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- Delaney Sawyer via Fortune | FORTUNE
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- Society·6 min to read
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US Transit Agencies Move Toward Driverless Trains as Washington and Los Angeles Plan Automated Lines
ReUS Transit Agencies Move Toward Driverless Trains as Washington and Los Angeles Plan Automated Lines
Washington and Los Angeles are advancing plans for automated rail service, even as the U.S. trails many countries in driverless transit and the safety debate continues.
Almost every mass transit system in the United States still requires a driver or operator on board, even as robotaxis and other automated road vehicles become more common. Two major cities are now trying to change that. Officials in Washington, D.C., have advanced a plan that could allow computers to fully control one of the Metro subway lines, while Los Angeles is seeking to build a new, completely automated line.
Both projects would take years to carry out and still face financial and technical hurdles. They arrive amid a long-running debate over the safety risks and benefits of automated trains, and over whether the large upfront cost is justified by long-term savings in labor. Honolulu already operates an automated line, the most extensive driverless transit system in the country, and it is set to stretch 19 miles when complete.
Supporters argue the push is long overdue. American cities trail many places around the world that run unattended subways, metros or buses, including several cities in Europe and Asia and major systems in Canada, Australia, South America and the Middle East. Baruch Feigenbaum, senior managing director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank that has advocated for transit automation, said fixed-rail systems should be easier to automate than road vehicles, which face many more obstacles. « I don’t know a nice way to say this, but basically the transit world is where innovation goes to die, » he said.
Automation has advanced more slowly on rail than on the road. On-road vehicles from companies such as Waymo, Tesla and Zoox have taken the lead in the U.S. ahead of transit systems that run on tracks. Washington’s Metro opened 50 years ago with some automated features, but operators have always been part of the system. Those features were turned off after a fatal 2009 crash and were restored over the past two years. Officials have now renewed their push for automation on the Red Line. In Los Angeles, an environmental review is underway for an automated track on a new underground heavy-rail line that would cut through the rough terrain of the Santa Monica Mountains.
The 2009 collision near the Fort Totten station on the Red Line killed nine people and injured many others. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the crash on a maintenance problem in the automated signaling system that separates trains. Randy Clarke, chief executive of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, told The Associated Press that the problem had nothing to do with the cruise control-like system restored on the Red Line in 2024 and on other Metro lines last year. Still, he acknowledged that the crash had for years « paralyzed » the agency’s plans for further automation. « That was a big failure, there’s no question. We do not do anything like that now, » Clarke said, describing the current system as highly regulated, highly documented and very proficient.
Metro’s board backed a nearly $1 billion plan in April to upgrade the Red Line, including protective barriers that keep passengers from reaching the tracks. Under that plan, trains could conceivably run without a human worker in the cab as early as 2033. Clarke said workers would still be needed to maintain the tracks and respond to emergencies.
Unions remain among the most vocal critics. John Samuelsen, a former New York subway worker who now serves as international president of the Transport Workers Union, said unions have fought off automation efforts in New York and elsewhere, calling them « a catastrophe waiting to happen. » « Passengers will be left dealing with a self-evacuation, which is a disaster in a system which runs on a third rail, » Samuelsen said.
Honolulu offers a counterpoint. The city opened its Skyline automated light metro three years ago to ease heavy commuter traffic and expanded it last year. Vance Tsuda, the system’s project director, said there has not been a single crash or injury associated with automation. He argued that hybrid systems are less safe than fully automated ones because a human operator may overlook something such as an open door and clear a train for departure too early. « If you have somebody making that decision, they could make a wrong decision, » Tsuda said.
David King, an associate professor of urban planning at Arizona State University who has researched automated transportation, said the technology must maintain a near-perfect record to keep public trust. That, he said, is why the Fort Totten crash and others have set the technology back so far. « We allow a certain amount of failure with private industry that we don’t tolerate when the state does it, » King said.
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