(The following article by Joshua Robin appeared in Newsday on March 22.)
NEW YORK — Subway workers, who pride themselves on their ability to wind their way through dark tunnels, say the MTA is squandering the chance to possibly save lives during a terrorist attack by not adequately training them to evacuate passengers.
“Everybody basically knows the system — you know more than one location,” said one track worker, a 12-year veteran. “We could be of very valuable assistance here, and we get treated like third-class citizens.”
Especially upsetting for subway crews were terrorism preparedness courses that did not last two hours or include a training film, as transit officials had promised.
Several said the courses were only 20 minutes and left them more confused than prepared.
“When we tried to ask questions, we got thrown out,” said one 11-year veteran, adding he was told: “‘Don’t worry about it, go back to work.'”
Deirdre Parker, a NYC Transit spokeswoman, said about 2,500 of the agency’s 47,000 employees have undergone the two-hour version of the course.
“The rest have had an abbreviated version,” she said. “We wanted to do it as quickly as possible, to make sure that everybody got information.”
Also galling, according to several NYC Transit employees, are supervisors’ orders to leave passengers in the event of an attack — a charge transit officials are investigating, Parker said.
Eight transit workers interviewed last week said instructors at the abbreviated seminars made it clear that employees should flee and should not help passengers, under any circumstances.
Instructors made the point so clearly, the employees said, that one referred to the ongoing seminars as “the run class.”
Parker said the agency would investigate the claim, calling the advisory “not what it should be.”
“They should evacuate the customers and other employees,” Parker said. “Obviously, we want people to get away, but we want them to help the customer, of course. The customer will be looking to them for instruction.”
The training sessions also include information on recognizing suspicious packages, identifying bombs and knowing the symptoms of biological and chemical attacks.
The safety manuals distributed in those sessions give differing pieces of advice about evacuating and helping passengers.
“Eyes and Ears,” a “security and awareness training” manual, tells employees to “evacuate yourself and others from the area” in case of attack.
But it also warns, “Do not attempt to lend assistance if doing so delays your escape.” A business card-sized advisory says, in case of an attack, “Leave the area as quickly as possible.”
After hearing of the different advisories, Parker said: “Maybe that’s something that we should look into. It’s not our intent to give mixed signals.”
Parker pointed to Sept. 11, when crews helped evacuate trains, as proof that they are expected to help passengers in an emergency.
But she added, they are not supposed to act as emergency workers: “We are not going to be training to dismantle bombs.”