Human Factors in the U.S. Railroad Industry

Thomas G. Raslear is an Independent Human Factors Consultant based in Maryland, USA. He has over 40 years of experience in experimental psychology and human factors research. For 23 years, he was based at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) until his retirement. At FRA, he was Chief of the Human Factors Research Division in the Office of Research and Development. He is an internationally known expert in fatigue in the railroad industry and has published extensively on the effects of work schedules on fatigue and accidents. Tom was a member and former chair of the U.S. Department of Transportation Human Factors Coordinating Committee and a member of the Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on Railroad Operational Safety (AR070). He is also an internationally known expert on grade crossing human factors and accident causation and has published extensively on the use of Signal Detection Theory in the analysis of motorist behavior at grade crossings.