MORE than 50 TransPennine Express trains will be fitted with defibrillators by the end of March.
The operator runs trains which serve Stalybridge, Mossley and Greenfield stations.
The devices – which give a high energy shock to the heart of someone in cardiac arrest – will be available for both staff and passengers to use.
They will be located in an emergency equipment cupboard in the middle of the train.
The life-saving units – which are already installed on TPE’s Nova 1 trains – will be fitted on all 51 of the company’s 185 trains by technology firm Siemens Mobility.
“This roll-out will ensure that people travelling on our services will feel safe and confident that defibrillators are available to help in the event of an emergency, potentially saving lives,” said Bushra Khan, TPE’s head of engineering.
Every defibrillator has step-by-step, spoken word instructions built-in to it, which explain how to use it on someone in an emergency.
Computers inside the defibs work to analyse a person’s heart rhythms, to find out if an electric shock is needed and electrodes then automatically deliver the shock if required.
TPE say the defibrillators have been purchased from the British Heart Foundation charity, the biggest independent funder of heart and circulatory research in the UK.