Abstract

Purpose At the US passenger stations, train operations approaching terminating tracks rely on the engineer’s compliant behavior to safely stop before the end of the tracks. Noncompliance actions from the disengaged or inattentive engineers would result in hazards to train passengers, train crewmembers and bystanders at passenger stations. Over the past decade, a series of end-of-track collisions occurred at passenger stations with substantial property damage and casualties. This study’s developed systemic model and discussions present policymakers, railway practitioners and academic researchers with a flexible approach for qualitatively assessing railroad safety. Design/methodology/approach To achieve a system-based, micro-level analysis of end-of-track accidents and eventually promote the safety level of passenger stations, the systems-theoretic accident modeling and processes (STAMP), as a practical systematic accident model widely used in the complex systems, is developed in view of environmental factors, human errors, organizational factors and mechanical failures in this complex socio-technical system. Findings The developed STAMP accident model and analytical results qualitatively provide an explicit understanding of the system hazards, constraints and hierarchical control structure of train operations on terminating tracks in the US passenger stations. Furthermore, the safety recommendations and practical options related to obstructive sleep apnea screening, positive train control-based collision avoidance mechanisms, robust system safety program plans and bumping posts are proposed and evaluated using the STAMP approach. Originality/value The findings from STAMP-based analysis can serve as valid references for policymakers, government accident investigators, railway practitioners and academic researchers. Ultimately, they can contribute to establishing effective emergent measures for train operations at passenger stations and promote the level of safety necessary to protect the public. The STAMP approach could be adapted to analyze various other rail safety systems that aim to ultimately improve the safety level of railroad systems.

Highlights

  • A train approaching the end of terminating tracks at passenger stations is one common train operation scenario in the USA

  • The findings from systems-theoretic accident modeling and processes (STAMP)-based analysis can serve as valid references for policymakers, government accident investigators, railway practitioners and academic researchers. They can contribute to establishing effective emergent measures for train operations at passenger stations and promote the level of safety necessary to protect the public

  • The analytical results demonstrate an explicit understanding of system hazards, constraints and the hierarchical control structure of train operation on terminating tracks in American railroads

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Summary

Introduction

A train approaching the end of terminating tracks at passenger stations is one common train operation scenario in the USA. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) (2018a) claimed that the safety issues identified from these two accidents existed throughout the USA at many intercity passenger and commuter passenger train terminals Despite this ubiquitous risk and an increasing concern on this specific train operation, to our knowledge, prior research studying on end-of-track collisions at passenger stations is quite limited. The development of this paper is motivated by this knowledge gap, in which end-of-track collisions at American passenger stations are studied through a system-based and micro-level risk analysis. The STAMP-based analytical results in this paper provide an explicit safety analysis of physical components, human errors, environmental factors and their interrelationship in the complex terminal operating system, which discloses the inadequate safety constraints at each hierarchical level of end-of-track collisions and contributes to the establishment of safety recommendations as well as suggestions. Previous researchers (Leveson, 2012; Hollnagel, 2012) who have drawn some criticisms on the SCM-based models pointed out that SCM-based models

Output information and conditions that result from train movements
National Transportation Safety Board
New Jersey Transit
Physical Equipment
Observed outputs
Bumping posts
Findings
Conclusion
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