Abstract
This article aims to provide insights into achieving situational awareness as a basis for safe automated railway operations. Automation in rail transport has a significant influence on employees’ situational awareness (perception,
understanding and anticipation of the situation), which in turn depends on the degree of automation, task characterisation, the design of the humanmachine interface and information content. One decisive aspect for safe
operation is the human-centred design of the task and workspace with integrated information as well as regular training and knowledge expansion to enable appropriate situational awareness. Good examples already exist in railways, especially for the visualisation of relevant information considering human and organisational factors and addressing automation myth #1.
