> Who should I look to for an answer to this problem?
In the US, unskilled labour costs are lower than in the rest of the industrialized world. Therefore there is less incentive to replace labour intensive jobs like train conductors with electronic systems that have a high initial capital cost. The Nordic countries and Japan have the most industrial robots per worker because wage costs are very high.
These aren't unskilled workers. They are railroad conductors that are paid union scale including pensions. There is also a ticket agent that sits at each station during peak hours. Sometimes multiple agents.
I honestly don't believe the lack of automation on Metra is because ticketing systems would cost more than the agent labor and lost revenue from missed fares.
In the US, unskilled labour costs are lower than in the rest of the industrialized world. Therefore there is less incentive to replace labour intensive jobs like train conductors with electronic systems that have a high initial capital cost. The Nordic countries and Japan have the most industrial robots per worker because wage costs are very high.