AP Contributed
  • Updated

Norfolk Southern railroad worked with the state of Ohio and Youngstown State University to revive plans for a $20 million first responder training center near the site of the worst derailment in a decade in East Palestine, Ohio. A training center to help prepare firefighters to deal with a railroad disaster was quickly part of the plan after the derailment on Feb. 3, 2023, that forced the evacuation of roughly half the small town near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and left residents with worries about the potential long-term health impacts. But then the training center was abandoned last January because of concerns about the ongoing operating costs. Now the university is going to help build and operate it.