The role of colour in the visual perception of trains and implications for railway worker safety

Abstract

In the rail environment, Lookouts protect workers on track by visually monitoring the environment and detecting approaching trains. It is therefore critically important that trains are easily detected by Lookouts. The specificity of standards regarding front-of-train colour designs are varied and ambiguous. As well, limited guidance is found in the body of literature on conspicuity regarding how it applies to the rail and broader transport industry. In visual perception research, conflicting views exist on whether colour is important in determining object conspicuity. The present study seeks to address this research gap by employing a novel use of virtual reality (VR) technology, to simulate a train detection task for Lookouts. The experiments investigated (1) whether train conspicuity differs for varying train types under different ambient conditions, and (2) whether colour is important for improving train conspicuity. We found differences in the time taken to detect different train types, providing evidence that train conspicuity is affected by front-of-train design. However, the observed conspicuity differences between train types were not due to chromatic colour differences. The study findings raise interesting questions regarding the role of colour in visual detection tasks and demonstrates a novel application of empirical research to address rail industry issues.