AMNY Subway Tracker

COUNCIL COMMITTEE FINDS LAPSES IN MTA PROCEDURES FOR EMERGENCY EVACUATION & COMMUNICATION WITH SUBWAY RIDERS

CITY HALL, NY – The Transportation Committee, chaired by Council Member John C. Liu, found a number of glaring lapses in the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority's evacuation and communication procedures for subway emergencies. Transit workers and advocates
testified to gaps in safety and evacuation training as well as the absence of instructions for addressing emergency scenarios involving
evacuations on elevated tracks and over rivers.

Riders have been stranded and kept in the dark for hours before evacuation during major service disruptions, highlighting serious
concerns about the MTA's emergency evacuation and public communication procedures – especially in times of heightened terror alerts for the
subway system.

"In light of heightened terror alerts and continuing incidents involving major transit systems around the world, there are issues here that the MTA must answer for. The MTA has emergency procedures on paper, but that's as far as it goes. The people on the ground, the train operators and conductors who need to know what to do, are not being fully trained nor retrained on a regular basis. One can only imagine what is going through people's minds when they are stranded for hours without information on what's going on," stated Chairperson Liu. "The MTA always reminds riders "If You See Something, Say Something," but when it comes to safety of rider during emergencies, there's only silence from the MTA."

Within the last few months, there have been two major subway disruptions resulting in the evacuation of commuters, including the
July 17th evacuation of 300 riders stranded for over two and a half hours after a Manhattan-bound A train lost power; and, the August 16th
evacuation of 4,000 passengers after track fires stranded two Brooklyn-bound B and D trains on Manhattan Bridge. At least 25 people
were injured in this incident and it took over two and a half hours for all riders to be evacuated. The most common complaint was the
lack of communication from the MTA, resulting in confusion and anxiety among passengers.

According to DJ Small, a train operator for 18 years, the MTA is required to train transit workers annually on fire safety and
evacuation procedures. But "on average, workers are only trained every six years... the additional funding from the federal government
has been used to train managers and supervisors – not on-site emergency responders like myself. The only instruction we've received
for terrorist attack is to put on our escape masks and run for our lives."

CM Daniel Garodnick, a member of the Transportation Committee, stated: "It's extremely disturbing that the MTA has not seriously trained its
transit workers or coordinated its training program with the Fire Department."

CM Michael McMahon, a member of the Transportation Committee: It's very troubling that, post-911, there has been no changes in the MTA's
safety and evacuation procedures. It's incredible that the MTA has not integrated the Fire and Police departments or the Mayor's Office
of Emergency Management into its emergency training procedures. This is just another example of how the MTA is not taking its
responsibility seriously. It's outrageous the MTA didn't even bother showing up today."

Problems with public communication during previous emergencies indicate a need for the MTA to modify its evacuation procedures and
communication protocols to ensure that managers and field personnel are operating according to the same plan during an emergency. Riders
should not be kept in the dark and need to be informed.

The MTA's Emergency Response Procedures (ERP) also needs to be updated to include two emergency scenarios currently missing: (1) evacuations on elevated tracks; and, (2) evacuations over rivers. Additionally, the ERP and other policy manuals need to be distributed to field
personnel, the transit workers on the ground, to better coordinate emergency response and communication throughout the transit system.
Finally, MTA safety and emergency training activities need to integrate the City agencies involved in evacuations: Fire, Police, Office of Emergency Management.

In response to questions about why the MTA refused to testify at today's hearing, Chairperson Liu stated: "The State Comptroller just
came out with a report indicating continued failure on the part of the MTA to harden the subway system against terror attack. The MTA's
failure to adequately plan for emergencies has clearly put them on the defensive. The MTA can run, but it cannot hide – they will be held
accountable."

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June 28, 2006
MTA emergency evacuation plan unchanged since 9/11

CHUCK BENNETT
amNewYork

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fit the subway system with the latest surveillance cameras, bomb detectors and other counterterrorism tools, yet emergency training for transit workers has barely evolved during the past decade.

A review of New York City Transit documents and interviews with transit union workers show that evacuation procedures for subway stations, in particular, have not changed since 9/11.

New hires, such as motormen, conductors and cleaners, generally receive several hours of evacuation training at the Coney Island Rail Yards, then get a refresher course once every three years. In the interim, workers are issued the same 21/2-page, 17-point bulletin that provides general instructions on how to lead riders out of a station in the event of a terror attack, fire, flood or power outage. Not a single word in that plan has changed since 9/11.

"We are going to be in a situation with mass confusion, the left hand won't know what the right hand is doing and people are going to get hurt," said Marvin Holland, a member of the executive board of the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents approximately 5,500 people who work in stations, such as token clerks and cleaners.

But the New York City Transit Authority said there is no reason to change its policies and cited the successful evacuations on 9/11 and during the 2003 blackout to demonstrate that workers are adequately trained.

"If I were trapped in the subway, the people I would most want to have around me are New York transit workers," said TA spokesman Charles Seaton. Since January 2002, 12,740 workers have been trained in evacuation procedures, he said.

However, the MTA has contracted with Kroll Associates, a private consulting firm, to review evacuation plans, according to agency spokeman Tim O'Brien. The results of that review, the first ever done on evacuation procedures, are expected by the end of the year.

Holland, however, said it was only "blind luck" and spur-of-the-moment decision-making that has prevented tragedy.

The transit union and security experts have specific ideas on improving evacuation procedures from subway stations.

For a start, Holland wants hourly workers included in the quarterly evacuation drills with police and firefighters. The TA said workers can participate on a voluntary basis.

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