US freight rail operators have been trying to run with reduced staff for years and it just fucks things up. You need enough people to fix stuff in a timely manner if it breaks.

Maybe I’m being a luddite about it but I’d still prefer there to at least be a human who is able to step in if there’s an emergency

The Vancouver skytrain system has had automated trains running for decades and is one of the longest fully automated and driverless systems in the world.

Now, this is a metro and not proper rail/train, but similar enough.