’d have to figure out the logistics of getting the vehicles off of a train stopped in the middle of nowhere (they use specialized ramps to drive the vehicles onto and off of the ends of the train when loading and unloading)
From a terrorism/nation state perspective maybe if you can fly some planes overhead and keep spamming a stop signal for a few days you might be able to cause some logistics chaos by stopping all trains in the vicinity of a busy railroad yard, but given modern flight tracking that’s extremely identifiable. Better to setup unmanned ground transmitters but that runs the risk of being caught/identified too quickly, and wireless signal triangulation is so easy there’s even hobbiest events where people try to manually triangulate a signal for fun. Maybe if an attacked setup several base stations around the country and only sent the brake application signal extremely rarely they could lower rail reliability enough to cause some issues but to cause enough trouble to actually be useful from a nation state/terrorism point of view they’d have to show their cards. Honestly a terrorist or sabatuer is probably better off just blowing up a few bridges and tunnels which would be far more effective
Now that is the kind of story that would trigger a new attempt to fix this.
I don’t see a problem in your hypothetical scenario 🤔
It’s like playing Mario Kart on Kalamari Desert. Sometimes you’re stuck waiting for a train and Luigi pulls up behind you.
I can finally enact my Red Dead Redemption 2 fantasy and rob a train.
Yeah! Go for it!
I’m curious to see how you’ll haul away 19,600 gallons of corn syrup, 3,900 bushels of grain, 100 tons of random auto parts, 80 tons of paper reams, 70 tons of logs, 13,000 gallons of ammonia (or other dangerous chemicals), and the various other things that typically get shipped via rail these days.
You might get lucky and find a boxcar full of canned goods 👍
…or maybe even actual cars but… How would you get them off the train without the necessary equipment/track setup? 🤔
Stop the train and lock it down and hold it ransom. Refuse to release the train’s brakes until they pay $[desired amount].
He has a god damn plan, Arthur!
You know a good heist always needs that genius mechanic who can bodge a mechanical solution to such practical problems, or just have a flatbed truck with a crane or something.
If this were a movie, it’d end up with an 18-wheeler and whatever nonsense would be required to steal a whole train car. XD
The 18 wheeler gets picked up by a heavy lift helicopter and the hero has to jump on the truck from the top of a parking garage, fight the driver, then climb the cables to get to the gunners and pilot.
Billionaires take private jets or helicopters.
No, they have the doctor driven out to see them.
To a doctor appointment? Where are they gonna land? Not every hospital or building has a waiting helipad just ready for joe billionaire.
If the doctor is unimportant enough to have a helipad, the doctor can come to the billionaire.
Not the ones you can afford! Lol
The bigger hospitals most likely do have a helipad.
All 3 in my town have one and it’s only 160k population.
They certainly don’t take trains in the US, that’s for sure.
Or they can just get their IED on if they know the route and timeline to the degree that they can stop a train AFTER the point of no return. Otherwise it is just “Oh. 4th street is closed. I guess we’ll take 8th street instead”
Its a problem. On the grand list of problems… it should be higher than it is but not all that much higher.
OK, I’m waiting for this movie. Go on, draw stuff. I’ll wait right here. Could the good guy be Jacky Chan please?