The National TRANSCAER Task Group, sponsored in part by the American Chemistry Council, has awarded a 2004 TRANSCAER National Achievement Award to Norfolk Southern Corporation.

TRANSCAER, which stands for Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response, is a nationwide community outreach program designed to promote chemical transportation emergency preparedness and awareness in communities. TRANSCAER fosters partnerships between chemical producers, distributors, carriers, first responders and government agencies.

Norfolk Southern received the National Achievement Award in the rail category for its outstanding support of TRANSCAER and for its excellence in four areas: activities, organization commitment, financial support and manpower investment.

Among its award-winning initiatives, Norfolk Southern held TRANSCAER events in 18 of the 22 states through which it transports hazardous materials and trained nearly 4000 emergency responders in 261 counties. Most notable was the fall TRANSCAER Whistle Stop Tour, in which some 1,000 emergency responders were trained in five days.

The corporation also developed a Railroad Emergency Response Planning Guide and awarded 20 scholarships for emergency responders along their lines to attend the Association of American Railroads/Transportation Technology Center