UK: Rail Minister Huw Merriman has opened a £2·7m immersive safety training centre designed to enable rail workers to experience safety-critical scenarios in a safe environment.
The TRUST facility in Huddersfield has been developed by Active Training Team as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade programme, and everyone working on the project will undertake a one-day interactive training session at the site.
Multi-sensory rooms and actors replicate working on the track and the consequences of poor decisions. Users can witness an incident in real-time, encounter the decisions that led to a fatality and evaluate how to stop it from happening in future.
‘TRUST centre training will be undertaken by everyone working on our programme, both working in offices and on the frontline’, said Transpennine Route Upgrade Managing Director Neil Holm when the facility was opened on August 18. ‘It’s important that colleagues from planning, design, delivery and all of our functions understand how the decisions we all make are crucial when it comes to safety. Taking an immersive approach allows workers to absorb and remember their training more clearly and for longer.’
