Jordan Multer

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

Cooperative strategies of individuals within a distributed organization can contribute to increased efficiency of operations and safety. We examine these processes in the context of a particular work domain: railroad operations. Analyses revealed a variety of informal cooperative strategies that railroad workers have developed that span across multiple railroad crafts including roadway workers, train crews, and railroad dispatchers. These informal, proactive communications foster shared situation awareness across the distributed organization, facilitate work, and contribute to the overall efficiency, safety, and resilience to error of railroad operations. We discuss design implications for leveraging new digital technologies and location-finding systems to more effectively support these informal strategies, enhance shared situation awareness, and promote high reliability performance.

Understanding how Train 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 train dispatchers manage track use. The results reveal the cognitive complexities faced by dispatchers and the cognitive and collaborative strategies developed in response to those demands, including strategies to support anticipation and planning, and proactive strategies to exploit windows of opportunity to satisfy the multiple demands on track use. In many cases these strategies depend on communication and cooperation among individuals distributed across time and space (i.e., multiple dispatchers, engineers, maintenance of way personnel). The ability to “listen in” on communications directed at others that have a bearing on achievement of your own goals and to recognize when information in your possession is of relevance to others, are important contributors to safe and efficient track use. The results 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.

Fostering Shared Situation Awareness and on-Track Safety Across Distributed Teams in Railroad Operations:

Cooperative strategies of individuals within a distributed organizational structure can contribute to increased efficiency of operations and safety. We describe selected results of a cognitive task analysis that examined the cognitive and collaborative demands and activities of railroad roadway workers. The findings highlight the informal cooperative strategies that railroad workers have developed across distributed teams consisting of roadway workers, train crews, and railroad dispatchers that foster shared situation awareness and enhance on-track safety. We discuss design implications for leveraging new digital technologies and location finding systems to more effectively support these informal strategies to improve efficiency and enhance on-track safety are discussed.

Understanding Why Railroad Yard Crews Run Through Misaligned Switches Through the Lens of Sociotechnical Systems

We conducted a study to examine the factors that contribute to run through switches (RTS) in passenger rail yard operations. RTS occur when a train runs through a misaligned switch. It can result in damage to the switch that, if not detected and repaired, can increase the risk of derailment of a subsequent train coming in the opposite direction. The study was conducted at one passenger railroad and included interviews and focus groups with employees at different levels in the organization, as well as observations of yard operations. A sociotechnical systems perspective was used to identify physical infrastructure, individual, team and organizational contributors to RTS. This included performing a Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to identify how interacting factors can lead to RTS. This paper provides a summary of the main results. It illustrates the value of adopting a sociotechnical lens when investigating safety incidents that involve human performance.

Cognitive and Collaborative Demands of Freight Conductor Activities Results and Implications of a Cognitive Task Analysis

This paper reports the results of a cognitive task analysis (CTA) that examined the cognitive and collaborative demands placed on conductors and the knowledge and skills that experienced conductors have developed that enable them to operate safely and efficiently. A secondary aim of the CTA was to understand the implications of the Rail Safety Improvement Act (RSIA) of 2008 on the role of the freight conductor, specifically the mandate for conductor certification and implementation of positive train control (PTC). Data was collected through a combination of field observations, phone interviews and on-site focus groups with experienced conductors, locomotive engineers, trainers, and training managers. A primary finding is that conductors and locomotive engineers operate as a joint cognitive system (Woods and Hollnagel, 2006). They not only participate jointly in monitoring outside the window, they serve to fill-in each other’s knowledge gaps, and participate jointly in planning activities, problem-solving, and identifying and mitigating potential risk. The CTA addresses the issue of how new technologies, such as PTC, are likely to impact the role of conductors in the future by laying out the multiple ways in which conductors contribute to safe and efficient train operation and contrasts this with the anticipated features of PTC. The CTA also uncovered a variety of knowledge and skills that distinguish experienced conductors from less experienced ones. These findings suggest an opportunity to potentially accelerate building conductor expertise by providing insight to future training methods.