Is it, though? There are a lot of trains where you can't even get to the locomotive while the train is moving, and I couldn't find any train accident in modern history[1] where all passengers died.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_disaster...
Put a bomb in a TGV, and you'll kill people nearby, but not in the other wagons. So it's not a particularly attractive target compared to say, a shopping mall.
Terrorists planned to derail one in the 1990s by destroying rails, they were thwarted beforehand. But even if they succeeded, TGV is designed specifically to resist derailment and not fold on itself like a regular train, so it's unlikely most passengers would have been killed.
Not sure about that. In 2015 they did a demo of a new TGV line and the train derailed just by going a little too fast in a curve [0]. It killed eleven people on board and injured 42 others.
The number of dead and injured is so low because there were very few people on board. If a bomb exploded on the first car of a TGV the number of casualties would be high.
So I stand by what I said and I claim once again that you only need one ill intentioned person with a firearm and everybody on board is basically done, they'd move across compartments and off everybody.
There are thousands of trains which all have that same vulnerability, so a coordinated attack would have a toll much higher than everything seen before.
People have a blindspot, they'd claim that such attack would never take place because the "production value" is not the same as explosive attacks.
I don't think hoping that ill intentioned people hold "production value" as rigorous parameter when planning an attack is a valuable strategy
It's not like a mall
> There is no multiplier effect
Your multiplier effect is the initial factor advantage of how easy it is to pack a firearm on a train.
A depressed kid could do it, easy target to recruit online, and doesn't even need firearm training considering that it would be as easy as shooting sardines in a barrel given the physical space in a train.
So basically an ill intentioned group would need to recruit 20 depressed kids , put them on 20 different trains departing at approximately the same time and they'd cause a toll in excess of everything seen before
A train is not a mall.
What if the train stops? This can be done by any personell quickly. Doors and windows of trains can be opened everywhere, they are designed that way. Stop the train, intercom and tell people to leave the train and the situation is over.
Chances are this will turn out differently than you assume
There are 100-200 people on a train, some have 300.
No security at all. You only need an ill intentioned guy with a gun and it's over for all those on board. They'd move across compartments and off everybody.
Multiply that by the amount of trains which travel everyday and you'd get a pretty chilling scenario.