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U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Technical Reports

General Health Effects of Transportation Noise

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored preparation of this report to support a rulemaking process about the use of locomotive horns and the accompanying environmental impact statement. This document reviews select current and past research on the effect of transportation noise on...

Optimizing Staffing Levels and Schedules for Railroad Dispatching Centers

This report presents the results of a study to explore approaches to establishing staffing levels and schedules for railroad dispatchers. The work was conducted as follow-up to a prior study that found fatigue among dispatchers, particularly those who worked permanent night shifts. The present...

Effects of Supervisory Train Control Technology on Operator Attention

This report describes an experiment evaluating the effects of supervisory control automation on attention allocation while operating a train. The study compared two levels of supervisory control (partial and full) to manual control, in terms of how it affects vigilance detection and situation...