Would you like a train hauling 9000 tons of crude oil, ammonia, propane, or sulphuric acid running through YOUR neighborhood with no human presence on board?
That little incident up in Ontario that incinerated an entire town was the result of a single person crew.
Quebec, no?
no, sorry factoryrat, Megantic was caused by not following the rules.
And; no one was on the train.
And in your second sentence you give the exact reason why the answer to your first is HELL YES. Humans do stupid things. The vast majority of train incidents are the result of human error, take out the humans, take out the errors.
Do you see the inconsistency in that argument you just submitted? A person caused a disaster, so you think computer systems are bad.
Unions have been arguing against safer systems because they are harder to sabotage. A good computerized system could have prevented the Big Bayou Canot disaster. More bodies in the cab would not.