First responders will be tested today and Thursday in how they respond to a potential emergency on the city’s rail line in a run-up to even bigger hypothetical scenarios as the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation conducts drills ahead of paid ridership tentatively planned for early next year.

The city’s rail project today and Thursday will conduct drills at the Aloha Stadium station involving first responders “for situations they may encounter in the real world,” HART said Monday.

The drills are part of testing to address any problems in the system before transferring it to the city for paid ridership.

Lori Kahikina, HART’s CEO and executive director, did not identify what simulated situations first responders will face this week.

But future drills are planned to gauge responses to a fire on a train, a train derailment and evacuations of passengers and of the rail’s operations center.

This week’s drills will involve four groups of 25 city employees.

“The small exercises at Aloha Stadium Station are an opportunity to drill first responders, Hitachi Rail and DTS (Department of Transportation Services) staff for situations they may encounter in the real world,” Kahikina said in a statement. “Safety is our top priority and these important exercises are critical to delivering a functional and safe rail system to the city. During these small-scale exercises, the public may see people on board the train or on the platform at the Aloha Stadium Station. I just want to reiterate that these are authorized personnel involved in active training. The stations are closed to the public.”

During its evaluation, HART has to meet a 30-day average score of 98.5% in various scenarios measuring all of its systems.

The HART board was told Friday by HART staff that 61 scenarios had been conducted, representing just under 39% of the scenarios.

The city’s rail project is scheduled to be the first in the country to be fully automated.

The evaluation involves five passenger trains running back and forth from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium on the planned revenue schedule of 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends.

The HART board was told that other scenarios include “dealing with broken rail, sick passenger, platform screen gate fails to close, switch machine failure (and) … how to deal with a station when it is out of service with shuttle service and bus bridging.”

At the same time, separate engineering surveys are underway to determine the severity of hairline cracks discovered on a dozen or so “hammerhead” pillars that hold up the elevated guideway around five rail stations on the west side of the project.

The results of the survey — expected at the end of the month — will have to be verified by separate engineers from the city’s Department of Transportation Services and others hired by HART.

All of the engineers will have to agree on the extent of the damage and how to repair the cracks, Kahikina said previously on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program.