Adaptation of CRM training for the railway industry: Operational safety benefits

Abstract

In aviation, Crew Resource Management (CRM) was developed to address safety issues derived from accident and incident investigations. As CRM has proven its effectiveness by improving teamwork, communication and staff responses to operational hazards, there have been many attempts to expand this concept into other high-risk sectors such as medical, nuclear, or military. Although some work was also conducted to modify CRM for the railway industry, no such experiences yet existed in China or Hong Kong. Having observed the effectiveness of CRM and Line Oriented Training (LOT) in aviation, this paper documents the intro¬¬duction and initial evaluation of CRM and LOT in Hong Kong in the West Rail (WR) division of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC). Results of an initial evaluation study with 120 operative crewmembers provide empirical support for the chosen approach.