Attitudes and opinions of railway signallers and related staff, using the Rail Ergonomics Questionnaire (REQUEST)

REQUEST, the Rail Ergonomics Questionnaire, has been designed to survey attitudes and opinions of railway signallers and those in associated roles on a range of human factors such as job satisfaction, the workplace, culture or stress. The development of the survey instrument has been described in Ryan et al. [2008. Developing a rail ergonomics questionnaire (REQUEST). Appl. Ergon., doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2008.04.006.]. The present paper presents an overview of findings from this national survey which achieved a sample size of 3889 and a response rate of 83%. Findings are compared by different roles (e.g. signaller, controller) on a range of main scales and responses to additional questions in the survey. Ratings from the largest of the occupational groups, the signaller at 83.1% of the overall population, have been compared according to different types of signalling system used, identifying different characteristics in the use of lever, panel and VDU signalling systems. Comparisons of signallers' ratings by geographical location have produced findings of interest at different layers of management of the organisation, identifying locations with high or low ratings on a range of scales. The findings provide valuable information for the client organisation, using direct input from frontline staff on a range of human factors issues. This was a large survey, one of the largest ever civilian human factors surveys, involving lengthy, often repetitive and frequently complex analyses. Lessons learned within the administration of the survey, the analysis of the data and dissemination of the findings will be of interest to researchers. An overview of the scope of analyses of the database is introduced, in addition to proposals for further development of the survey instrument.