PhD, Associate Professor L.V. Blonsky
Russian University of Transport (MIIT), Moscow

Keywords: railway transport, stress resistance, transport safety, locomotive drivers, physical culture, sports.

Introduction: Due to official statistics in the first quarter of 2021 79 accidents occurred at railway-crossing of OAO “RZD”. These numbers exceed the official statistic of the same months of previous year by 41% [1]. Prevention of such accidents largely depends on high stress resilience of the locomotive machinist. In our article we are trying to identify the impact of regular physical training and sports on stress resilience of railways machinists, specifically focusing on its development.

Research objectives: to identify in which manner the regular physical training and sports impact the stress resilience development of locomotive machinists

Methods and research management: Our research took place in the period from January to July 2021 in Russian Open Transport Academy of Russian University of Transport (ROTA (MRUT). Many of the students of extension department (external study mode) of this University department are working as locomotive machinists. We interviewed this group of students to indentify how regular physical training and sports impact their stress resilience. Our survey group included 225 university students.

Research results and their evaluation: During our survey we determined that 87,09% of the interviewed students acknowledge direct link between regular physical training and sports and stress resilience development. However, only 66,5% of the interviewed students regularly do physical and sports training. At the same time 71,03% do morning exercises.
When asked “Which qualities you can obtain maintaining regular physical training and sports?” 93,8% of the interviewed students responded that such regular physical training and sports improve physical and psychological qualities of their organisms, and 81,3% confirmed that such training improves their reaction and strength, namely the qualities necessary for their working activities. When asked “Does psychological stress affect your reaction and speed of making decisions to prevent possible accidents at railway tracks?” 91,7% of students answered in the affirmative manner. However, 97,08% of students regularly doing sports positively answered the question “Do regular physical training and sports help you in stress situations?”. When asked “Would regular physical training and sports improve your stress resilience?” 88,5% of the surveyed students answered affirmatively.

Conclusion: Therefore, results of our research proved a high positive impact of regular physical training and sports on stress resilience of railway machinists.

Literature

1. JSC "Russian Railways" records an increase in accidents at railway crossings in the first quarter of 2021 // URL: https://company.rzd.ru/ru/9397/page/104069?id=261491 (date of reference: 01.10.2021).

Information for contacting the author: leonidas78@inbox.ru