Police training suspends MARTA service at Georgia World Congress Center overnight

ATLANTA - Rail service at the MARTA Georgia World Congress Center/CNN Center was suspended for an overnight full-scale police training exercise.

Officials say the exercise is designed to evaluate emergency response capabilities in the event of a threat to the system.

"We had two scenarios that we were able to run concurrently. We had one that was a bus hostage scenario that took place in the bus loop near the Georgia World Congress Center and then we had another scenario which was a protest where we had a big group of protesters inside our concourseat the dome station," Sgt. Deneya Little said. 

This was the first time in years that the department has been able to run a full-scale training exercise.

The training exercises were based on real world events, including the recent protests in Atlanta over the planned police training facility. 
The training took place from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. Regular rail service resumed Sunday at 5:30 a.m.