Human Factors

Human Factors is the discipline of optimising human performance in the workplace. It considers the working environment from a human-centred viewpoint looking at the whole system and its influence on the way people behave and interact with the railway.

RSSB's Human Factors team of ten specialists works to support the rail industry by providing expertise through technical input to research, the development of Railway Group Standards, supporting formal inquiries and the development of new systems such as ERTMS and GSM-R. More widely, the human factors team acts as a resource for the railway industry by helping companies to deal with their own human factors issues.

Latest news

Safety Culture Toolkit

RSSB has developed a web-based Safety Culture Toolkit that will allow rail companies to measure their own safety culture, and determine the actions that they could take to tackle any issues that have been identified, without the need for extensive external support. The Toolkit will also facilitate the accumulation of this data in one place, to make it easier to establish a single industry view and benchmark individual companies' cultures.

Click on the following link: http://rssb.info-exchange.com/ to view the Toolkit. For queries on this product, email safetyculturetoolkit-HF@rssb.co.uk

FOCUS

RSSB has recently launched a number of training resources to enable train drivers to optimise their situational awareness (SA) and reduce the likelihood of losing attention or being distracted from the driving task.

Evidence indicates that those who have a high level of awareness of what is going on around them can better anticipate what will happen and identifying the risks that will emerge. Being able to anticipate what is about to happen improves our risk perception and is a key part of professional driving and being in control. Techniques for maintaining a high level of SA can be learned and can turn a good driver into an excellent driver.

To download the materials click on the following link: http://www.rssb.co.uk/expertise/human_factors/facts.asp