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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8311

Locomotive engine drivers

Locomotive engine drivers drive, or assist in driving, locomotive engines to transport passengers and freight. Tasks include - (a) driving or assisting in driving a steam, electric or diesel-electric locomotive engine; (b) driving an underground or elevated passenger train; (c) driving a locomotive to haul carriages underground or on the surface of a mine or quarry; (d) watching for track hazards and observing signals and indicator gauges; (e) operating communications systems to communicate with train crews and traffic controllers to ensure safe operation and scheduling of trains. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Locomotive driver - Metropolitan railway driver - Train driver Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Tram driver - 8331 Notes Drivers of vehicles that operate on fixed rail systems that are separated from public roadways are classified in Unit Group 8311: Locomotive Engine Drivers. Drivers of vehicles for passenger transportation on fixed rails that are incorporated in the public roadway are classified in Unit Group 8331: Bus and Tram Drivers.

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 143 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • train driver

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

80.1
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 19.9 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 19.9 = 80.1

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

71.7
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 7 US jobs , so treat it as rough

42.5
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 38.7 · hand skill 42.2 · cramped spaces 46.7 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+ Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

More fine handwork, and more time in cramped or awkward spots, than a typical hands-on job. That is exactly what machines find hardest: they do best in tidy, predictable places.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 71.7 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 33.5, while the average is 19.9. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 33.5

    Operating communications systems to communicate with train crews and traffic controllers to ensure safe operation and scheduling of trains.

    Low
  2. 17

    Watching for track hazards, observing signals and indicator gauges

    Very Low
  3. 16.5

    Driving or assisting in driving a steam, electric or diesel-electric locomotive engine

    Very Low
  4. 16.3

    Driving a locomotive to haul carriages underground or on the surface of a mine or quarry

    Very Low
  5. 16

    Driving an underground or elevated passenger train

    Very Low

5 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
53
AI does it for you
38

Helping wins by 15 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 7313

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.1. This one is below that.