Replace defective wiring, broken lenses, or burned-out light bulbs.

“Replace defective wiring, broken lenses, or burned-out light bulbs.” is a core task performed by Signal and Track Switch Repairers. Among the occupation's 14 rated tasks, workers place it 7th by importance (#8 most important). About 93% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Repair tools or equipment. in Repairing and Maintaining Mechanical Equipment

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Inspect and test operation, mechanical parts, and circuitry of gate crossings, signals, and signal equipment such as interlocks and hotbox detectors. · importance 4.5
• Inspect electrical units of railroad grade crossing gates and repair loose bolts and defective electrical connections and parts. · importance 4.3
• Test and repair track circuits. · importance 4.1
• Drive motor vehicles to job sites. · importance 4.1
• Install, inspect, maintain, and repair various railroad service equipment on the road or in the shop, including railroad signal systems. · importance 4.0
• Tighten loose bolts, using wrenches, and test circuits and connections by opening and closing gates. · importance 4.0
• Inspect switch-controlling mechanisms on trolley wires and in track beds, using hand tools and test equipment. · importance 3.9
• Inspect, maintain, and replace batteries as needed. · importance 3.8
• Record and report information about mileage or track inspected, repairs performed, and equipment requiring replacement. · importance 3.8
• Lubricate moving parts on gate-crossing mechanisms and swinging signals. · importance 3.5
• Clean lenses of lamps with cloths and solvents. · importance 3.5
• Maintain high tension lines, de-energizing lines for power companies when repairs are requested.
• Test air lines and air cylinders on pneumatically operated gates.

See all tasks on the Signal and Track Switch Repairers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-13911,
  title  = {Replace defective wiring, broken lenses, or burned-out light bulbs.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-13911}
}