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DOT, American Public Transit
Association Form
Partnership To Protect Public
Transportation
Infrastructure
U.S. Transportation Secretary
Norman Y. Mineta and American
Public Transportation
Association (APTA) President
William W. Millar today
announced the formation of a
new partnership to help protect
the nation’s public
transportation infrastructure
from terrorist and other
attacks.
Secretary Mineta, APTA
President William W. Millar,
and Federal Transit
Administrator (FTA) Jennifer L.
Dorn pledged to work closely
together to identify
vulnerabilities, share threat
information, and develop a
joint plan to protect the
nation’s public
transportation systems from
attack.
"Partnerships with state and
local agencies and the private
sector form the cornerstone of
President's Bush's Homeland
Security Strategy. While we
must ensure our transportation
system remains secure, we must
also ensure safety and mobility
are not compromised," Secretary
Mineta said. "Our ongoing work
with APTA will help ensure
critical security and threat
information is shared quickly,
contingency plans are prepared
and ready to be implemented,
and rapid, coordinated action
is taken to protect the
public."
In early 2002, FTA began
conducting security readiness
assessments of the largest,
highest-risk transit agencies.
It was quickly concluded that
transit systems need timely and
transit-specific threat
information and intelligence
analysis.
“The safety and security
of our customers, employees and
the general public is of the
highest importance to the
public transportation
industry,” agreed APTA
President Millar. “Our
industry has long-established
programs and procedures to
strengthen the security of our
services. By partnering with
the U.S. Department of
Transportation, we can more
effectively pursue strategies
so that the integrity of those
systems is not
compromised.”
In accepting the role
of sector coordinator for the
public transportation sector,
Millar will act as the primary
transit sector point of contact
on transit-focused
infrastructure protection
issues, and will work closely
with Secretary Mineta’s
sector liaison official, Rear
Adm. Stephen Rochon, who is the
director of the
Secretary’s Office of
Intelligence and
Security.
The department and APTA will
sponsor a series of workshops
that will help raise awareness
of both physical and
information-based threats and
vulnerabilities to the
nation’s public
transportation industry, and
begin to develop strategies to
address those threats. With the
potential threat of terrorist
attack, cooperation and
coordination among all aspects
of public transportation, the
federal government and law
enforcement, as well as rapid
dissemination of threat
information, is vital both to
the nation’s security and
its economic well-being.
APTA will establish a public
transportation Information
Sharing and Analysis Center
(ISAC) where industry members
can share security information,
especially about evolving
terrorist threats or ongoing
information system attacks. FTA
will provide the initial
funding for the first two years
of the ISAC and will continue
as a member. The ISAC will work
closely with ISACs established
for other critical sectors,
such as banking and finance and
telecommunications, as well as
with the National
Infrastructure Protection
Center. Besides the existing
Surface Transportation ISAC,
there currently is one other
transportation ISAC, the
aviation ISAC headed by the
Airports Council
International-North America.
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