Fatigue and alertness in the United States railroad industry part I: the nature of the problem

The railroad industry must actively manage employee fatigue and alertness problems to maintain an optimal level of operational safety and productivity. Given the necessity to operate nights and irregular hours, weekends and holidays under a wide range of physical conditions and service demands, we must explore every reasonable avenue to ensure employees are fit, alert, and well-rested. Effective fatigue management programs must address train crews, dispatchers, signalmen, track workers, and others – both operating and non-operating personnel. Work scheduling is a particular problem in on-call operations because of start-time variability, “call” predictability, and the common use of “shorter-than 24-h work/rest schedules”. Extensive night operations are incompatible with normal circadian rhythms. Staffing limitations often require extensive overtime and reduce the effectiveness of any work schedule. These and other institutional factors significantly contribute to employee sleep deficit and overall fatigue. Lack of alertness and reduced vigilance are related not only to sleep disruption and resulting sleep deficits, but also to cognitive workload, workload transition, the physical working environment, and the design of advanced control systems. Ongoing research into fatigue mitigation and alertness enhancement strategies and into advanced technologies such as Positive Train Control (PTC) can lead to improvements. These include better labor–management agreements, more effective fatigue-related educational programs, improved schedule regularity, and more practical and adaptable federal laws and regulations.