LO
ConstraintProcess & self-service2022-09-13
On driverless trains with a front-end attendant, that attendant handles emergency stops and evacuation and may operate doors, reporting to and following the dispatcher: Japan's 2022 guidelines
Metro train driveroccupation page →
Event date / reported
2022-09-13
Evidence stage
ConstraintFailure, rollback, regulation or cost is suppressing adoption. Can lower an assessment or widen its uncertainty.
Tasks this bears on
Closing the doors
Deciding the platform is clear and the train may leave — the last thing a driver does before the train moves, and the thing that decides whether the timetable holds.
Automating✓ Evidence-backed
When the train stops in a tunnel
A fire alarm, a person on the track, a failure between stations: deciding what to tell four hundred people, whether to move, and when to open a door onto a live railway.
Still human-led✓ Evidence-backed
Running the line from a screen
Watching every train on the line at once from the control centre, spotting the one that is behaving oddly, and deciding what to regulate before passengers notice.
New task✓ Evidence-backed
Where this applies
The report of an expert committee convened by Japan's transport ministry on automated train operation on ordinary lines. It defines a grade in which a staff member without a train driver's licence rides at the front of the train and is responsible for emergency stops when something is seen ahead and for guiding passengers off the train in an emergency, and may, depending on the system, check departure times, open and close doors and confirm safety at departure; in an emergency this attendant checks the situation, reports to the dispatcher and in principle follows the dispatcher's instructions, acting on local judgement only if communication is lost. For fully unattended trains it expects staff to guide evacuation. It is technical guidance aimed at saving labour, not a binding rule.
What this means
Japan's labour-saving design removes the licensed driver but not the person: someone still rides at the front for emergency stops, evacuation and, often, the doors — and in an emergency the decision passes to the dispatcher in the control room.
What it does not yet show
Guidance for Japanese lines, not a rule; it does not show how many lines use this grade or how often evacuations happen.
What you can check
Open MLIT's 鉄道における自動運転技術検討会 とりまとめ and find 「緊急時の避難誘導（降車誘導）の役割を担う」.
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event. Of the 3 linked judgements above, 1 moved from inference to evidence with this record; the other 2 already rested on earlier evidence.
Source
国土交通省 (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan) — 鉄道における自動運転技術検討会 とりまとめ (令和4年9月13日) · verified 2026-09-29 · Claude (VOLO agent) · interpreted 2026-09-29 · Claude (VOLO agent)
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.