Norfolk Southern Corporation  broke ground Thursday on its First Responder Training Center. The new regional safety training center in East Palestine, Ohio will provide ongoing, free training for first responders from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the greater region. This center will further strengthen coordination between railroads and first responders and build upon the company’s Operation Awareness and Response (OAR) program, which trains 5,000 first responders annually across its 22-state footprint.

The new center will attract firefighters and first responders from the region, offering traditional fire service training to all first responders and specialized training for responding to rail and other transportation-related emergencies.

Norfolk Southern will invest at least $20,000,000 in the new center over the next 10 years. The center will operate through a partnership with the Village of East Palestine, at no cost to the Village or taxpayers. It will establish a lasting presence in the region, promoting top-tier training for years to come. The center is temporarily operating out of Norfolk Southern’s rail yard in Bellevue, Ohio, where more than 400 local emergency personnel have received training this year. Preliminary designs for the new facility are currently in development by architecture and engineering firm, Arcadis.

Training opportunities at the center will include: classroom, web-based, and online resources, table-top drills, full-scale emergency response exercises, and other specialized training opportunities.

-via Press Release