Fundamentals + Advanced Railway Human Factors & Error Management

Course Overview

“Error is pervasive. The unexpected is pervasive. What is not pervasive are well-developed skills to detect and contain these errors at their early stages”. – Karl Weick, Managing the Unexpected

Rail is one of the safest transport modes, yet human error remains the key barrier to further improving rail safety and reducing accident costs.

Despite advanced systems and technology, human performance limitations continue to drive risk, often leading to serious incidents, legal scrutiny, and operational disruption.

Key insights:

• Rail accident costs (BTRE): AUD $133 million
• Human error is often misunderstood and poorly analysed
• Failures are frequently linked to system and organisational factors
• Need for error-tolerant rail systems and strategies

This Advanced Railway Human Factors and Error Management course builds on foundational knowledge to address complex safety challenges across the rail industry.

Delivered over 11 weeks online, this program helps you strengthen rail safety and build more resilient, error-tolerant systems.

Who Should Participate

This fundamentals and advanced railway human factors course is designed for those individuals seeking a comprehensive understanding of applied rail human factors.

Expected participants include:

• Rail Operations and Engineering Senior Managers

• Team Leaders and Supervisors

• Human Resource Managers

• Rail Safety and WHS Managers, Investigators, and Auditors

• Quality, risk, compliance, and assurance managers

Key Benefits

Upon completion of this fundamentals and advanced railway human factors course, you will be able to:

• Understand the evolution of human factors in rail, its current scope, and how it may contribute to addressing future safety challenges in modern railway systems
• Understand human error within the context of significant rail safety incident investigations
• Incorporate practical, proactive error management strategies contextualised to rail operations
• Address human performance limitations that impact effective decision-making and increase the probability of error occurrence
• Adopt a systematic human factors analysis method for incident investigations to identify errors and error-producing conditions better
• Identify social and group influences that shape human performance
• Understand the impact of rail infrastructure and equipment design on human performance and the pros and cons of automation and advanced technology
• Understand the incidence of mental health issues in the rail industry and strategies to support rail safety, critical workers
• Identify cultural influences that shape human performance, including the practical application of a fair and just culture approach to consequence management
• Adopt a proactive human factors analysis approach to identify the triggers that may lead to a potentially fatal/critical risk event and fix conditions before they cause problems

Course Information

Instructional Delivery Method: Scheduled Digital
Prerequisite & Advanced Preparation: Reading material will be sent prior to the course

Delivered by Dr Graham Edkins

Organisational Psychologist Dr Graham Edkins is considered one of Australia’s leading Safety Management and Human Factors experts and is regularly retained as an independent safety investigator and human factors expert witness for various civil and criminal matters.

Run this course in-house

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