Job Check
Subway and Streetcar Operators
Operate subway or elevated suburban trains with no separate locomotive, or electric-powered streetcar, to transport passengers. May handle fares.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Monitor lights indicating obstructions or other trains ahead and watch for car and truck traffic at crossings to stay alert to potential hazards.Mostly human for now
- 02Operate controls to open and close transit vehicle doors.Mostly human for now
- 03Drive and control rail-guided public transportation, such as subways, elevated trains, and electric-powered streetcars, trams, or trolleys, to transport passengers.Mostly human for now
- 04Report delays, mechanical problems, and emergencies to supervisors or dispatchers, using radios.AI could speed this up a lot
- 05Regulate vehicle speed and the time spent at each stop to maintain schedules.Mostly human for now
- 06Make announcements to passengers, such as notifications of upcoming stops or schedule delays.AI could speed this up a lot
- 07Direct emergency evacuation procedures.Mostly human for now
- 08Complete reports, including shift summaries and incident or accident reports.AI could speed this up a lot
- 09Greet passengers, provide information, and answer questions concerning fares, schedules, transfers, and routings.AI could speed this up a lot
- 10Attend meetings on driver and passenger safety to learn ways in which job performance might be affected.Mostly human for now
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
41%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 42% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 97% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Monitor lights indicating obstructions or other trains ahead and watch for car and truck traffic at crossings to stay alert to potential hazards.
- Operate controls to open and close transit vehicle doors.
- Drive and control rail-guided public transportation, such as subways, elevated trains, and electric-powered streetcars, trams, or trolleys, to transport passengers.