Cycling Across Hokkaido, Japan (Day 1): A train from Sapporo to Nemuro
We had 10 minutes in Kushiro City to transfer to a completely different sort of train – the ubiquitous “oneman” train, found in many rural areas in Japan. As the name suggests, the one-carriage train is essentially a bus on tracks, with just the one driver. On this particular occasion, however, our train happened to have an extra track maintenance guy on board…so I guess that made it a “twoman”?
Previously - Oh no Dirt Owl took control of my train! - Hexbear
We have "oneman" trains in Stockholm as well, except here they are 200 meters long and carry 2000 passengers at 160 km/h. This isn't because us Swedes have perfected the art of oneman operation or anything, but simply because the council fired all the conductors this spring while on a cost cutting rampage.
how did the unions let that happen?
I don't know. I guess the council can drive a hard bargain since they aren't really personally affected by the functionally of the collective traffic. The drivers went on an (illegal) wildcat strike in April, effectively stopping the commuter rail traffic, but that just pissed of the operator and council. The union also declared a safety suspension of oneman operation, but it was overruled by the Work Environment Authority. I think I have heard that many drivers quit their jobs after this defeat.
I should mention that this thing has actually been planned by conservative politicians for many years, but it was carried out by the Social Democratic snakes who won the regional election on the promise that they wouldn't fire the conductors.