ABSTRACT
This paper summarises a combination of projects completed over an 18 month period by The University of Nottingham. Network Rail, the company which owns, maintains, and operates the UK railway infrastructure, commissioned this research in order to understand the scope and implications of local knowledge for signallers and railway lookouts. Network Rail had recognised through consultation with railway signallers that local knowledge was believed to have a positive influence upon the safety and performance of railway control. They wished to understand and develop a framework that could illustrate what and how local knowledge was used by signallers. Subsequently, work that had been studying vigilance issues relating to railway lookouts also revealed references to the benefit of local knowledge. A further investigation was completed with railway lookouts and is ongoing at the time
of writing. The aim of the work for both job roles was to inform training programs and in the case of signallers to contribute to future system design.
