In a mix of Farsi and English, he said he would like to go to England. “There is no work here,” he said after mentioning a “problem with sending people away”.
He also talked about Ukraine, saying, “Not Ukraine, back to Switzerland,” after earlier declaring: “Democracy is not good. Not these people.”
Swiss media has speculated that the man could have been facing expulsion from Switzerland and was possibly suffering from psychological problems.
The man took the hostages at about 6.06pm on Thursday in the French-speaking Vaud region of Western Switzerland.
Police, alerted by passengers, sealed off the area while the train was stopped in the town of Essert-sous-Champvent.
Hostage negotiators spoke to the man, using a Farsi-speaking interpreter and the WhatsApp messaging platform. Snipers were also deployed during the stand-off.
After almost four hours, police took action when the man briefly moved away from his hostages.
Explosives were used to distract him and move him further from the hostages, as police stormed the train at about 10.15pm.
The dramatic moment when the explosions light up the dark around the train was captured by onlookers on their smartphones and shared online.