The operational phase in train traffic control is very complex and dynamic. Many different actors are involved. The traffic control organization is complex in itself and consists internally of different roles in different parts of the organization, such as dispatchers, signallers, regional and national coordinators etc. The railway companies, railway undertakings, have their own complex organization and systems. Train drivers and on-board personnel are involved in driving and support of passengers. Passengers and other customers require precise information. Today there are no information or control systems that support efficient coordination of actions and cooperation between actors. Systems for common access to central information, such as the current traffic plan, do not normally exist. The result is non-optimal performance and difficulties to handle perturbations and disruptions. We have studied new principles for traffic control and developed support systems based on the principle ‘control by operational re-planning’ of a continuously updated real-time traffic plan (RTTP). This concept also includes the use of automation, but only in a way that cannot reduce skills, situation awareness or the possibilities to handle all such situations that automation are not designed for. Support systems for traffic controllers have been developed and evaluated and found to be useful in both normal and disturbed traffic situations. Studies have indicated that today's driver advisory systems provide too little information, e.g. only a speed advice, and do not improve drivers’ skills or their situation awareness. In a research project, a prototype for a new driver advisory system has been developed, in cooperation with a group of experienced drivers.

When developing new control systems and user interfaces for human operators, a deep understanding of their work is essential in order to build support systems that improve important aspects of work ...

The demands on modern railway traffic systems are high. Higher efficiency is required, meaning better utilisation of infrastructure capacity and reduced energy consumption. Timeliness has a high priority and safety has to be unconditional. The operation of railway traffic includes many actors in different roles and separate organisations. Our studies of train traffic control have shown that improved collaboration between the actors and advanced control systems are needed to meet the high demands. Instead, many actors are following their own plans based on their own goals and insufficient information. This paper explores the concept of a real-time traffic plan (RTTP) to coordinate collaboration between the different actors, and demonstrates how it can be implemented in systems for train traffic control and driver information. We present the traffic control system STEG and the driver advisory system CATO. Both systems are in use, allowing re-planning and sharing of such an RTTP. Based on these systems, we discuss general and specific design solutions, in accordance with human factors and explain a way of introducing automation that supports the traffic controllers without interfering with their planning. With these systems, we are able to show that a more holistic approach to train traffic control, based on an RTTP, is technically feasible and that sharing this plan with the train drivers substantially improves qualities in train traffic control. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Motor vehicles and drivers' relationship with them will change significantly in the next decades. Still, most driving tasks are likely to involve humans behind the wheel, emphasizing the design of in-vehicle assistance systems. A framework for distribution of control between human beings and technology is presented, as well as a model to be used in analysis, design, development, and deployment of decision support systems. The framework and the model are applied in a project aiming for design of in-vehicle systems for future long-haul vehicles. The empirical investigations conducted support the design-as-hypotheses approach. The search for improvements of design concepts and levels of automation leads to a shift away from abstract ideas of autonomous cars to empirical issues such as how to support the driver. The need to discuss authority in relation to levels of automation is recognized, emphasizing the fact that human-machine interaction takes place on two distinct levels.

In our research, we study IT-systems for highly skilled professionals in complex and dynamic work situations. Such situations can be found in e.g. health care, process and traffic control and in administration. The demands on the operators/users are often very high concerning quality performance, efficiency, timeliness, safety, communication and cooperation. Our experience shows that human operators can overview, interpret and in real time use an almost unlimited amount of information, if it is relevant to the situation and visualized according to human capabilities. The solution to the visualization problem is therefore not to avoid or hide complexity, but to cope with it, to accept that the complexity must be there. The challenge is to develop systems for visualization and support, which can be used efficiently in relation to the complexity of the work task. We believe in recognizing complexity. First, we describe the scientific foundation of such an approach. Second, we give a detailed example of a complex visualization problem, emphasizing the demanding cognitive operations the operators have to conduct. Finally, we describe the solutions, the visualizations and interactions that make it possible to support the cognitively demanding task, taking care of the complexity without losing the rich amount of information necessary for the operators in different situations, but without adding unnecessary complexity in terms of complicated handling of the user interface and the information systems. Some of these visualizations now run in real systems and have been evaluated, and we end up by suggesting recommendations for successful visualizations in complex work tasks.

Motor vehicles and drivers’ relationship with them will change significantly in the next decades. Still, most driving tasks are likely to involve humans behind the wheel, emphasizing the design of in-vehicle assistance systems. A framework for distribution of control between human beings and technology is presented, as well as a model to be used in analysis, design, development, and deployment of decision support systems. The framework and the model are applied in a project aiming for design of in-vehicle systems for future long-haul vehicles. The empirical investigations conducted support the design-as-hypotheses approach. The search for improvements of design concepts and levels of automation leads to a shift away from abstract ideas of autonomous cars to empirical issues such as how to support the driver. The need to discuss authority in relation to levels of automation is recognized, emphasizing the fact that human-machine interaction takes place on two distinct levels.

During the past decade, train Driver Advisory Systems (DAS) have been an emerging topic. Many projects have been started with the goal to increase punctuality and decrease energy consumption. We found that many systems provide too little information, e.g. only a speed advice, and thus do neither improve drivers' skills nor their Situation Awareness (SA) of the traffic situation. In collaboration with train drivers, we developed key concepts for future DAS. This paper discusses today's problems and principles to solve them. We explain how SA can be supported and how this can improve overall quality of train traffic.

There is strong motivation for having rail technology that is both international and interoperable. The practice, however, of moving technology that works well in one operational setting to another ...

There is strong motivation for having rail technology that is both international and interoperable. The practice, however, of moving technology that works well in one operational setting to another is not straightforward. This paper takes one type of technology, traffic control automation, and looks at variability between two contexts - GB and Sweden. The output from this work is a socio-technical framework which will be used to asses the viability of applying new advances in traffic management across a number of EU countries.

Many different actors have to collaborate in order to guarantee efficient railway traffic that is safe, on time, comfortable, eco-friendly and economic. Appropriate planning is necessary: The transport company has to provide rolling stock and personnel, the traffic controllers have to solve perturbations proficiently, and the train drivers have to drive in a way, as far as the traffic plan allows, that saves energy and reduces wearing on rolling stock and infrastructure. In order to find a globally optimal solution, all actors need optimal access to information on the current traffic situation. In reality, the situation in European railway traffic is far from optimal: The traffic controllers have limited or delayed knowledge about perturbations and disruptions occurring at tracks, trains, or platforms, while train drivers often have limited or outdated information about the actual traffic plan and the surrounding traffic situation. Information exchange can only happen via telephone. There is a clear need for systems allowing efficient information exchange. We have developed a completely new strategy for train traffic control that focuses on continuous re-planning. This strategy is implemented and evaluated in Sweden. The new system allows sharing the updated traffic plan automatically and it is even connected to a driver advisory system. Combined, these systems clearly improve information exchange between train drivers and traffic controllers. Both systems are designed according to the identified needs of professional traffic controllers and train drivers. This paper presents the problem of insufficient information exchange and our findings in form of design concepts for systems supporting collaboration between train drivers and traffic control.

Earlier studies of human operators in complex and dynamic work situations have demonstrated the importance of understanding the operator's goal, mental model, observability, and controllability. Based on this model we have been able to analyse and design control systems and user interfaces supporting efficient control and high situation awareness. We now extended this model to include collaboration between different actors in complex control environments. This paper describes basic elements of the model, extension to collaboration, and its application to understand important problems and prerequisites for development of control systems in train traffic control in Sweden.

This article describes the importance ofusing a user-centred deployment process.The article is based on a case study of twotrain traffic control centres where the samesystem, STEG, was deployed wit ...

Uppsala University has collaborated with Swedish National Railway Administration in research about train traffic control and how to improve traffic controllers’ work environment, so that they can b ...

This paper is an extended version of the Credo Methodology [16]. Credo offers tools and techniques to model and analyze highly reconfigurable distributed systems. In a previous version we presented an integrated methodology to use the Credo tool suite. Following a compositional, component–based approach to model and analyze distributed systems, we presented a separation of the system into components and the network. A high–level, abstract representation of the dataflow level on the network was given in terms of behavioral interface automata and a detailed model of the components in terms of Creol models. Here we extend the methodology with a detailed model of the network connecting these components. The Vereofy tool set is used to model and analyze the dataflow of the network in detail. The behavioral automata connect the detailed model of the network and the detailed model of the components. We apply the extended methodology to our running example, a peer-to-peer file-sharing system.

This paper is an extended version of the Credo Methodology [16]. Credo offers tools and techniques to model and analyze highly reconfigurable distributed systems. In a previous version we presented an integrated methodology to use the Credo tool suite. Following a compositional, component based approach to model and analyze distributed systems, we presented a separation of the system into components and the network. A high level, abstract representation of the dataflow level on the network was given in terms of behavioral interface automata and a detailed model of the components in terms of Creol models. Here we extend the methodology with a detailed model of the network connecting these components. The Vereofy tool set is used to model and analyze the dataflow of the network in detail. The behavioral automata connect the detailed model of the network and the detailed model of the components. We apply the extended methodology to our running example, a peer-to-peer file-sharing system.

Credo offers tools and techniques to model and analyze highly reconfigurable distributed systems. In this paper, we present an integrated methodology to use the Credo tool suite. In this methodology, we advertise the use of top-down design, component-based modeling and compositional analysis to address the complexity of highly reconfigurable distributed systems. As a running example, we model a peer-to-peer file-sharing system and show how and when to apply the different modeling and analysis techniques of Credo.

Tomorrow’s train traffic systems must be able to handle more frequent traffic, higher speeds and different companies operating on the same infrastructure. Improving train traffic control can be a cost-efficient way to improve punctuality and increase utilization of rail infra-structure. The main objective of this paper is to describe a new control strategy, and a prototype system derived from basic research. By shifting the control paradigm to a high-level control strategy, many of today’s problems can be avoided. The main goal for the traffic controllers will be to ensure that there always exists a valid plan for the train traffic. This plan can be executed by an automated system.