Putting Technology in Charge: Human and Organizational factors influencing the reliability of train operations under PTC

Abstract

In 2018, US Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act that required Class I railroads to install Positive Train Control systems on their tracks. On December 29, 2020, two days prior to the deadline, FRA announced that PTC is in operation on all 57,536 required railroad route miles. On September 25, 2021, Amtrak train 7 derailed near Joplin, Montana which resulted in the loss of 4 lives, 44 injuries, and over $22 million in damages. PTC, which is designed to prevent these types of accidents, was enabled and operating when accident happened. In this study, we identified performance factors that have a significant influence on the reliability of train operations under PTC. Although technical factors affect the operation, factors that arise from inadequate interaction of the subsystems or lack of alignment between organizational and human factors, and the technical system have a higher contribution to the train operations under PTC.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Busby

J. S.

(2006). Failure to Mobilize in Reliability-Seeking Organizations: Two Cases from the UK Railway. Journal of Management Studies, 43, 1375 - 1393.

Ditmeyer

(2011). Confused about PTC yet?

Trains, 71(10), 24-31.

EUROCONTROL Experimental Center . (2006). Revising the Swiss Ceese model of accidents. European organization for the safety of air navigation.

Federal Railroad Adminestration. (2007). Development of a General Train Movement Simulator for Safety Evaluation. Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Transportation .

Federal Railroad Administration. (2014). Rail Safety Fact Sheet . U.S. Department of Transportation . Federal Railroad Administration. (2021, September 9). Positive Train Control (PTC). Retrieved from Federal Railroad Administration : https://railroads.dot.gov/train-control/ptc/positive-train-control-ptc#:~:text=PTC%20Background%3A%20In%202008°/o2C°/o20Congress,main%20lines%20with%20regularly%20scheduled

Grabowski

Roberts

K. H.

(1996). Human and organizational Error in Large Scale System. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - PART A: Systems and Humans, 26(1), 2-16.

Hale

Heijer

(2006). Is resilience really necessary? The case of Railways. In Hollnagel

Woods

D. D.

Leveson

, Resiliece Engineering, Concepts and Precepts, Ashgate, (pp. Ch 9, 125-148). Ashgate.

Hansen

P. A.

(2001). Positive train control. Trains, 61(1), 68.

Hartong

Goel

Wijeseker

(2011). Positive Train Control (PTC) failure modes. Journal of King Saud University - Science, 311-321.

10.

Hollnagel

(2009). The Four Cornerstones of Resilience Engineering. In Nemeth

C. P.

Hollnagel

Dekker

Resilience Engineering Perspective (Preperation | Restoration ed., Vol. 2, pp. 117-133). Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate.

11.

Khashe

Levy

(2020). A High Reliability Organization (HRO)-based Retrospective Analysis of Boeing 737 Max Crashes. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 64(1), 851855.

12.

Khashe

Meshkati

(2019). Human and Organizational Factors of Positive Train Control Safety System. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 63(1), 1824-1828.

13.

Meshkati

(1995). Human factors in process plants and facility design. In Cost-effective risk assessment for process design (pp. 113-130).

14.

Meshkati

Khashe

(2015). Operators' Improvisation in Complex Technological Systems: Successfully Tackling Ambiguity, Enhancing Resiliency and the Last Resort to Averting Disaster. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 23(2), 90-96.

15.

NTSB. (2021, October 29). National Railroad Passenger Corporation Derailment with Passenger Fatalities. Retrieved from National Transportation Safety Board : https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/RRD21MR017.aspx

16.

Placencia

Meshkati

Moore

Khashe

(2014). Technology and High Reliability Organizations in Railroad Operations Safety: A Case Study of Metrolink / SCRRA and Positive Train Control (PTC) Implementation. Joint Rail Conference. Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA: ASME.

17.

Roberts

Stouts

Halpern

(1994). Decision Dynamics in Two High Reliability Military Organizations. Management Science, 40(5), 614-624.

18.

Skjerve

A. B.

Kaarstad

(2014). The MTO Perspective and Selected Research Activities at the Halden Project. IAEA.

19.

Southern California Regional Rail Authority. (2013). An introduction to PTC . Retrieved June 2014, from Metrolink : http://www.metrolinktrains.com/agency/page/title/ptc

20.

Southern California Regional Rail Authority. (2010). SCRRA Positive Train Control System Concept of Operations. Retrieved from http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FRA-2010-0048-0005

21.

Verma

A. K.

Ajit

Karanki

D. R.

(2010). Reliability and Safety Engineering. London, UK: Springer.

22.

Weick

k. E.

Roberts

K. H.

(1993). Collective mind and organizational reliability: The case of flight operations on an aircraft carrier deck. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 357-381.

23.

Weick

Sutcliffe

(2015). Managing the Unexpected – Sustained Performance in a complex world. (3. ed, Ed.) Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley.

24.

Weick

Sutcliffe

Obstfeld

(2008). Organizing for high reliability: Processes of collective mindfulness. Crisis management, 81-123.

25.

Wong

D. S.

Desai

V. M.

Madsen

Roberts

K. H.

Ciavarelli

(2005). Measuring Organizational Safety and Effectiveness at NASA. Engineering Management Journal, 17(4), 59-62. Retrieved from Daniel S Wong; Vinit M Desai; Peter Madsen; Karlene H Roberts; Anthony Ciavarelli.a