The Green Line Extension will begin carrying passengers June 12, 2027, Met Council Chair Robin Hutcheson announced Saturday, Sept. 26. Twelve days earlier, Metro Transit first responders and firefighters from Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and Hopkins gathered along the new line to practice what happens when a train and vehicle collide.
Eden Prairie Assistant Fire Chief Matt Worthington paced around the crash site. A slate gray hatchback and a Green Line Extension test car sat at a Hopkins road crossing after a simulated collision. A driver and passenger reenacting the crash were trapped inside the vehicle. The scenario had the vehicle swerving into the front of a slow-moving train coming out of Shady Oak Station. Flashers and a rapidly pulsing warning bell scored the scene.
It was raining. Worthington directed his team of four firefighters like a seasoned NFL quarterback. First responder teams from Eden Prairie, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Metro Transit were part of the Sept. 14 crash-response drills.
“We want to make sure that our emergency procedures (from train) operators to emergency responders such as police, fire and EMS all know where the call is coming from,” said Andrew Brody, Metro Transit’s chief safety officer. As rain beaded on Brody’s white hard hat, he fielded questions from a trio of soaked reporters. Emergency drills, he said, will be conducted in all kinds of weather including snowy and icy conditions. Simulated crashes, fires, breakdowns and “injured” reenactors are part of the training mix.
Train operators begin the response. They quickly size up the situation with passengers on board, the tracks and the street, and then phone Metro Transit’s control center. The code phrase “Emergency, emergency, emergency” clears the lines, Brody said. The control center is briefed about the scope and location of the accident and immediately alerts the nearest police, fire and EMS responder units.
As a Hopkins team used a Jaws of Life cutter to rescue the driver, a Metro Transit team using long-pole tools checked one of the traction power lines over Fifth Street. If a power line is not securely attached to its catenary support line or is dangling to the ground, the power is remotely turned off.
“Obviously,” said Brody, “at 700 volts DC, it can be very deadly to work around (light rail power lines). We have our personnel on site to make sure first responders are safe.”…