Development and Pilot Testing of Crew Resource Management Training Program for Railroad Industry

In response to the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) recommendation, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) jointly developed a video-based CRM training course that was oriented largely to training of railroad operating crews (engineers and conductors). Several FRA Office of Safety personnel and safety managers of several railroads were interested in seeing additional CRM training materials that could be applied more broadly across the many varied crafts and skills within the rail industry. This led them to approach researchers from the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), seeking development of a pilot rail CRM course that could be used to meet this wider application. This report describes the results of that research.

Applying a Sociotechnical Framework for Improving Safety at Highway-Railroad Grade Crossings

This paper presents a model that addresses driver decision-making at grade crossings at a systems level. Four elements are identified and described for the grade crossing system influencing driver compliance: the design of the grade crossing environment, driver characteristics, the role of organizations and management, and social and political forces. The model is then applied to identify how failure to consider safety from a systems perspective contributed to the grade crossing accident that occurred in Fox River Grove, Illinois in 1995.

The Use of HEART to Assess the Risk of Remote Control Locomotive Operations: A Tale of Two Cities

This paper discusses application of the Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique (HEART) with 2 yard switching employee subject matter experts. Each was asked to assess 11 conventional scenarios and 11 nearly-identical remote control scenarios. This paper also explores differences in how assessors used HEART, including differences in selection of generic task types and error-producing conditions.

An Introduction to Human Systems Integration in the U.S. Railroad Industry

This paper describes and explores what Human Systems Integration is with regard to the U.S. railroad industry, how HSI can be of benefit when this systematic, organization-wide approach is used to implement new technology and modernize existing systems.

Shared Situation Awareness as a Contributor to High Reliability Performance in Railroad Operations

This paper discusses design implications for leveraging new digital technologies and location-finding systems to more effectively support informal strategies, enhance shared situation awareness, and promote high reliability performance.

Toward the Development of a Performance Model of Railroad Dispatching

This paper reviews literature on the job of railroad dispatching and summarizes research conducted to identify and document railroad dispatcher tasks and activities.

An Examination of the Yardmaster’s Role in Railroad Yard Safety

This paper describes the results of focus groups with 56 railroad yardmasters to identify yardmaster-related factors that have the potential to affect yard safety.

The Efficacy of Behavior-based Safety in the U.S. Railroad Industry: Evidence from Amtrak-Chicago

This paper provides an implementation and impact evaluation of Clear Signal for Action (CSA), a railroad industry safety program that combines behavior-based safety with process improvement methods.  The CSA project took place in two departments at Chicago's Amtrak terminal in 2001 to 2002.  A corporate downsizing that coincided with much of the study period, as well as methodological issues, made results somewhat uncertain. 

Using an integrated process of data and modeling in HRA

The paper describes an approach taken to estimate the probabilities of failure associated with various railroad tasks to prevent accidents (principally collisions and derailments). These probabilities were estimated using an expert elicitation process that used partially relevant data available from a variety of databases and that were filtered and scaled to make them more directly relevant to the analyses being performed. Extensive qualitative studies were performed prior to the elicitation process to identify relevant contexts under which the tasks can be performed.

Fatigue models as practical tools: diagnostic accuracy and decision thresholds.

Human fatigue models are increasingly being used in a variety of industrial settings, both civilian and military. Current uses include education, awareness, and analysis of individual or group work schedules.

Impacts of Participatory Safety Rules Revision in U.S. Railorad Industry.

Ranney, J., Nelson, Christopher,  Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C. 2004, pp 156-163.

This paper provides an exploratory assessment of the effectiveness of participatory rules revisions as an instrument of safety improvement in the U.S. railroad industry. The findings suggest that participatory rules revision, when it includes preparatory activities, is a promising strategy for safety improvement.

Fatigue and alertness in the United states railroad industry, Part II: Fatigue research in the Office of Research and Development at the FRA.

Michael Coplen (FRA), Donald Sussman (Volpe). Transportation Research Part F,  15 January 2001.

FRA's Office of R&D has embarked upon a Fatigue Research Program that will systematically assess the many underlying factors that result in fatigue and reduced alertness, and develop appropriate tools that will assist the industry in developing its own effective fatigue management solutions.

"Reliance" and "Distraction" Effects in PTC Automation

This document was requested on 3/3/99 by the PTC Human Factors Team of the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) as part of the ongoing discussions of PTC standards. 

Questions have been raised about the possible propensity for a locomotive engineer or conductor to become over-reliant on PTC automation and/or to become distracted by the additional monitoring burdens required by the automation, and for these effects to compromise the performance of their duties and for safe and efficient train operation.

Understanding How Railroad Dispatchers Manage and Control Trains: A Cognitive Task Analysis of a Distributed Team Planning Task

A Cognitive Task Analysis was conducted to examine how experienced railroad dispatchers manage track use.  The results of the analysis reinforce findings from other domains (e.g., space shuttle mission control, air traffic control) regarding the role of a shared communication channel in supporting anticipation and contingency planning.  Implication for the introduction of advanced "data-link" communication technologies, as well as for dispatcher training are discussed.

Reducing Railroad Dispatcher Fatigue with Alternative Work Schedules

Judith Gertler (Foster-Miller Inc.) and David Nash (The Scheduling Group)

A recent research study of dispatcher fatigue found that dispatchers display characteristicstypical for shiftworkers. The present study explored alternative dispatcher work schedules that offer the potential to reduce dispatcher fatigue.