The TTC has the technology to run its subway without drivers. At least it will in 2018, when it completes installation of its new $566 million computerized signaling system on the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

Cities from Vancouver to Shanghai are already running driverless trains, although many still maintain staff on the vehicles. But TTC CEO Andy Byford isn’t ready to drop operators from the Toronto subway system.

In theory the TTC could put its busiest subway on auto-pilot once the new signaling system, called Automatic Train Control (ATC), is fully operational.

But Byford thinks single-operator trains are as far as Toronto should or wants to go.

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In town-hall meetings with the TTC’s 13,000 employees, he has been arguing that one-person train operations are safer than two-member crews.

One operator controlling the train and the doors diminishes the possibility of the doors opening inside the tunnels. Getting rid of the guard position — the operator who checks the platform before closing the doors — would free staff to work with customers in the stations.

Byford also makes a compelling case for the efficiency and reliability of computers. ATC will increase capacity on the city’s busiest subway line by running trains closer together — about every 90 seconds rather than at the two- to three-minute gaps in the current rush hour service.

ATC keeps trains at a safe distance, monitors and maintains speeds, and allows the TTC to keep tight headways.

“The computer … does mean every train is driven to the perfect driving profile, acceleration and braking. Every single train. You couldn’t possibly replicate that with human beings,” said Byford.

“And,” he added, “the trains stop dead on the mark.”

Transit expert Michael Schabas, says in his review of Metrolinx’s Big Move, released by the Neptis Foundation in December, that Toronto could trim transit operating costs by moving to driverless subways.

So why not let the computer do all the work?

Byford offers three reasons:

Push-back from the union representing the TTC’s 612 subway operators and guards would be substantial. But that’s not his main objection, he said.

Automatic Train Control is only one piece of the infrastructure required to go driverless. The TTC would also need to install platform edge doors that would prevent people from jumping or falling to track level. They could also prevent many delays caused by debris falling on the tracks.

The doors — used on the Pearson airport people mover, the LINK train — line up perfectly with the train doors, opening once the train comes to a halt at the platform.

The six new stations on the Spadina subway extension to Vaughan will include fixtures for the platform doors. But the doors themselves haven’t been ordered.

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The TTC estimates installing the system would cost $5 million to $10 million per station, a monstrous expense given that there are 69 stations, including the SRT, plus the six new stations expected to be in service in late 2016.

“We’re nowhere near the prospect of funding for platform screen doors for driverless operations,” Byford said.

Byford’s chief reason for rejecting driverless trains, however, is that he thinks the city would reject the notion.

“It would be a real leap of faith for Torontonians to even countenance having a train that didn’t have a driver. I don’t think, politically or societally, it would be tenable. I just don’t think there’s an appetite for that,” he said.

He points out that the Scarborough RT — the forerunner to Vancouver’s Skytrain, which has been automated since it opened in 1986, was designed to be automated.

It has, however, always had an operator who is responsible for watching for debris on the guideway.

Spacing magazine publisher Matt Blackett thinks Byford may be selling Torontonians short — that TTC riders would adjust to the idea.

“I’ve been on subways in other cities that have been driverless and I’ve never noticed it,” he said.

“It’s not as if no one’s watching the train. The technology’s in place to deal with these things,” Blackett said.

After all, he said, “We’re not talking about driverless streetcars.”

Blackett said he doesn’t have an issue with employing people to work on the trains. But if you’re going to staff a train that could be driven by a computer, why not have a transit worker instead walking up and down offering customer service assistance?

“There are lots of reasons to move those people off the trains and into the stations, because that’s where it’s really needed,” he said, “especially the busier stations.”