Development of a Situation Awareness Assessment Tool for Rail Signalers

Abstract

Situation awareness (SA) is of utmost importance for the signaler as part of the infrastructure management in railway operations. However, in previous studies assessing signaler SA, a good performance was accompanied by mediocre results for SA. This unexpected result can be explained using the theory of situated SA, which posits that operators store knowledge important for situation awareness internally as well as externally in the work environment. To further investigate whether the theory of situated SA can be applied in rail signaling, an assessment tool for signaler SA was developed. Furthermore, by applying the developed assessment tool, it can be investigated which factors determine if information is stored externally or internally. Knowing which information signalers store where will help to develop more precise measures to assess and support signaler SA, ensuring a better performance of these crucial operators in the safety and efficiency of the railway system.