I'm not sure, though, that dumb train control is necessarily the answer. The Chicago system looks pretty dumb (though I know nothing about it), certainly no more complex than the New York system, but the fact that the CTA system self-reset seems to imply it cannot be safe without a human in the cab. This misfeature is a problem regardless how dumb or complex the signal system is.
Also, my hometown has one of the world's first automatic train operation systems (BART), and to my knowledge it hasn't had a revenue service malfunction leading to a crash since October 2 1972, less than a month after it opened. However, the train control system did lead to a good deal of litigation and project timeline overruns. I think the take-home lesson is that brand new technology is extraordinarily painful to debug and deploy; it's always going to be better to re-use train control that someone else debugged on their railway rather than re-inventing the wheel for your project.
I hope the US doen't get stuck with inventing something itself. It would certainly cost more. 20 or so non-European countries have started to use this system[1], including some very large ones.
"The central principle of signal placement and engineering is that the control lengths of the signals be so designed such that when a train running at the highest possible speed under the worst weather conditions, with any semblance of functional brakes, is tripped, it will come to a halt before encountering the other train or obstruction that is causing the signal to be red."
Some signals have timers, for speed control. Go through a block too fast, and the signal ahead won't clear. Then the train stop will stop the train. This is common in downhill sections and ahead of curves.
Resetting a trip cock in NYC requires getting out of the cab and climbing down to the tracks. This is Not Fun.
Chicago has self-resetting trip cocks, which resulted in an accident in 2013.[1] A train parked in a service yard had a water leak into the control cables, which caused the train to move, slowly. The train hit a train stop, the brakes were applied, and the train stopped. But the trip cock reset, and the train started again. This happened five times at five different train stops. Workers noticed, but were not able to stop the train. This continued until the train hit an occupied but stopped train just outside the yard.
This is why you want dumb train control.
[1] https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/...