sponse personnel have begun or continued the important process of building relationships and collaborative plans for emergency response.

Intelligence and Information Sharing. Another important finding was that timely and specific sharing of threat information and intelligence is needed at both the national and local levels. To establish this information flow at the local level, FTA worked with the FBI to create collaborative relationships among transit agencies, local FBI officials, and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

FTA has also strengthened its communications link with the 100 largest transit agencies whose passengers account for an estimated 90% of all transit riders in the nation. This system was activated when the Department of Homeland Security recently raised the threat warning level to "Orange" and FTA sent out an advisory to transit agencies with a list of specific measures they should consider in the context of their own system operations. In addition, the FTA Regional Offices have established liaisons to the largest transit agencies and would, in the event of a catastrophic transit incident, act as an information link between the Department of Transportation and the transit agency.

In addition, FTA is continuing to work with the transit industry and the intelligence community to establish a means for sharing threat and intelligence information concerning transit. The goal is to create a communications network that disseminates alerts as well as collects information from various transit agencies, thereby providing a means to identify patterns and trends and share such analysis with the industry.

Technology Development and Deployment. The assessments also confirmed that technology can play an important, but not exclusive, role in transit Security. FTA continues to assist transit agencies in the area of technology by continuing its programs to identify and adapt security technologies developed by other agencies and industries. Notably, as part of its security initiative, FTA has accelerated development of Project PROTECT, a chemical detection system for use in subways that was prototyped in the Washington, DC, Metro system. Testing of PROTECT is currently being expanded into an older transit system in order to evaluate its usefulness in alternative environments. FTA has collaborated with many agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and the Transportation Research Institute to identify promising technologies that may be applicable to transit systems, and will continue to do so.

During the drill, armed "terrorists" boarded the ferry Quinault as it sailed west of Seattle, pointed prop guns at fearful "hostages," and tried to talk tough (the dialogue was improvised). The players broke character more than once. "My finger’s getting awfully itchy, mister," one terrorist bellowed at a handcuffed state trooper who did his best to look concerned. Above, in the ferry’s bridge, Sergeant Randy Drake of the Washington State Patrol acted the part of a lefty peacenik terrorist, negotiating via cellular phone. "You’re talking to Ranal Usama, Leader of the …" he said and paused to check a sheaf of notes. "Leader of the American People for Peace Organization. Who’s this?" After trading a few barbs with the negotiator, Drake hung up and turned to one of his terrorist cohorts. He said his next step was going downstairs and shooting somebody, but someone reminded him that the script called for terrified passengers to jump overboard. Then someone else said it was time to break for lunch. "Lunches in the middle of a hostile takeover?" Drake said. "It’s that union terrorist thing," his cohort replied. Drake smiled and shrugged.

The drill was designed to test emergency response to a hijacking. Captain Mark Couey, leader of the State Patrol’s investigative assistance division, said the hijacking simulation was the largest exercise his agency has conducted since training began six years ago. Coordination included handling a horde of eager reporters. They wanted to know every detail of the hijacking before it occurred. "We’ve got too many observers," Couey said as the terrorists, hostages, and media dug into box lunches full of sandwiches and canned potato chips. "Kind of muddles it up. Couey said the exercise would reveal potential weaknesses in emergency response plans. Success would be measured by few injuries and casualties.

The next stage of the drill was the stunt of the day. A state patrol SWAT team would board the moving ferry from a moving boat. The strategy was anything but sneaky. The boat’s approach took at least 20 minutes. Everyone on board could see it, including the TV crew that hunched a few feet away from the boarding ladder. Some cynical observers thought the small SWAT team boat looked a little vulnerable in the choppy waters. Couey said a helicopter drop was another option, with a team dropping down on roped. It’s been done in other simulations, he said, but they wanted to see how difficult boarding in water would be. It took a while, probably too long Couey admitted after the drill was complete, the terrorists subdued, and the hostages freed.

Two state troopers who played hostages on board said the exercise revealed how easy it would be for an organized group to hijack a ferry, which typically has only two troopers to watch hundreds of passengers. The Quinault’s capacity is 800 people.