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Even if you were going fast enough, you couldn't take one and crash it anywhere you like.

Into the platform at Grand Central, maybe. Into the WTC and Pentagon, not so much.

Some kind of automatically enforced speed limiter when the train detects that it's near the end of the line would probably not be hard to implement, or maybe has been already. IIRC many trains automatically slow for curvy areas of track.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_train_control



You don't need anything that modern — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatische_treinbe%C3%AFnvlo... shows a 1950s electronic system which could reduce the speed to 40km/h. (Approaching a terminus stations counts as approaching a danger signal.)




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