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Past and Future Challenges for Railway Research and the Role of a Systems Perspective

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Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) (IEA 2018)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 824))

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Abstract

Operational train traffic is dependent on an efficient traffic plan monitored and executed by the traffic controllers, the proficient maneuvering of the trains by the train drivers, and on the interaction, communication, and coordination between these two work roles. The railway research community, and the branch of industry itself, has called for an integrated systems perspective for the whole train traffic system to achieve an efficient performance. As human-human and human-technology interactions are natural parts of the socio-technical system of train traffic, the aim of this paper is to provide illustrative examples for why a systems perspective is needed for the future of railway research. Furthermore, we present the theoretical framework of distributed cognition (DCog) as a necessary addition to the theoretical and methodological toolbox of the Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF&E) discipline. To realize efficient and coordinated processes involved in organizing and executing operational train traffic, the paper proposes that the DCog framework should be implemented in the train traffic domain as a viable approach forward.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Rebecca Andreasson & Anders A. Jansson

  2. School of Informatics, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden

    Jessica Lindblom

Authors
  1. Rebecca Andreasson
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  2. Anders A. Jansson
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  3. Jessica Lindblom
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rebecca Andreasson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of the Republic of San Marino, San Marino, San Marino

    Sebastiano Bagnara

  2. Centre for Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety, Tuscany Region, Florence, Italy

    Riccardo Tartaglia

  3. Centre for Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety, Tuscany Region, Florence, Italy

    Sara Albolino

  4. Fraunhofer FKIE, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Thomas Alexander

  5. International Ergonomics Association, Tokyo, Japan

    Yushi Fujita

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Andreasson, R., Jansson, A.A., Lindblom, J. (2019). Past and Future Challenges for Railway Research and the Role of a Systems Perspective. In: Bagnara, S., Tartaglia, R., Albolino, S., Alexander, T., Fujita, Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018). IEA 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 824. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_178

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