Study On Mental Workload Of Railwany Station Dispatchers

Safety is critical in railway transportion. In order to ensure the safe operation oftrains, the research evaluation on safe operation reliability of the complex railwayman-machine system is necessary for the railway system safety. According to statistics,human factors errors represent a larger portion than facility ones in all kinds of railwayaccidents. In recent years, mental work plays a more and more important role for stationdispatchers. Too high mental workload influence the work efficiency and reliability ofoperating personnels in railway man-machine systems. Therefore, the mental workloadevaluation of key work personnel in railway operation is of great significance inpractice.This study selected to analyze the work of station dispatchers, one key workpersonnel in railway operation. Through work analysis, station dispatchers who are thecommanders serve as the significant bridge in TDCS (Train Operation DispatchingCommand System). The dispatchers have to perform multiple tasks in the process oftrain reception and departure, such as shunting service, goods train stay (remove)service, device unit construction (maintaining) organizing service, train reception anddeparture in improper conditions and other services, which play a great role in themental workload.The key dispatcher work where problems often occur was analyzed. The majortasks which affect the mental workload of the dispatchers were analyzed byquestionnaires. Prominent tasks were selected as the main evaluation factors for thedispatcher mental workload.Based on railway work features, the distribution features, rules and influencingfactors of station dispatchers’ mental workload were obtained through subjectivemeasurement method in which the subjective evaluation scale and questionnaire werethe main tools. This study also compared the results of video data with the aboveinformation and finally obtained the mental workload results.According to the mental workload results, the man-machine system where stationdispatchers work with was analyzed to take countermeasures to make the mentalworkload of station dispatchers in the proper level; the work design needs to beoptimized to match with the man-machine system to promote safe, orderly, and efficientoperation of railway transportion.