The Railway as a Socio-Technical System: Human Factors at the Heart of Successful Rail Engineering

Recognizing the importance of high-quality engineering and operations management in creating a successful railway service, this paper discusses the first two human factors projects in the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Rail Research UK program. The paper, geared to an engineering audience, places an emphasis on the role systems ergonomics plays in engineering an improved railway that is reliable, performs safely, and makes maximum use of capacity. The authors note that railways are subject to human factors as socio-technical systems. Because of this, a strong integrated ergonomics role is needed, especially at the systems level. To address this, the paper includes a review of the literature and examples. A short research summary is also included for the purpose of developing a distributed cognition model of railway work, especially considering the work groups involved with signalling, control, and train driving.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09544097
• Authors:
  • Wilson, J R
  • Farrington-Darby, T
  • Cox, G
  • Bye, R
  • Hockey, G Robert J
• Publication Date: 2007-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 101-115
• Serial:
  • Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit
  • Volume: 221
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Sage Publications Limited
  • ISSN: 0954-4097
  • EISSN: 2041-3017
  • Serial URL: http://pif.sagepub.com/content/current

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cognition; Ergonomics; Freight and passenger handling; Human factors; Literature reviews; Mathematical models; Personnel performance; Railroad engineering; Railroads; Research projects; Sociology; Technology
• Identifier Terms: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Railroads; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01051754
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 3 2007 8:25PM