Improving the ability to direct the rescue of passengers and oversee restoration in the event of a major railway disorder

In order to minimize disruption caused by a railway disorder, we need to create a situation in which the command system at the scene of the accident functions as quickly and smoothly as possible. The director of the... [ view full abstract ]

In order to minimize disruption caused by a railway disorder, we need to create a situation in which the command system at the scene of the accident functions as quickly and smoothly as possible. The director of the countermeasure headquarters at the scene of the accident plays important role in particular.
The director’s job is to direct passenger rescue to the nearest station from a train that has stopped on the tracks. The director also orders restoration of damaged equipment, transmission of relevant information to related organizations, and coordination with police and/or fire departments. He places leaders of the teams performing these roles under his control, and works in close cooperation with the branch office headquarters that oversee the entire area, as well as with the transportation headquarters responsible for the operation and management of the train. 
There are various patterns when it comes to the causes of railway disorders, such as vehicle failure, operation management system failure, or fire along the tracks. For this reason, there are many situations in which the management of the on-site countermeasure headquarters does not proceed according to the manual, but rather requires room for flexible response measures. In particular, a prompt response is required at the time of the initial work, and moreover, if both passenger rescue and preparations to restore damaged facilities are required at the same time, the director might often feel a conflict arising regarding his judgment and decision-making process. 
Therefore, it is difficult to determine the director's roles simply by reading the manual superficially and accumulating the experience, thus many employees that are appointed to this post feel uneasy when responding. However, once things happen, the director is expected to respond immediately to a certain degree of proficiency. 
Accordingly, we interviewed employees who have had the experience as director, to extract requirements for playing this role. From the interviews, we gained various pieces of information about factors that either fed into his ability to perform his role, or to fail to do so. We categorized these factors in correspondence with his capabilities and rearranged them as requirements for performing this role. These requirements have been summarized as 1)Being prepared, 2)Possession of non-technical skills and attitudes as director, and being able to act based on them, and 3)Ability to grasp and share information.
We especially found that in cases where the director carried out his various roles smoothly, he responded flexibly in constantly changing situations having "non-technical skills" that ensure the execution of his performance and the proper "attitude" for overcoming the psychological factors that might otherwise hinder his performance. 
We have developed a training method to heighten the ability to act flexibly and spontaneously in irregular situations. This is a training method for improving decision-making ability by foreseeing specific risks gleaned from examples of past disasters and deciding on the next step quickly. 
Besides making use of this training method, we will also continue to come up with new methods for improving a director’s abilities to improve his performance.