This is an account of the Disaster
Management practices over European Railway Systems, as observed during the
visit of two multi-disciplinary study teams to Europe in March-April 2004. Team
I visited Germany, Holland and France. Team II visited Austria, Holland and UK.
I was the Finance member (in Team II).
Apart from studying the Disaster
Management practices on German, Austrian and French Railways, the study teams
interacted with various equipment manufacturers and consultants and also
visited reputed training institutions like the Netherlands Institute for Fire
Service and Disaster Management (Nibra), International Centre for Emergency
Techniques, Raamsdonksveer (Holland) and the Fire Services College, Moreton-in-Marsh
(UK)
- Alok Bhatnagar,
EDF(C&RM)/RB
DB
AG (German Railways) is spread over 37000 route kms and are responsible for
emergency management over the railway network.
However, it is the State Fire & Medical Services, who are
responsible for rescue and medical relief operations/ activities in all cases
of railway accidents or emergency on railway network. Police, medical and fire services receive the calls for
assistance directly and attend the accident site promptly. Mayor of the
city/area where the accident has taken place is the overall incharge of the
rescue and relief operations. DB AG is
only responsible for rolling stock and fixed infrastructure restoration and to
complement the efforts of the rescuers.
DB AG have group guidelines for emergency management (No. 423), wherein
the roles of various authorities have been described in detail. For normal emergencies, only local fire and
medical relief services are utilised.
For natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, cyclones, etc.),
country-wide mobilisation can take place.
The extent of dependency on fire and rescue services can be seen from
the fact that Germany has approximately one rescuer (full time or volunteer)
per 60 Nos. of population.
The
whole railway network is controlled by 7 Emergency Control Centers and is
divided into 180 emergency districts.
Each emergency district is headed by an emergency manager. As per the norm, the emergency manager must
reach the site of accident within 30 minutes. Emergency Manager is authorized
by law to use flashing Blue light as by Ambulances and similar services. His
waistcoat bears the words “DB Emergency Manager”. There is a Central Emergency Management
Training Center for training of emergency managers. All emergency managers are
required to go for initial & thereafter refresher course at a periodicity
of 2 years (duration: one week for both).
Virtual reality simulation packages have been developed and are being
utilised for training of emergency personnel.
On
board train staff also go for refresher training at a periodicity of 3
years. There is a system of imparting
mobile training for re-railing and for handling accident involving hazardous
goods. Each emergency district has to
carry out one emergency exercise per annum.
DB AG also trains the fire brigade staff in rolling stock
rescue/extrication techniques at their own railway school. A handbook for fire brigade has been
prepared by DB AG. The train operators
have to produce booklets/leaflets for their rolling stock for the information
of fire brigade before they are allowed to operate.
The
internal training mechanism/infrastructure for emergency management consists
of -- Central emergency management
training center; self-rescue; train driver; mobile training for rerailing &
exercises. The external training where DB AG is involved consist of – Fire
brigade schools (layout with tracks and vehicles, training programme),
earthing, mobile training for hazardous goods.
Equipment
with emergency manager are -- Blue flashlight, waistcoat bearing the words “DB
Emergency Manager”; a local emergency folder; maps, track plans, checklists;
TUIS(ICE) information; earthing equipment and voltage tester; manual locks for
switches, etc.
The
equipments owned by DB AG for accident management are accident relief trains,
hydraulic re-railing systems, rail cranes 75t – 160t, rail-cum-road re-railing
vehicles and road based re-railing vehicles and tunnel rescue trains. DB also owns a few fire brigades.
Rerailing vehicles are expected to be at site in 90 min. A
shunting class loco with driver is always available. Expected on site timing
for 75 tonnes cranes is 3 hours and for 160 tonnes crane is 6 hours.
A
key element of their Emergency plans relate to Alarms and their processing with
minimal timings. Such systems are being electronically linked. (We were later
able to see in Amsterdam, in Holland, a demonstration of the electronic linking
of Police, fire services etc).
Voice
recording is ensured for interaction between Control centers and civil agencies
in case of emergencies. A special communication line has been provided to these
agencies linking to the Control centers for quick and uninterrupted access.
To
ensure that there is no coordination problem between the civil police and
railway authorities as per protocol, in case any information regarding
emergency on railway network is received by the police/fire brigade, the same
has to be first routed through DB before initiating any action. This ensures
that rescuers lives are not endangered by rail traffic besides seeking railway
authorities expert advice/assistance for planning and executing rescue
operations.
Special
plans have been developed by DB AG for tunnel rescue, large yards and fire
safety. There are around 800 tunnels with a total length of 450 kms. These are classified as short tunnels –
500-1000m, long tunnels 1-1.5 km and very long tunnel >1.5km. There is no extended rescue plan for short
tunnels. However, there are extended
rescue plans for long/very long tunnels.
Mixed traffic is not allowed in double track tunnels. Emergency brake override device is provided
in the locomotives to avoid application of emergency brakes in tunnels. Exercises for emergency management are
conducted before the commissioning and after every 3 years after commissioning
along with State Fire & Rescue Services.
Since,
the European Railways are getting privatised/restructured, there are many train
operating companies in each country.
Therefore, a common standard for emergency management is evolving.
Crisis
communication is an important issue wherein they expect one member of their top
management to be handling this responsibility as and when faced with an
emergency on railway network.
Echida railway accident has been termed as catastrophe in
the history of Germany, next to the World War-II. As per law, there is no need
for police clearance before initiating rescue operations. However, independent investigations are done
by police, federal railway office and the train operator.
EBA
(Federal Railway Office of Ministry of Transport, Germany) performs all the
functions of the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) as well as Commission of
Railway Safety. It has 1276 personnel
and budget of 60 million Euros per annum.
EBA
grants approval to buildings, new lines, rolling stock, carries out supervision
of railway operations, technical supervision and accident investigation. The major emphasis in accident investigation
is to highlight the failure of the system responsible for accident and not
person specific.
The
branch of EBA, which performs the functions of Commission of Railway Safety is
a multi-disciplinary body unlike in the case of IR and has representation of
experts from rolling stock, tracks, signals and operations. The approvals are
granted by experts from that specific area.
EBA
accident investigations do not indicate any specific responsibilities and this
determination is always by the TOC or Police. EBA limits itself to establishing
the cause.
ÖBB
is one of Austria’s largest companies: the third-largest employer and one of
their country’s major procuring entities. It stands for 10,000 kms of rail,
1,500 locomotives, 23, 000 wagons and coaches (some double-decked) and about
49, 000 employees. Annually, the railway carries about 182 million passengers,
with total sales in the passenger business of about EURO 1bn.
ÖBB
also operates a fleet of buses to provide complementary services to its
passengers, with investments in new and modern buses up until 2004 reaching
EURO 80m. Annually, BahnBus covers about 51.7 million kms all over
Austria.
A
presentation on management of incidents and the resulting crisis on the
Austrian Railways was made by Mr Leidenfrost of Austrian Railways. This was
followed by discussions with the officers operating the network and
co-ordinating medical rescue. The documents and manuals used by ÖBB, although
in the German language, were obtained for later translation and possible use as
sample documentation.
The main
points, and differences compared to the Indian context, that emerged from the
presentation are:
1. OBB
views incident response and crisis response as two entirely different
activities. The senior management generally keeps itself focussed on managing
the crisis and leaves incident management to the incident commanders.
2.
The railway depends on community fire, police and
medical services to respond to the incident, which have the necessary training
and equipment to intervene effectively and promptly. Unified command at
incident site is created by bringing the heads of each functional team
together.
3.
The railway finances purchase of equipment required
for rail rescue, which is then in the care and use of volunteer fire services.
It appears that the community assesses requirements for rescue equipment and
training and provides it, with assistance from the railways.
We also
visited a community run voluntary Fire Station at St Valentin, which is a small
town near Linz, and which owns a
well-equipped rail-cum-road vehicle funded by the ÖBB.
The
important issues that emerged after the visit to St. Valentin were:
1. A
purely voluntary fire service has been entrusted with the care and use of very
expensive and sophisticated equipment. The firemen derive motivation simply
from the importance of their work to the community.
2. The
community is alive to the importance of their contribution, as can be judged by
the fact that the vice-mayor of the city came to meet the Indian Railway
delegation and to introduce the personnel. (The mayor was to come, but he was
injured in a skiing incident!)
3. The
railway funds purchase of equipment and training, including training in railway
rescue, because of perceived need for such facilities in an area. Apparently,
this is negotiated between the community and the railway. (It was learnt that a
visit to this site by Austrian Railway officials was due the same afternoon.)
The
disaster management system over French Railways is similar to the one over
German Railways. While the emergency
management is being done by the SNCF management, the primary responsibility for
rescue and medical relief operations is of the State (fire brigade and civil
medical services like Red Cross, etc.).
If any disaster occurs in France (including the railway network), the rescue and medical relief activities are
organised and managed by the Prefecture (DM/Collector) of that region and SNCF
only complements the efforts of the State Authorities. However, the restoration work is handled by
SNCF itself. They also have at least one accident relief train in each
region. The whole network is divided
into 23 regions. Many a times the
restoration work is also contracted out as there are agencies, which have heavy
cranes and other equipment required for permanent way restoration and handling
the accident involved rolling stock.
The Regional Traffic Control Centre, National Traffic Control Centre and
Crisis Management Center at SNCF headquarters are coordinating the emergency
management over SNCF. All of them are
linked together.
It is a
railway traffic management center, which operates round the clock and monitors
passenger, freight, operations and infrastructure over the whole country. This was set up in the year 2000 consequent
to the serious problems faced by SNCF in 1997 due to bad weather that
significantly affected the railway operations.
It coordinates 23 regional headquarters round the clock supervises main
lines and important trains (e.g. TGVs).
The center communicates with railway customers through national
media. There are two radio stations run
by SNCF from where the passenger/other customers get the updated railway
information round the clock. The network is supervised with train describer
systems. It is responsible to report to
SNCF authorities and other government agencies regarding major disturbances and
emergencies affecting SNCF operations.
It also coordinates relief operations in terms of transfer of traffic to
another line/another train. There is a system of nominated ‘Alert standby staff’ on call for emergency
response. Analysis of the reasons for all emergencies occurring during the
month is carried out and corrective action is initiated. For every delay of
more than 15 minutes, customers are contacted and explained the reason.
Crisis
Management Centre / SNCF
The
delegation visited Crisis Management Centre of SNCF located at their
headquarters in Paris. In case of any
accident/emergency, Crisis Management Centre becomes functional and works round
the clock till the emergency is over.
CMC is electronically linked with national traffic management center and
all the regional traffic management centers.
The top management provides continuous guidance/support to the concerned
region where the emergency has occurred.
Thus, it plays the role of crisis communication centre also as what/how
much is to be explained to the media and public is decided by this center. The press releases/press communications are
also prepared /cleared by this center.
*******