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Comment by 29athrowaway | Hacker News Reader

The case for the Real IDs and TSA and all that nonsense is mostly from air travel.

They are not required for trains and buses.

Surely high speed rail wouldn't reduce air travel to point where there isn't a push for TSA and Read IDs.

And it wouldn’t be long before high speed rail would require IDs anyway. There’s not some intrinsic reason why rail doesn’t require that stuff & it’s as much of a terrorist target as any other form of transportation.

I used to take Amtrak to/from Chicago 2-3 times a year, and once as I was headed back home TSA had set up shop at the Chicago station and was checking everyone.

I don’t travel by train these days so I have no idea whether that has happened again.

> it’s as much of a terrorist target as any other form of transportation.

I agree, which is why we should dismantle the TSA immediately. They provide negative value to this country.

A bomb on a train doesn’t bring down the train

Does it matter? The terrorists (eg TSA) are attracted to anything popular they can make up a plausible panic narrative about. If trains became popular, they'd set up shop at train stations. In fact I think they're already doing "spot check" performances to trains.

More importantly you don't need to be on the train, you could just be next to the trains rails...

Russia opens terrorist investigation after freight train derailed

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-opens-terrorist-...

Millions of Americans face risk of a toxic ‘bomb train’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/01/2...

    Less than a year ago, a disastrous train derailment sent a massive plume of dangerous chemicals billowing over East Palestine, Ohio, startling the town of nearly 5,000 residents and onlookers nationwide.

    Now, a new report warns that more of these catastrophes may loom: At any given moment, more than an estimated 3 million people are unknowingly at risk, as toxic trains full of a highly combustible and carcinogenic chemical used to make plastic move between Texas and New Jersey.

China has HSR. Does China have no domestic air travel?

It has HSR and security checkpoints, similar to what you'd find at an airport, at the stations. I was there over a decade ago, and that was already there.

> They are not required for trains and buses

...for now.

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