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MBTA to simulate smoke filling up a Red Line train and tunnel on Saturday morning
By adamg on Mon, 10/24/2016 - 6:53pm
On Saturday morning, officials will run an exercise at Alewife station to simulate what happens when a Red Line train stops in a tunnel and the tunnel and T stop start filling with smoke, Cambridge Police report.
The drill was planned long before last night's incident involving a Red Line train stopped in a tunnel and the tunnel and the South Station T stop filling with smoke.
Police say the drill is:
Designed to establish a learning environment for public safety officials to exercise emergency response plans, policies, and procedures as they pertain to a smoke incident inside a subway tunnel and station.
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Comments
Why wait until Saturday?
It's bound to happen on its own at some point between now and then anyway...
i dub this simulation
'average week day'
Maybe they are attempting to
Maybe they are attempting to inoculate the T?
I can guess why
I'm guessing they planned it after a DC Metro train stopped in a tunnel and filled with smoke, killing a passenger.
Sounds fun
I'll simulate buying an iced coffee and a banana on my way into work
Hmm...
Why are they doing this at Alewife Station during revenue hours!? Wasn't the whole point of sweeping out the cobwebs at Broadway Upper and cashing that Homeland Security check to create a realistic subway environment to perform these kind of safety drills in? Yes, the dummy trains are a Blue Line Hawker and Type 8; so not actual Red Line rolling stock. But I thought having this multi-million dollar security and emergency training center was so the T, Transit Police, municipal fire departments, MEMA, your great aunt Gladys, whoever could perform these sorts of drills without inconveniencing the riding public.
Or perhaps the MBTA is convinced that a catastrophic fire specifically involving 1500s is imminent?!?!?!?
Not really revenue hours
The Red Line between Harvard and Alewife is already scheduled to be closed this weekend for Floating Slab repairs.
Timing Is Everything...
Yeah, about an hour after my initial post I got an email about that. Reasonable to take advantage of a pre-scheduled line closure. Still, it seems odd that they would insist on using a regular station rather than their state-of-the-art facility.
9/11 was on a Tuesday AM, Marathon Bombing Monday PM
A train fire, Muslim terror or another disaster can strike at any time. Expect the unexpected. Training is great because training takes over in a crisis. 9/11 happened on a Tuesday morning, Boston Marathon bombing on a Monday holiday afternoon. The "experts" would heavily staff Fridays so be grateful if there is a trained T worker during the other days.