Driverless Metros

Driverless, automated train systems are found in many airport people movers, monorails, and subways.

Driverless urban transit lines are operational in the following cities. People movers and monorails which are not part of urban transit are not listed.

Ankara (1997, metro line)
Bangkok (1999, Green line)
Copenhagen (2002, all metro lines)
Detroit (1987, downtown people mover, LIM technology)
Dubai (2009, metro)
Hong Kong (2005, Disneyland Resort Line)
Jacksonville (1989, downtown monorail people mover)
Kobe (1981, Port Liner and Rokko Liner, rubber-tyred)
Kuala Lumpur (1996, LRT)
Las Vegas (2004, monorail)
Lausanne (2008, line m2)
Lille (1983, VAL)
London (1987, Docklands Light Rail)
Lyon (1991, line D/Maggaly, rubber-tyred, no PSDs)
Miami (1986, downtown people mover, rubber-tyred)
Nagoya (2005, Tobu Kyuryo maglev line)
Nuremberg (2008, lines U2, U3, no PSDs, sharing tracks with driver-operated trains)
Osaka (1981, Nanko Port Town Line, rubber-tyred)
Paris (1998, line 14/Météor, rubber-tyred)
Rennes (2002, VAL)
Singapore (2003, North-East MTR line and 3 rubber-tyred LRT lines)
Taipei (1996, Muzha line, VAL)
Tokyo (1995, Yurikamome Waterfront line, rubber-tyred)
Toulouse (1993, VAL)
Turin (2006, VAL)
Vancouver (1986, Skytrain, LIM technology, currently the world's longest automated system)
Yokohama (1989, Kanazawa Seaside line, LRT, rubber-tyred)

Additional driverless lines currently under construction: Dubai (to eventually form the world's largest driverless metro network), London (Jubilee line), Seoul (Yong-In line, LIM technology).

In some other metro systems, automated trains have drivers in the front cabins. This is for safety reasons or to address public concerns. The systems are: Barcelona (line 2 and line 11), London (Victoria line), New York (line L/Canarsie), San Francisco (BART since its start in 1972), Toronto (Scarborough RT), Washington DC.

Systems with Linear Induction Motors (LIM) or rubber tyres lack the problem of wheel slip under certain weather conditions. Thus LIM and rubber-tyred systems (such as VAL) can be operated completely without staff, while steel-wheel systems still need staff (somewhere) on board to deal with wheel slip, just in case. The staff can also check tickets, offer travel advice for passengers or initiate door closure (e.g. London Docklands).

Advantages of driverless metros:

Lower expenditure for staff (staff swallows a significant part of the costs of running a transport system). However, service and security personnel is common in automated systems.
Trains can be shorter and instead run more frequently without increasing expenditure for staff.
Ability of train operators to vary the service frequency easily to meet sudden unexpected demands.
Despite common psychological concerns, driverless metros are safer than traditional ones. None of them ever had a serious accident.
Intruder detection systems can be more effective than humans in stopping the trains if someone is on the tracks.
Financial savings in both energy and wear-and-tear costs because trains are driven to an optimum specification.
Train turnover time at terminals can be extremely short (train goes into the holding track and returns immediately), reducing the number of train sets needed for operation.

Criticism:

Despite proven safeness of automated systems, some passengers might still have safety concerns or be afraid of trains that seem to run by themselves (despite the fact that driverless elevators are omnipresent for decades).
Conversion of traditional metros into driverless ones puts train drivers out of work, if they cannot be retrained to work as service or security personnel.

	Train Turnover Reversing time of automated trains can be as short as a few seconds. Photo: Lille's VAL.
	Platform Screen Doors Driverless lines are often equipped with platform screen doors. Photo: Paris's line 14. More on platform screen doors...
	Elevated Sections Many driverless metros have underground sections as well as sections above surface. Photo: London's Docklands Light Rail near Limehouse station.
	Front View In trains without drivers' cabs, passengers can enjoy a spectacular view, even in tunnels, from the first row of seats. Photo: Copenhagen.
	Driver on Board Many automated systems look like traditional ones because they still have drivers in the cabs, like San Francisco's BART.