An Examination of the Yardmaster's Role in Railroad Yard Safety

Abstract

The rate of U.S. railroad yard switching accidents is more than 10 times the rate of accidents on other-than-yard track. Railroad safety and accident prevention has traditionally focused on the crews that operate on-track equipment, yet accidents usually have multiple contributing factors, including supervisory and organizational factors. This paper describes the results of focus groups with 56 railroad yardmasters to identify yardmaster-related factors that have the potential to affect yard safety. Yardmasters are the frontline supervisors of railroad yards: they plan, control, and manage track use in switching yards and are responsible for the operating crews in the yard. Focus group questions fell into five major topic groupings: training and experience; communications and information flow; stressors, distractions, workload, and difficult aspects of the job; fatigue, staffing, and work schedules; and best practices and lessons learned. Results illuminate a number of areas that, if corrected, may result in improved yard safety and operations.