A group of Marines swarmed two Metrorail cars on Wednesday morning searching for evidence of a chemical or biological attack. Then they had lunch.
It’s a scene that plays out on a regular basis at Metro’s makeshift training site at the Carmen E. Turner Maintenance and Training Center in Landover. More than 8,000 regional police, fire, medical and military personnel have been trained at the facility since it opened in 2002, and the agency has had training requests from as far away as Malaysia, said Fred Goodine, assistant general manager for system safety and risk protection.
The center, tucked in a back corner of the massive 680,000-square-foot Turner facility, now includes a $700,000, 260-foot-long training tunnel that replicates a real Metro tunnel — complete with a smoke machine, sound effects, lighting and a simulated electrified third rail.
On Wednesday, Metro also unveiled a $400,000 emergency evacuation simulator designed to roll a full-size railcar 180 degrees to simulate railcar positions after derailments or other incidents.
Each simulator is the only of its type in the nation, officials said.
Goodine, who calls the facilities his “field of dreams,” said the transit agency has been in talks with the Federal Transit Administration to begin holding courses through its Transportation Safety Institute, based in Oklahoma City, Okla., at the site.
Metro officials said that because a majority of emergency officials trained at the site are from the region and would be the first to respond to a Metro incident, the agency does not charge for use of the site.
Metro Interim General Manager Dan Tangherlini said the simulators more than pay for themselves.
“They put us in a very unique situation to have the highest-quality people in place ready to respond to an emergency,” Tangherlini said. ‘We are also able to make key contacts and get input from outside agencies on ‘best practices’ for emergency situations.”
Both Goodine and Tangherlini said there are no immediate plans to make the training site an “official” school with the support of the FTA.
Safety first
» Metro’s facilities are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for training, officials said.
» Mike Nolan, manager of the Transportation Safety Institute’s Transit Safety and Security Division, said he has heard of no plans to hold national courses at Metro’s Landover facility, but said he has a “very good working relationship” with Metro officials. TSI does not have a national training facility.
