Technological transformations and the future of public transport labor: Imaginaries of transport administrators and workers in Luxembourg

Abstract

Historically, technological change has always been a feature of public transport labor, changing the nature of work in the sector and creating new jobs while making others obsolete. Now, however, rapid developments in digitalization, automation, and electric mobility are accelerating the pace of change, raising questions about the future of work in this industry. While some of the changes are positive, potentially making transport labor safer, others pose concrete threats to transport jobs. From ticket machines to autonomous vehicles to trains that can perform many of the safety functions previously performed by onboard personnel, public transport work around the world risks being outsourced from humans to machines.

In Luxembourg, where all public transport (including trains, buses, and trams) has been free at the point of use since 2020, transport administrators frequently express optimism about technological developments in the sector whereas those who work inside transport vehicles often express uncertainty about the future of their work. This paper explores how technological changes alter workers’ everyday experiences and impact how they imagine the future of their work. It engages with a rich body of anthropological literature around labor automation, work futures, and time, placing these into dialogue with ethnographic research with railway workers and public transport administrators in Luxembourg.