DOES ETCS CHANGE ERGONOMICS PROJECT ACTIVITIES?

The exploitation of ETCS in rail infrastructure has affected the scope of work required from Ergonomics and Human Factors teams supporting projects that implement this technology. This paper considers aspects of ergonomics... [ view full abstract ]

The exploitation of ETCS in rail infrastructure has affected the scope of work required from Ergonomics and Human Factors teams supporting projects that implement this technology.
This paper considers aspects of ergonomics work that are changed and those that are unaffected by ETCS. It also addresses changes that are correlated to ETCS programs but not an intrinsic part of it.
ETCS implementations can be characterised into 3 types, each with a differing level of demand for ergonomics project activities. It is concluded that ETCS projects affect a wider range of user roles and introduces a number of significant concept changes compared to conventional signalling projects; thereby increasing the scope of ergonomics work in ETCS projects.