The first reason is obviously cultural, but forbidding workers from striking would have some knock-on effects that the rest of society may not appreciate. The second reason, at least in Germany, has a lot to do with the semi-privatization of our train system which doesn't have inventives to invest in it's infrastructure and due it's cozy market position enabling rent-seeking.

The first problem, at least in the cities, could be solved with grade 4 automated metro according to the example of Copenhagen. The trains even drive much better than human drivers there, with no abrupt stops.

This would create unemployment, but it wouldn't infringe on people's rights.

The second problem we would have to solve by replacing the politicians that enable this. A much more difficult undertaking.

Also bomb defusing. F* you World-War 2, even for all the wrong reasons!

How can we use capital to create meaningful work, rather than the status quo oscillation left<-->right?

Using capital just automate for the sake of excluding workers is (IMO) silly. Improving safety and reliability, fine. But capital is also needed to start new labour intensive jobs, and anti-labour capitalism has a blind spot for this, and it leads to more political unrest.

I mean, that's the bazillion-euro question, right?

I would love to apply stochastic principles to it, using random choice to break deadlocks and force choice.

See also, models of collaboration between companies: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3679737