Automation Effects in Train Driving with Train Protection Systems – Assessing Person- and Task-related Factors

Signals passed at danger (SPADs) are amongst the most common incidents in railway operations and are largely attributed to human errors. Train protection systems have therefore been introduced to mitigate and prevent SPADs. Overrunning and slipping past stops, however, remains an issue and very little empirical research has looked into the effects of such partial automation systems thereby, especially on the train driver’s cognition, behaviour and activation state. To target this issue, an attention related integrative model of two automation phenomena as proposed by Parasuraman and Manzey (2010) was adapted to train driving with a German train protection system. Preliminary results of the derived questionnaire study on person and task related factors presented here revealed some effects regarding task-related competence and control expectations in train drivers that are deemed unfavourable in view of the emergence of attention deficits and automation errors.