Norfolk Southern's safety train will stop in 23 cities during 2017 as part of its Operation Awareness & Response (OAR) program, which provides first responders with free training on how to respond to a railroad incident.
The safety train kicks off March 21 in Hagerstown, Md., with three days of training at Norfolk Southern's rail terminal. Additional stops include communities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina.
The safety train is composed of a GP38-2 painted in a "First Responders" scheme honoring fire, police and emergency services; two boxcars converted into 30-seat classrooms; four styles of tank cars: DOT-105, DOT-111, DOT-112, and DOT-117; and two 89-foot flatcars used to transport intermodal containers.
Each four-hour training session includes classroom instruction and hands-on training inside a locomotive and on rail cars. The sessions are recommended for representatives of fire and law enforcement departments, emergency medical services and hazmat response teams, military and homeland security personnel and railroad customers and suppliers.
Norfolk Southern provided training for about 5,600 emergency responders, government officials, and others in 18 states last year.
The full schedule is available at the OAR program website, JoinNSOAR.com.