USA Banner

Official US Government Icon

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure Site Icon

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Everyone

Optimizing Staffing Levels and Schedules for Railroad Dispatching Centers

This report presents the results of a study to explore approaches to establishing staffing levels and schedules for railroad dispatchers. The work was conducted as follow-up to a prior study that found fatigue among dispatchers, particularly those who worked permanent night shifts. The present...

Effects of Supervisory Train Control Technology on Operator Attention

This report describes an experiment evaluating the effects of supervisory control automation on attention allocation while operating a train. The study compared two levels of supervisory control (partial and full) to manual control, in terms of how it affects vigilance detection and situation...

Impact of Data Link Technology on Railroad Dispatching Operations

This study examined data link communication as an alternative channel to voice radio for railroad dispatchers. The goal was to compare how data link affected performance compared to voice radio only communications on measures related to safety, productivity, communication efficiency, and situation...