Driver only operation

One-man operation (OMO), also known as driver-only operation (DOO), one person operation (OPO), single person train operation (SPTO), or one-person train operation (OPTO), is operation of a train, bus, or tram by the driver or motorman alone, without a conductor.

On one-man operated passenger trains the driver must be able to see the whole train to make sure that all the doors are safe for departure. On curved platforms a CCTV system, mirror or station dispatch staff are required.

Although extra infrastructure such as cameras and mirrors might require additional investment, one-man operation is usually faster and cheaper to implement than automatic train operation, requiring a smaller investment in, for example, platform intruder detection systems and track protection (fencing, bridge-caging, CCTV etc.). In some cases, one-man operation can be seen as an intermediate step towards automatic train operation.

While European freight trains are normally one-man operated, the larger North American freight trains are almost exclusively manned by an engineer as well as a conductor.

While one-man operation is popular and on the rise among the train operating companies as it reduces the amount of crew required and correspondingly reduces costs, it is for that reason controversial and is often strongly opposed by trade unions, often claiming that it is an unsafe practice.

One of the first examples of a public transport vehicle that was developed specifically for one-man operation is the Birney streetcar introduced in the United States in 1916. The Birney was pre-equipped with one of the most important safety devices for enabling one-man operation - the dead man's switch. At the time (and to a certain extent also today) one of the most cited arguments against one-man operation was the safety risks to passengers and bystanders if the driver fell ill. The dead man switch ensured that the tram would stop in the event of an incapacitated driver. For this reason, the Birneys were also called "safety cars". Another critical feature of the Birney in dealing with safety issues from the critics of one-man operation was its compact size which eased the drivers view of the road and reducing the number of doors to a single one.

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Wikipedia