Really? The BLE started bringing it up in the early 1990s when it was just a white paper after a couple collisions in the PNW where the crews were suspected of falling asleep and running signals. It's been their go to excuse for almost every collision since. They didn't have the brains to realize that PTC would eventually provide the basis for reduced or crewless trains.

Do you honestly believe the RR business would spend $25 Billion up front on its own to do it? They were using 80+ year old signal systems in many places because they worked just fine. They didn't want PTC. I sat in on several early discussions where they very question of crew elimination was raised (before Chatworth & the PTC mandate) and the answer was always the ROI & Cost/Benefit wasn't there because the projected costs were so high.

Nowadays Unions aren't about preserving jobs. Unions are about preserving Unions.