UK: The Birmingham Rail Resilience Hub has been created by Network Rail to provided emergency response training for the railway industry and the emergency services.
The purpose-built facility in Aston includes track, a train, level crossings and other equipment and hazards found on the real railway.
‘This hub creates a safe, realistic environment which allows the railway, emergency services and industry partners to learn and work together so we are ready to deal with situations in real life’, said Denise Wetton, Network Rail’s Central route director. ‘We hope the scenarios which will be tested here never happen, but training and learning in this way will help everyone be prepared and ready.’
The first emergency exercise involved West Midlands Police, British Transport Police, West Midlands Ambulance Service, West Midlands Fire Service and Hereford & Worcester Fire & Rescue Service.
This demonstrated how the industry and emergency services would respond to a vehicle being struck by a train on a level crossing. It included how the area would be assessed and made safe before trapped and injured people were rescued, and how the investigations would begin ahead of reopening the railway.
Casualty simulation company Nimski provided people for role play; the company has a bank of people who use their personal trauma experiences to provide special effects which it says are ‘unequalled by actors or dummies’.
