The NYC train drivers union continue to fight against one person train operation and automation, to them the subway is more of a jobs program than transportation
We should automate the trains and repurpose the train staff to be conductors patrolling the trains to assist individuals in need and help in an emergency. That way, the jobs are saved, and the trains get more pleasant to ride!
I saw that, I saw trains with more than one MTA person onboard, and saw some construction work which had 30 workers sitting on their phones and 2 working (passed by multiple times that day, the ration never changed).
Grand Paris Express' president also talked about this, and compared the 2nd avenue subway to the Grand Paris Express (well, one cost $4.45 billion for 1.8 mi / 2.9 km and 4 stations; the first line of GPE, 15 south is 33km, 16 stations, and costs ~8 billion euros so it's a really bad comparison), and has said that if he had to do things the way the MTA do it, GPE would have gone nowhere.
Paris has the same, and also a number of lines (1, 4, 14, and soon 15) which have no driver at all.
NYC Subway is an outlier in how obsolete everything is.