Today, Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco, and CSX leaders announced CSX’s upcoming series of first responder training exercises to improve the safety of New Jersey’s rails. Bergen County residents have raised concerns about the safety training, equipment and information sharing currently used by companies transporting ethanol and oil on our rails and the potential risks to our communities.

Gottheimer and Tedesco have worked with CSX to schedule training exercises that will improve the safety of New Jersey’s rails, increase communication between CSX and local fire departments, and help ensure New Jersey first responders are properly trained and equipped to mitigate the impact of potential emergencies or accidents.

CSX will hold its Emergency Response to Railroad Incidents course from June 5-7 at the Bergen County Fire Academy in Mahwah, its Safety Train course from October 2-4 in South Kearny, and its Tabletop Exercises from October 23-25 at the Bergen County Fire Academy. Each training will run for three nights to capture as many first responders as possible. CSX will also hold daytime Safety Train exercises to ensure career first responders are able to attend.

“The safety of Bergen County residents will always be my top priority,” said County Executive Jim Tedesco. “As County Executive, one of my first actions was to bring CSX here to meet with our Office of Emergency Management, which directly led to CSX providing a series of trainings in 2015 for county and municipal emergency responders. I’m pleased that CSX worked with us again to offer this series of trainings for our first responders to ensure that they have the information, resources, and relationships to best respond in the event of an emergency.”

“New Jersey is a densely populated state with many communities along its railway lines, and the third-leading destination for ethanol in the country,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer. “Last year, I was glad to have the chance to sit down with CSX representatives and local fire officials to discuss protecting our communities, but, as we agreed, one-off meetings are not enough. I’m pleased CSX has now scheduled additional safety exercises to help equip our firefighters and police officers with the resources they need to respond to potentially life-threatening accidents and explosions.”