Why trains aren’t driverless

Question

I really don’t see the need to have a driver in a vehicle on rails.

In: 8

Answer 1

Trains aren’t just stop and go machines.

They need speed control, active braking, the judgement of what to do in an emergency.

I have a friend who is a train driver, what they do is basically override the trains preferred state, which is complete stop. They have to press the equivalent of a dead man switch every 30 seconds or so to keep the engines moving.