Work Schedules and Sleep Patterns of Train and Engine Employees in Passenger Operations

The Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Office of Research and Development sponsored a project to study the work schedules and sleep patterns of U.S. railroad train and engine (T&E) employees in passenger operations. A prior study of all T&E employees, both passenger and freight, had an inadequate number of T&E workers in passenger service to make meaningful conclusions about this subgroup of T&E workers, so the present study was undertaken. FRA used the results of this study to inform proposed regulations for revised Hours of Service regulations. Effectiveness measures, based on the Sleep, Activity, Fatigue, and Task Effectiveness (SAFTE) model, indicate that passenger T&E employees, regardless of the type of assignment, work at an acceptable effectiveness level more than 97 percent of their work time. Effectiveness at both the beginning and end of a work assignment decreases as the number of consecutive days on the job increases.