Assessment of emergency preparedness at the railway station in České Budějovice

Emergency preparedness includes the ability to recognize the occurrence of extraordinary events and, in particular, planning, organizing and management of emergency measures to deal with them. The objective of this thesis is to assess planned measures to avert the consequences of accidents depending on selected extraordinary events in the premises of the railway station in České Budějovice. Another objective is to assess the overall emergency preparedness of the railway station in České Budějovice in this respect. In order to meet the objectives as well as possible I defined the following hypothesis: Planned measures to avert the consequences of accidents in the premises of the railway station in České Budějovice are adequate and in accordance with applicable legislation. The thesis includes basic general information on extraordinary events, emergency planning and the integrated rescue system, and then it describes securing emergency preparedness within the organizational structure of the entities involved. The thesis also includes the issue of rail freight transport and the related transport of dangerous substances. To achieve the objectives of the thesis and to verify the hypothesis, I used interviews with relevant experts from railway companies ČD as, ČD Cargo and SŽDC, and the study of available literature and legislation. Then, I used a document analysis aimed at assessing the adequacy and suitability of planned measures depending on the selected extraordinary events ? both associated with the normal operation of the railway station and the transport of hazardous substances in tanks. The analysis showed that the planned measures to avert the consequences of accidents in the premises of the railway station in České Budějovice are currently to a great extent adequate and in compliance with applicable national and international legislation. In the discussion section, I presented the problems that occurred in dealing with this issue. At the end of the thesis, I tried to propose some measures that would be suitable for adding into the documentation of emergency preparedness of the railway station in České Budějovice. I believe that this thesis will be used as a document monitoring an aggregate of measures to ensure emergency preparedness of the railway station in České Budějovice and, in the light of the thesis results, it will be possible to recommend further improvements in securing the preparation of these measures