EMERGENCY services will ‘rescue’ a cyclist and passengers involved in a mock train crash near Corfe Castle over the weekend.

Swanage Railway volunteers are helping to host the exercise designed to put the police, fire and ambulance crews through their paces.

The exercise will involve rescuing passengers from a diesel locomotive-hauled train a mile north-west of Corfe Castle on Saturday morning after a collision with a cyclist at a crossing.

The exercise will take place on a one-mile section of unused line between Norden ‘park and ride’ and the A351 Catseye bridge towards Motala and Furzebrook to the west.

Organisers said the section of line was chosen because it will be difficult for the emergency services to access and have requested that the public and the media stay away while the exercise is taking place to give crews rooms to work.

Swanage Railway volunteer signalling inspector and signalman Alan Greatbatch of Poole, who is organising the exercise, said: “The safety of the public is always Swanage Railway’s primary concern.

“We have to plan and rehearse for the very unlikely, such as the scenario in this emergency exercise where a cyclist collides with a train on a level crossing.

“Incidents on railways, especially heritage lines like the Swanage Railway, are very rare.”