Preliminary Safety-Critical Scenario Analysis of Semi-Automated Train Operation

France's national state-owned railway company (SNCF) plans to introduce the Automated Train Operation (ATO) system in manually operated trains to make train operations more efficient, eco-friendly, and precise. Preliminary Risk Analysis of ATO have been conducted at SNCF, but they are theoretical and have not been validated by human-in-the-loop simulation. As a contribution to the state of the art, we propose to use the PRODEC method to achieve a safety-orientated human-centered and organization-centered design, requiring the development of appropriate scenarios, which constitutes the object of this paper. To this end, our methodology and results are based on i) the analysis and categorization of the incidents that occurred within SNCF during the past years, including their classification, occurrence, and severity; ii) expert judgment. By doing so, we aim to define the human and organizational factors, as well as the technical elements that significantly impact system safety. The ten most relevant scenarios were developed.

Keywords: Railway, Risk analysis, PRODEC method, Human system integration, Scenario-based design.

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