The nation’s transportation system is a vast, interconnected network of diverse modes. Key modes of transportation include aviation, freight rail, highway, maritime, transit, and pipeline. The nation’s public transit system includes multiple-occupancy vehicle services designed to provide regular and continuing general or special transportation to the public, such as transit buses, light rail, commuter rail, subways, and waterborne passenger ferries. According to APTA, buses are the most widely used form of transit, providing almost two-thirds of all passenger trips. Light rail systems are typically characterized by lightweight passenger rail cars that operate on track that is not separated from vehicular traffic. Commuter rail systems typically operate on railroad tracks and provide regional service (e.g., between a city and adjacent suburbs). Subway systems, like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s New York City Transit, typically operate on fixed heavy lines within a metropolitan area and have the capacity for a heavy volume of traffic. Waterborne passenger ferries provide a link across many of the nation’s waterways and, in some cases, present drivers with an alternative travel option. Public transit systems in the United States are typically owned and operated by public sector entities, such as state and regional transportation authorities. In addition, while some transit agencies rely on their local police department to secure their systems, others, such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco, have established their own dedicated police department. Mass transit and passenger rail systems carry a high number of passengers every day and are open and fully accessible. Multiple stops and transfers lead to high passenger turnover, which is difficult to monitor effectively, and a terrorist attack on public transit systems could result in a large number of casualties. While there have been no successful terrorist attacks against U.S. public transit systems to date, terrorist attacks on public transit systems around the world, such as the March 2010 subway bombings in Moscow, Russia, and the recent plot to detonate explosives on the New York City subway system, illustrate the potential threat to public transit systems. Securing the nation’s public transit systems is a shared responsibility requiring coordinated action on the part of federal, state, and local governments; the private sector; and passengers who ride these systems. A component of this shared responsibility is ensuring that those within the private and public sector have access to quality security-related information to enhance prevention and protection efforts. DHS is the lead department involved in securing the nation’s homeland. As required by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the department is responsible for coordinating homeland security efforts across all levels of government and throughout the nation, including with federal, state, tribal, local, and private sector homeland security stakeholders. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act established TSA as the federal agency with primary responsibility for securing the nation’s transportation systems. As part of this responsibility, TSA serves as the lead DHS component responsible for assessing intelligence and other information to identify individuals who pose a threat specifically to transportation security and to coordinate countermeasures with other federal agencies to address such threats. TSA is also charged with serving as the sector-specific agency for the transportation community. Within TSA, several offices, including the Office of Transportation Sector Network Management and the Office of Intelligence, play a role in sharing security-related information with transportation stakeholders. In addition to TSA, a number of other entities are responsible for sharing security- related information with internal and external stakeholders, including public transit agencies. Table 1 below provides details on roles and responsibilities of some of the various entities involved in sharing security- related information with public transit agencies. According to APTA and TSA officials, the PT-ISAC and the public transit subportal on DHS’s HSIN (HSIN-PT) were designed to serve as the primary mechanisms for sharing security-related information with public transit agencies. The PT-ISAC, which is implemented by APTA under a cooperative agreement with FTA, was designed to serve as the one stop shop for public transit agencies seeking to obtain security-related information. The PT-ISAC collects, analyzes, and distributes security and threat information from the federal government and open sources on a 24/7 basis. It provides public transit agencies with unclassified and open- source documents obtained from numerous sources, including DOT, DHS, and DOJ. According to PT-ISAC officials, this mechanism disseminates this information through daily E-mails with attachments summarizing and analyzing recent security and cybersecurity information, news, threats, and vulnerabilities within the transportation sector. In addition, the PT- ISAC has a searchable library of government and private security documents, and PT-ISAC analysts hold top secret security clearances. HSIN-PT is also focused on providing security-related information pertaining to the public transit industry. According to DHS officials, HSIN was designed to serve as the department’s primary information-sharing mechanism for the larger homeland security community engaged in preventing, protecting from, responding to, and recovering from all threats, hazards, and incidents under DHS jurisdiction. HSIN is comprised of a network of communities, referred to as communities of interest, such as Intelligence and Analysis, Law Enforcement, Emergency Management, and Critical Sectors (CS). Within HSIN-CS, each of the 18 critical sectors maintains its own site. Under the transportation sector, the public transit mode maintains its own subportal on HSIN. According to TSA officials, HSIN-PT is maintained and populated by mass transit and passenger rail private and government stakeholders. HSIN, including its public transit subportal, is accessible via the Internet, but users must first be vetted against established criteria to obtain a user name and password from DHS to access the network and retrieve information. As an additional feature, HSIN users may elect to receive E-mail alerts that include notices of ongoing events or direct the user to a particular location within HSIN to obtain additional information. While the PT-ISAC and HSIN-PT are focused on providing security-related information to public transit agencies, the agencies we surveyed did not rely solely on these two mechanisms for their information needs. Figure 1 below illustrates the 12 key information-sharing mechanisms, identified by the agencies we surveyed, that disseminate security-related information to public transit agencies. These mechanisms were cited as sources of security-related information by more than 40 percent of the public transit agencies we surveyed. Forces (JTTF) Transit Security and Safety Roundtables The information-sharing mechanisms described in figure 1 vary by intended users of the mechanism, the type and source of information offered, and how the information is distributed. Table 2 provides additional details on the 12 information-sharing mechanisms public transit agencies cited most frequently as sources for security-related information. Although all of these mechanisms are used by some segment of the public transit agencies we surveyed to obtain security-related information, access to the information disseminated through the mechanisms illustrated in table 2 may vary by, among other factors, whether the transit agencies have a dedicated police department, the size of transit agency, and accessibility of the information. For example, some public transit agencies with a dedicated police department receive security-related information through their law enforcement representative on the local JTTF. According to FBI officials, public transit agencies that do not have a dedicated police department are less likely to receive information from the JTTF. In addition, the Transit Security and Safety Roundtables are specifically tailored for the nation’s largest mass transit and passenger rail agencies, typically those ranked within the top 50 or 60 by ridership. Smaller transit agencies are less likely to receive information disseminated through this mechanism since they are typically not invited to participate in these roundtables. Also, of the mechanisms identified by the public transit agencies we interviewed and surveyed, all but one send information directly to transit agencies instead of requiring users to log on to a system to retrieve information (“push” vs. “pull”). In addition to the information-sharing mechanisms identified in table 2, TSA-OI implemented its TS-ISAC in March 2010 as another means for sharing security-related information with the transportation industry, including public transit agencies. Specifically, TSA’s vision for the TS- ISAC is to serve as the one stop shop to obtain TSA-OI reports and documentation, such as SBU intelligence products and other documents from other transportation security partners and stakeholders. The TS- ISAC aims to enhance collaboration between operators, law enforcement personnel, and security directors from all transportation modes. Similar to HSIN-PT, the TS-ISAC is a subportal of HSIN-CS, and therefore users must have a HSIN password to access it. Once access is obtained, TS- ISAC users can set up alerts to be notified when a new document has been posted to the site. Our survey results indicate that public transit agencies’ satisfaction with the security-related information they received varied with the type of transportation service provided and whether the agency was large or midsized. As highlighted in table 3 below, three-fourths of public transit agencies that responded to this question in our survey (57 of 76) were generally satisfied with the security-related information they received, while less than one-sixth (11 of 76) were generally dissatisfied. The agencies that provide heavy rail, light rail, or commuter rail service (rail agencies) were generally more satisfied with the information they received than the agencies that provide bus or ferry service, but not rail service (non-rail agencies). Specifically, most rail agencies (30 of 36) were generally satisfied with the security-related information they received, as opposed to approximately two-thirds (27 of 40) of non-rail agencies. In addition, the larger agencies we surveyed were generally more satisfied with security-related information-sharing than the midsized agencies.