Evacuation of FLL airport onto tracks

[mark777]

When I saw the evacuation of FLL airport on TV the other day, I was very shocked to see so many people having been evacuated onto the FEC tracks east of the airport perimeter. Brings me to question whether law enforcement communicated with FEC about an evacuation onto their tracks or was it assumed that it was safe to cross? It's quite disturbing to see a large amount of people standing and crossing all of the tracks. Had there been a train coming, or worse, had Brightline been up and running, this incident could have been considerably worse. I can't imagine any train crew expecting to round a curve and find over 100 people standing on the rails. Anybody here share this concern?

[CarterB]

Saw same on TV and wondered about safety. No idea if it was coordinated evacuation

[mark777]

I question it because a family friend was in terminal 1 at the time and was one of the people who were evacuated onto the tracks. He, because of the things that he knew of my days working on the trains, felt it to be a bad idea for people to be on those tracks. needless to say, he text me and asked if the trains that pass FLL airport have a schedule and stayed away from the tracks. When I realized where he was by watching the news, I became alarmed that it was on FEC tracks and told him to move away. freights are not punctual like passenger trains are. I hope that somebody at FLL and at the Broward County Sheriff's office take note of that. I wonder if someone at FEC made some calls?

[CentralValleyRail]

In Newark when the airport becomes closed because of an "incident" the Airport Operator notifies the surrounding railroads right away. At KEWR it's Amtrak dispatch along with CSX that controls the surrounding railroad tracks. There is a direct number to call the dispatch center, just like a direct coded line with the Air Traffic Control Tower from the Emergency Command Center which is in one the PA Buildings on Site at EWR. In test simulations (which I was a part of) this has been done in a matter of 3 minutes. I presume Broward County who owns and operates KFLL has a similar method to doing this. By the time those people got onto the tracks which was at least 5-10 minutes all service was halted.

As a side note in terms of timing: the Air Traffic Control Tower is the one who calls the Port on that direct line for any aircraft emergency landings which you get at least 1 or 2 a day. Usually nothing more than a flap issue or possible bird strike coming back. From the second that line rings till the ARFF (firefigheters) trucks are moving is less than 30 seconds.

[SD70ACe-T4]

I saw some people on the TV tresspassing on FEC tracks too. But also I'm very worried if the shooter had partners and gone on SFRTA tracks. Yes. On the TV I did saw millions of police cars blocking the entrance from US-1.