Performance and alertness of railroad engineers on long duration trips

Abstract

The present study investigated the performance and alertness of 8 healthy male participants between the age of 31 years and 65 years old in nighttime, long duration simulated train operation. Participants completed the simulator tasks twice, once alone (single run) and once with another person in the cab (paired run), on two different nights. Various simulator tasks were used to provide measurement of performance. Objective (percentage eyelid closure and psychomotor reaction time) and subjective (self reported fatigue, workload, and stress) were used to provide measurement of alertness. No significant result was found when comparing the performance and alertness measures between single and paired runs. The result showed significant correlation between the subjective measures and also between the subjective and objective measures. A significant difference in the temporal trend of performance decrement was found between the youngest and the oldest participants.