NYCT Track Safety Training

I figured I'd deviate a little from talking about buses to discuss one of the most fun experiences I've had in my life: The NYC Transit track safety course. Long story short, at my job we are involved with bridge inspection, so we need to learn the rules, regulations and operating procedures of all of the railroads where we need to enter on their property to inspect the bridge. There are many railroads in NYC (CSX, Long Island Railroad, Metro-North, Amtrak, NYC Transit, Staten Island Railroad, etc) and so each one has their own course on track safety. What makes NYC Transit unique is that their course involves a supervised walk on the track, to practice what you have learned.

The course starts at 7am at an old public school in Brooklyn (P.S. 248, right between the 25th Avenue station on the D line, and the Avenue U station on the N line). You fill out some paperwork (including a liability waiver...that hopefully never is actually needed...they shred it at the end of the day once everyone is back in the classroom). We watch a little introductory video on how the system works, and then the instructors (two veteran trackworkers) hand out a booklet with all of the main rules pertaining to track safety. They put up a Powerpoint where they discuss these rules (what types of locations are considered safe "clear up" locations where there is enough space to prevent you from being struck by a train, different arrangements for where the flagmen should be standing so that they can see approaching trains with enough time to warn the workers, and also so that the train can hopefully stop if necessary, how to work around the third rail, and with some stories of workers who made mistakes that unfortunately got them injured or killed. I heard they used to have much more graphic stories and pictures/videos (the most graphic one we saw was a guy whose hand got caught in a switch, but I heard they used to put out some really nasty stuff)

So then we go out for the field portion (I love how the instructors come to class all dressed with nice suits and ties, and then a few minutes later, they change into their safety gear, grab their lanterns, and lead us out to the training area). One of the things you learn quickly is that many people become complacent....the instructor literally had to remind some people to step back from the platform edge when the train was approaching