All The Hidden Details Of Vladimir Putin’s ‘Ghost Train’ – SlashGear

According to reports, one of the major reasons that Putin has taken to using this train to travel around Russia more frequently in recent times is that it is much harder to track than other forms of transportation. While world leaders and other important officials often use airplanes to get around, this can unintentionally make them very visible. After all, it is difficult to hide a huge jet that needs a lot of preparation and requires an airport to take off and land.

There’s also the added fact that aircraft are easy to track electronically. Easily available websites and apps allow users to chart almost every civilian aircraft in the world via transponders and radar. Trains, on the other hand, generally don’t have this sort of tracking as they don’t need transponders for the same safety reasons as airplanes do. As former Russian Federal Security Service (FSO) captain Gleb Karakulov explained to CNN, “The train, it is used in order to somehow hide these movements.”

For added secrecy, Putin’s train also doesn’t have any identifying numbers like standard trains in Russia and also does not appear on timetables, meaning it isn’t announced at any stations it passes through. All of this makes it difficult to know exactly where the locomotive is without seeing it in person and ensures Putin can travel in relative secrecy. There is also a suggestion that Putin is afraid his presidential jet could be shot down, making the train safer for him.