Emergency services prepare for CRL opening

A final multi-agency emergency exercise takes place in the City Rail Link’s underground stations and tunnels this week, ahead of the CRL opening to passengers on September 13, says Auckland Transport (AT).

Fire and Emergency NZ, police and Hato Hone St John are working alongside train and station staff to simulate a fire on a train near Te Waihorotiu Station, located near the corner of Wellesley and Albert Streets and Mayoral Drive in the city.

“While not a formal requirement, the exercise provides another valuable opportunity for emergency responders to work together and strengthen preparedness in the new underground environment,” says AT.

Hato Hone St John area operations manager Kim Moser says these realistic exercises help ensure emergency services are well prepared to respond safely and effectively if they’re needed once the CRL opens.

“This testing has been an important opportunity for our ambulance personnel to build familiarity with the CRL’s new underground environment and practise coordinated responses alongside our emergency service and transport partners.”

The exercise builds on an extensive emergency testing programme completed last month, says AT.

It involved more than 1400 volunteer passengers and tested responses to a range of realistic scenarios including train derailments, station fires and mass evacuations.

AT rail services general manager Mark Lambert says the programme has provided confidence the CRL is ready to welcome Aucklanders when it opens just under three weeks.

“The City Rail Link is unlike anything else in New Zealand’s rail network, so it has been vital for everyone involved to practise how we would respond in a range of different situations.

“The strong collaboration between emergency services and our rail partners has helped build confidence that Aucklanders will be well supported should an incident ever occur.”

The tests are comprehensive and look at frontline responses through to the supporting systems behind the scenes, including ventilation and smoke extraction, alarms, communications, CCTV, lighting and control room operations.

KiwiRail leads and coordinates emergency response to incidents in the CRL tunnels via its Auckland Rail Operations Centre.

Auckland One Rail responds to unplanned events on trains and in the CRL stations, with the assistance of emergency services as needed.

“The City Rail Link’s underground environment, with tunnels more than 40 metres below ground in some parts, presents unique challenges around access, evacuation and communication, requiring specialist planning and coordination,” says Patrick Brockie, City Rail Link Ltd chief executive.

“I want to thank every single person who’s played a part in this mammoth effort to ensure Aucklanders can travel with confidence, knowing they’ll be well taken care of should the unexpected ever happen in our new stations and tunnels.”

Around 200 personnel and more than 50 emergency service vehicles have taken part across the programme, working together to test how the system performs when it matters most.

Fifteen live exercises have been carried out, ranging from smaller drills through to large-scale scenarios involving more than 300 participants at a time.

Scenarios have included station fires, train failures in tunnels, derailments, onboard medical incidents and complex evacuations across multiple stations.

Participants were often given little or no advance detail, allowing real-time responses to smoke-filled carriages, simulated injuries, low lighting and crowd movement to be observed and assessed.

Volunteer passengers reflected the diversity of Auckland’s daily commuters including older people, those with health conditions, people with limited English, and those with hearing, visual or mobility needs, ensuring the system works safely for everyone.

More than 75 actors were also used to simulate situations that couldn’t otherwise be replicated.

Fire and Emergency NZ has continued to carry out site visits and additional training in the weeks leading up to opening.

“People may have seen our fire trucks parked outside the stations at all hours of the day,” says FENZ region manager Ron Devlin.

“There’s no need for concern. We’re simply giving as many crews as possible the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new environment.

“Any of our crews across Tãmaki Makaurau may be called on to respond during an emergency.”