Design, Development, and Evaluation of a Crew Resource Management Learning Experience to Improve Freight Rail Safety

In 2015, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) mandate Crew Resource Management (CRM) training for rail crews, based on CRM's proven success in reducing human error and enhancing safety in aviation. Recognizing parallels in the rail sector, and supported by recent FRA research (Rosenhand et al., 2012; Roth et al., 2013; Sebok et al., 2017), the rail industry stands to benefit from structured CRM training to improve communication, teamwork, and decision-making among train crews. Researchers at TiER1 Performance were engaged to investigate, develop, pilot, and assess a CRM training learning experience tailored to rail. This paper describes the design and development of a rail-industry CRM training prototype and discusses the results of a formative evaluation of the learning experience.