CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — More than a dozen men climbed narrow, twisting stairs to the upper floor of a sleeping car of the special Amtrak passenger train at the Champaign Terminal, the News-Gazette reported.
It was apparent to everyone how difficult it would be in a real emergency.
“The biggest thing is getting access to the train and getting through it once you are inside,” said Champaign veteran firefighter Alan Jones.
Champaign fire Deputy Chief Steve Clarkson asked rhetorically, “With our turnout gear and our airpacks on, how much more difficult would it be then?”
“We wanted emergency first-responders to see for themselves just what the conditions are,” said Josie Harper, emergency preparedness manager for Amtrak. “That’s why we stress that the windows and doors are the primary access.”
Harper led two groups of firefighters, police, ambulance and public works staffers on tours of the sleeping car, a passenger coach and engine as part of the passenger train emergency response training hosted by the Champaign Fire Department.
Emergency workers from the Champaign, Urbana, Bloomington and Springfield fire departments and the Champaign police and public works departments took part in the sessions recently.
Harper also led the groups in classroom orientation sessions before the actual tours of the Amtrak equipment. She pointed out where various emergency equipment, including switches that operate pneumatic doors and “shake and break” light sticks that can be handed out to passengers at night, is located.
“We find that it calms people down when they can see,” Harper said.
At the pneumatic doors, Harper warned the rescue workers to look and see that there is another car still standing before they go through the door in a derailment.
Amtrak — officially the National Railroad Passenger Corp. based in Washington, D.C. — operates more than 22,000 route miles, mostly on tracks owned by freight railroads. The tracks from Chicago through Champaign are owned by the Canadian National-Illinois Central Railroad. Chicago is the fourth busiest Amtrak station in the country, behind New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
About 23.5 million people — 65,000 per day — boarded Amtrak trains in 2001. There were two major derailments last year: the Autotrain crash April 18 at Crescent City, Fla., and the Capital train crash July 29 at Kensington, Md.
The most recent regional crash occurred March 15, 1999, when the City of New Orleans struck a truck loaded with steel at a crossing near Bourbonnais. More than 100 people were injured and 11 died as a result of the crash. Some local residents were among the survivors.
Amtrak has worked to reduce injuries to passengers by securely fastening everything in the train, Harper said. Most of the injuries in crashes and derailments come from people being thrown under seats or up into luggage racks, she said.
The shells of the passenger cars are made with reinforced steel and firefighters would be unable to cut through them in a crash, Harper said. She also pointed out to firefighters where electrical lines, control panels and batteries are located. For police officers, she pointed out areas where criminals might try to hide. Champaign police Lt. Holly Nearing said this was the first training she’s ever had regarding passenger trains.
“I’ve investigated suicide-by-train and train-vehicle accidents, but no derailments,” Nearing said. “Police can also be involved in hostage rescue situations or evacuations.”
Gup Kramer, a Champaign public works employee, said it was easy to imagine how impossible it would be for emergency workers to move through a passenger train car that was derailed and on its side. Public works could provide heavy equipment and materials, such as backhoes, bucket trucks, lighting, sand or rocks as needed in dealing with such an emergency, he said.