FRA Releases Scenario-Based Training Research Report

(FRA Photograph)

Scenario-based training (SBT) can help new railroad transportation employees learn about real-world scenarios they might not encounter during standard training, according to a new report released by the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Office of Research, Development and Technology.

The goal of the research report—Evaluation of Scenario-Based Team Training for Railroad Transportation Employees (download below)—was to determine whether the use of SBT would result in more effective learning of safety-critical behaviors.

In 2015, a peer review team, comprising labor craft employees and railroad managers, developed railroad SBT, according to FRA. The team “was responsible for reviewing close-call reports and developing recommendations to address unsafe conditions on the railroad,” FRA reported. “The objective of SBT is to improve the coordination of teams to operate safely through exposure to the hazardous conditions that railroads previously identified through observations, close call reports, incident reports, and accidents that can lead to unsafe outcomes.”

According to the research report, among the three passenger railroads that conducted training sessions using SBT, “each demonstrated that SBT can lead to slight improvements in correct responses of student’s performance on training evaluation forms. While the differences in pre- and post-evaluation forms was not significantly different for experienced employees, new employees displayed just under 17% improvement, which was statistically significant. This significant difference shows that SBT programs have the potential to teach new students about real-world scenarios that they might not otherwise have been able to learn during their standard training.”

The report noted that replicating this research with more railroads, including freight railroads, and larger samples “will inform whether these results generalize across the railroad industry.” Additionally, more research is needed to understand why the performance improvements for experienced employees were smaller than those for new employees and how to improve performance for this group, according to the report.

“Like crew resource management and non-technical skills training, SBT can provide the soft skills needed for successful team performance within the railroad industry,” the report noted. In the future, learning “how this training affects team interactions in the field can inform railroad training methods for new and experienced employees.”