FIREFIGHTERS commandeered a passenger train to rush a railway worker who had fallen 30 feet down an embankment to hospital.

Rescue workers raced to the railway line near Fenton Barns, following reports that the injured man was lying on the tracks after going over the embankment on a quadbike.

They immediately called for a stop on trains travelling between North Berwick and Drem as they tried to reach him.

Fire crew and paramedics managed to reach him on foot while the Coastguard team from North Berwick made their way down to him via the steep rockface.

Once they had safely removed him from the line, they brought a train, which had been stopped near to the scene, down the tracks, and loaded the patient onto it, using it to take him several hundred metres up the track to a bridge, where they took him into a waiting 4x4 ambulance vehicle, before he was taken by air ambulance to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

The dramatic rescue began just before 1pm on Tuesday, as contract workers for Network Rail were working on fencing which runs along the top of the embankment, about 200 yards from the Kingston Bridge.

Emergency crews were scrambled to the area following reports of the man going over the edge of the embankment.

Fire rescue teams from North Berwick and East Linton managed to locate the man and had to call in specialist line units from Newcraighall and Tollcross, Edinburgh, to reach him, as he lay at the bottom of the steep slope.

ScotRail suspended services between North Berwick and Drem, using buses to transfer passengers as the tracks were made safe.

However, one train was already en route between the two stations and was brought to a halt while the rescue was carried out.

The 13.27 North Berwick to Drem train, which had been sitting stationary on the line, slowly moved forward to take on its unexpected passengers, before continuing on to the next bridge.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Services group manager Andy Girrity, who was incident commander, said: “This was a complex rescue operation that required the specialist skills of emergency responders from each of the services, who worked extremely closely to stabilise the casualty and get him to hospital.

“We identified a train that had stopped nearby as being the quickest and safest way of moving the casualty several hundred metres to the waiting ambulance vehicle.” The 36-year-old man, from Glasgow, was said by Network Rail to have suffered “serious but not believed to be life-threatening injuries”.

One witness at the scene said: “He was extremely lucky.

“All the emergency services were there working together to help him.

“He fell at a very difficult spot to reach, and was fortunate not to have been more seriously hurt.” A spokeswoman for ScotRail said the injured man was taken to the nearby overbridge on the passenger train.

She said: “Replacement buses transported customers between North Berwick and Edinburgh during the disruption, which lasted around an hour.” An investigation into the accident has now been launched by Network Rail and Police Scotland.