MBTA Transit Police to train in new facility

An unused tunnel will host the new Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Emergency Training Center, a project funded by the Department of Homeland Security, to train MBTA Transit Police and first-response agents, said MBTA Transit Police Chief Paul MacMillan.

The project, which consists of three phases, is expected to complete in the spring of 2013, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo in an email.

In the past, there has been a challenge in training personnel in a subway environment, MacMillan said, and this center will train first responders for incidents that occur at MBTA locations.

“We’ve been looking at ways on how to do training on a regular basis – the problem we’ve been having is the way to do simulated training is that we have to close an MBTA station,” MacMillan said.

The tunnel the Transit Police chose has not been used in more than 50 years, MacMillan said, but is constructed similarly to their current tunnels.

“We thought it was an ideal location to build a facility to train first responders to respond to incidents that occur in our tunnels,” MacMillan said.

He said although the Transit Police is heading the initiative, which has been a work in progress for a number of years, the center will not only be for the Transit Police.

“This is a training facility that will be used by all first-responders – the fire department, the police department and any other type of first responders that have to come to incidents that occur in the MBTA tunnels,” MacMillan said.

Plans for the center may include a light and heavy rail-training area, a classroom, an evacuation training area and a power training area, according to information from Pesaturo.

Phase one of the initiative was approved last Wednesday at a Board of Directors meeting, MacMillan said.

“Phase 1 . . . consists of water mitigation and structural repairs that will address long-term concrete and leak issues at the site,” Pesaturo said. “We anticipate this work to be completed by July 2012.”

In the second phase of the project, the center will receive two Blue Line cars and one Green Line trolley, Pesaturo said.

With the help of police escorts, the move will likely occur during a late-night window, Pesaturo said.

“It’s critical that the people responding to these types of incidents are familiar with the various types of trains – we have Green Line trains that are different from the Red and Blue Line trains,” MacMillan said. “By doing that, they will be much more successful to responding to incidents and helping our customers.”

The third phase of the project will include “the larger construction contract that will build out the center and install the necessary code and fire-life safety components of the facility,” Pesaturo said.

He said the project requires no funding from the MBTA.

“We anticipate this project being advertised for bid the week of March 19 and plan on being in front of the July Board for approval of that contract,” Pesaturo said. “It is estimated that this component of the project will be completed in March, 2013.”

Once the Transit Police decided to build the tunnel, their next challenge, MacMillan said, was to obtain funding.

“It took a little while,” MacMillan said. “But they immediately realized it was a good, positive initiate they should support.”

The project is “fully supported” by local, state and federal response agencies, Pesaturo said.

“This is not only a service for the first responders,” MacMillan said. “[It’s a] better fit for our customers, who will have better service if an incident should occur.”