The Great Train Robbery — Could You Steal Millions From a Train Today?

In 1963, a gang of thieves stopped a Royal Mail train in the English countryside and escaped with £2.6 million, one of the largest cash robberies in British history at the time. The operation involved careful planning, inside information, and a surprisingly simple manipulation of the railway signal system. But the world that made the robbery possible has largely disappeared. Today, cameras, GPS tracking, digital communications, forensic databases, and the decline of cash transportation would create obstacles the robbers never faced. So could someone pull off the Great Train Robbery today—or would modern technology expose the plot before the thieves ever got away?