Emergency Planning Mishap Management & Investigation

Railway Transport and Operation Management.

Subject: Railway Emergency Planning and Incident Investigation

This is a Summative course Question which is in two parts, and is designed to cover both areas of Emergency Planning and Incident Investigation. Both parts carry total of 50% of the marks, and each part is split into 2 sections, each with 25% of the marks. Harvard referencing is mandatory

Incident Summary: The branch line in Cornwall runs from a large town station on the London to Penzance mainline to a small terminus station serving a town by the sea. The line is 10 miles and has 5 stations, is double track throughout and has 2 level crossings. The line is very well used especially by commuters going to the large town as well as the terminus of the branch line being popular for tourists. The line has a maximum speed of 50 mph and is operated normally by 2 carriage diesel trains running a half hourly service.

At approximately 06:45hrs on Monday 10th November, the driver had been experiencing some low adhesion stopping at the intermediate stations but nothing that was reportable. On approach to the branch terminus of the seaside town, the driver experienced severe wheel slip whilst braking and had to use the emergency brake in accordance with instructions. The train continued to slide along the entire length of the platform and hit the buffer stops at around 12mph. This force demolished the buffer stops and the train ended up hitting and partly demolishing the station building.

The guard contacted the signaller and informed them of the incident and its location, requesting the Emergency Services. The guard then checked on the customers and reported back to the signaller that there were 60 people on the train with a number of passengers with major injuries. He also could not reach or contact the driver.

The Emergency services were quickly on the scene but were hampered by there only being a very narrow approach road to the station and very limited parking.

Passengers were either taken to hospital or de-trained by the police. The rescue operation took a total of 5 hours with the driver being the last person to be rescued.

Investigation and recovery operations took a total of 5 days before the line was open again.

PART 1 – INCIDENT MANAGEMENT AND EMERGENCY PLANNING – (900 words combined part 1and 2)

Part 1a – You are on call in the area and have been contacted by Control and asked to attend. Determine your key actions and their sequence in order of priority. Identify the role you will take, and who your key interfaces will be.(450words)

Part 1b – Thinking about the above incident, briefly detail which elements of your Company Emergency Plan are the key elements for dealing with this type of incident. Select 2 of these items and detail, using CRAFT, why you consider them essential, including quoting from the plan to demonstrate through a critical analysis how CRAFT can be applied to them (450 words)

PART 2 – INCIDENT AND ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION –(900 words Part1 and 2 combined)

Part 2a – As you were at the site, you have been given the role by the Designated Competent Person to write the investigation and to lead the investigation team. You should identify the specific members of the team to join you and list what each of their roles are. Identify any help and support you may require from outside the team and what key requirements you need as Team Leader. (450 words)

Part 2b – Again with reference to the incident, what are the critical factors which you might consider are the key elements of the investigation, including any human factors issues which could be applied. (450 words)

Mandatory request to Note: Harvard Referencing is highly required also plagiarism check is a must, spacing 1.5, front size 12 for body text and 14-16 for heading and sub heading. Bullet point where needed should be applied.

Note:

The answer to each of these two parts of the question is potentially worth one half of the total score for this Summative assignment. Failure to answer any individual section will result in no marks being awarded for that section. Also all reference should be Harvard Referencing.

To assist effective understanding ,materials mainly from incident report and emergency management from network rail , London underground Ltd(LUL), and view the RAIB report on Chester station report incident. Also this should be based on UK railway incident and emergency report management.