Norfolk Southern's 'rolling classroom' completes 18-city tour

Norfolk Southern Railway's Safety Train educated 1,926 first responders on its 18-city tour during 2016, the Class I announced today.

The "rolling classroom" traveled to the 18 cities in 13 states across NS' network to provide free, hands-on training to firefighters, police officers, emergency management personnel, and other first responders on how to safely respond to a rail-related hazardous materials incident, according to an NS press release.

"Our safety train allowed us to expand our outreach to more first responders and emergency personnel in more communities than ever before, equipping them with education and resources to help raise their level of emergency preparedness in the unlikely event of a rail incident," said David Schoendorfer, system manager hazardous materials. "The training also helped us build relationships with first responders across our network."

At each location, NS hazardous materials experts led a four-hour course that included classroom and interactive teaching. The safety train consists of a dedicated locomotive, two boxcars converted into classrooms, four types of railroad tank cars used in transporting all types of chemicals, and two specially equipped flat cars with a variety of tank-car valves and fittings.

The tour began in April in Altoona, Pa., and wrapped up last week in Columbia, S.C. Other cities on the tour were Alexandria, Va.; Atlanta; Baltimore; Buffalo, N.Y.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Chicago; Cincinnati, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Greenville, S.C.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Newark, N.J.; Norfolk, Va.; Slidell, La.; Spencer, N.C.; and Toledo, Ohio.