Train drivers are a vital part of the railway system and significantly affect accident statistics and punctuality. The driver's performance is particularly important in situations that deviate from the normal, such as signal failures or when people are on or near the track. In such situations, good performance positively affects railway performance, meaning higher punctuality and fewer collisions between railway vehicles and other vehicles, animals, or people. Basic train driver education in Sweden consists of classroom theory and approximately 20 weeks of internship during service. Since the Swedish railway is quite robust, it is questionable if the internship contains enough training opportunities for different situations. However, during the last decade, a low-fidelity train driving simulator has been introduced into train driver education, and in 2024, all educators use this simulator. This thesis presentation investigated how the simulator can enhance Swedish railway performance via better prepared train drivers.  

The results come from four included papers. Paper 1 used web-based questionnaires to examine how often 43 situations are expected to be trained during the basic train driver education internship. Paper 2 was a simulator experiment investigating the effect of simulator training on train driver performance in a simulator test. Paper 3 aimed to study the relationship between actual train driver performance, measured as supervisor grades from eleven weeks of internship, and performance in a 45-minute simulator test measured as number of driving errors. Finally, Paper 4 studied how in-cabin information systems affect train drivers' attention in a simulator experiment with eye-tracking data.