Michael Jones of the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Research and Development at the controls of the CTIL. (Volpe Center photo)

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently installed the Cab Technology Integration Laboratory (CTIL), a state-of-the-art locomotive simulator, at the Volpe Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It will allow researchers to simulate a number of conditions and scenarios encountered during railroad operations to identify safety problems and develop effective solutions. The $1.6 million CTIL was constructed by Alion Science and Technology. Among its capabilities, the full-sized locomotive simulator can accurately record crew behavior through the video, audio, and eye-tracking capabilities at the control and button-pushing level. This allows researchers to carefully observe the actions of train crews and monitor the corresponding effect of their actions on the simulated locomotive they are operating. Other features include modeling and visualization technologies, which are tools to optimize the physical design and configuration of locomotive cabs to enhance crew performance.

The Volpe Center provides human factors services to support safe and productive railroad operations, including: assessment of railroad system performance; investigation of human performance in accidents in railroad operations; and identification of methods for reducing accidents and improving working conditions for the FRA.