Case studies on human centred design for railways

A human centred approach to the design of work places in the railway industry is essential if railways are to retain their lead over other modes of transport in terms of safety, timeliness of the transport product and level of comfort. The authors present a number of case studies which illustrate some of the principles of human centred systems design. The case studies relate to the handling and management of information in the context of railways, that is, complex systems composed of many critical subsystems. Railway undertakings and manufacturers of railway equipment pursue a variety of strategies for the presentation and handling of safety critical and other information. Some of these approaches are the result of many years of experience while others were developed to "fix" particular problems. In the present paper, the authors provide practical examples of situations where human centred approaches could be applied, of the type advocated in the companion paper (Schmid and Collis, 1999/1). The case studies presented in the paper are based on real situations but should not be viewed as critiques.