Security and Emergency Response Training Center (SERTC)

An industry leader and the preferred destination for full-scale training in surface transportation emergency preparedness and response.

Train Today for a Safe Tomorrow

Nowhere else can you find this level of full-scale, fully immersive training preparing first responders worldwide for real-world hazmat and surface transportation emergencies.

A division of MxV Rail, the world’s premier rail advisory, SERTC is a globally recognized program that connects transportation experts and first responders in a one-of-a-kind training experience at hazmat technician level and above.

Since 1985, SERTC has trained more than 76,000 first responders, emergency managers, community leaders, and other emergency-related personnel. Our students benefit from nearly four decades of advanced response training experience in prevention, containment, and mitigation of surface transportation incidents.

Explore our training courses

Book a course and learn why fire and emergency responders from a wide range of public and private sectors — large and small, urban and rural — have trained with us and can’t wait to come back.

Resident Courses

Our onsite residential courses range from 24 to 80 hours and are conducted at the SERTC training facility in Pueblo, Colorado. All modules are led by the skillful instructors of Team SERTC, drawing on their years of experience in fire service, hazmat response and contracting, emergency medical response, railroads, and industrial environments.

Our mission of delivering hazardous materials response training for all forms of surface transportation aligns with FEMA’s Strategic Plan. We strive to deliver vital training to whole and underserved communities and we support a prepared nation of first responders and receivers. SERTC offers 4- to 6-hour mobile courses that allow groups to train where they are on a schedule that works for them.

SERTC in numbers
  • 76k

    Professionals trained
  • 10k

    Scholarships awarded to first responders
  • 38

    Years of curriculum
SERTC is a proud member of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC)

In 2009, Congress authorized MxV Rail/SERTC to develop and deliver training courses as a member of the NDPC. SERTC, in cooperation with FEMA National Training and Education Division (NTED) and other nationally recognized organization members of the NDPC, identifies, develops, tests, and delivers training to local, state, tribal, and territorial responders/receivers. SERTC is designed to build, sustain, and expand the core capabilities of emergency responders/receivers through specialized training in prevention, protection, response, mitigation, and recovery from natural and man-made transportation incidents involving hazardous materials, weapons of mass destruction, flammable/combustible liquids, and flammable gases.

“This was by far one of the most fun and challenging courses I have ever taken. The instructors were courteous, kind, incredibly friendly, experts in their subject matter and took a person like myself with little knowledge or formal background; and made incredibly difficult concepts a lot more tangible and easy to understand. My goal at all costs is to protect the members I work with and any civilians in harm’s way. I appreciate all the hard work you do there for us and hope to have the privilege of taking more courses with you in the near future.”
Kevin NFDNY Lieutenant

Meet our instructors and staff

SERTC’s professional staff has decades of combined experience in emergency response training, which promises the best hands-on training experience in the world.

SERTC is a division of MxV Rail,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads