History was made when APTA sponsored the first national public transit security communications drill during the recent Marketing & Communications Workshop in Miami. The subject of the session: What would public transit agencies do if a terrorist attack occurred on public transportation, and what would government agencies do separately and in coordination with transit systems?

Representatives of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) participated in the program, running through an emergency scenario with public transit communicators.

Brian D. Farber, FTA associate administrator, communications and congressional affairs, said the exercise “put an exclamation point on the importance of preparation in the event of a terrorist attack on a transit system.  In the aftermath of a disaster, the Federal Transit Administration will provide whatever assistance is needed in support of the president, the Department of Homeland Security, and Transportation Safety Administration.”

Bonnie Arnold, director of marketing, South Florida Regional Transportation Authority/Tri-Rail, Pompano Beach, FL, described the setup as it unfolded in real time: “It began with an explosion at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s (MARTA) Five Points Station, and we didn’t know if it was terrorist-related. Fourteen minutes later, there was another explosion at another site in Atlanta; almost three hours after that, responders found a bomb at Embarcadero Station in San Francisco. The final incident was finding white powder on a Tri-Rail train, which investigators presumed to be anthrax.”

At each step during the event—the initial explosion, 15 minutes later, 30 minutes later—panelists representing both public transit agencies and the federal government explained what steps they would take while public transit agency communicators in the audience shared what they would do. For example, at what point do you notify the agency’s general manager? Its chief of police? When does the agency ramp up security? At what point should service shut down? What should public transit communicators tell local media? When would DHS lead a conference call for members of the federal government; When would the FBI come in?

“I thought it was extremely helpful for us to work through this type of scenario with our federal partners,” said Cara Hodgson, manager of communications, MARTA. “We’ve done several emergency drills at MARTA and we include our partners, but much of the time that means we work with actual law enforcement personnel. This exercise gave us an opportunity—as communicators—to work with our partners on the federal level and get an idea of what resources are available to us.”

Hodgson also noted that the session allowed public transit agencies with their own routines to see how other organizations respond to similar incidents. “It’s interesting to hear what other systems in our industry are doing or would do during an emergency situation, share lessons learned, best practices,” she explained. “We know what we think our targets would be; this project let us hear what other systems, both larger and smaller, see as targets and how they would react in this situation.”

“I was honored to be selected to participate in this drill,” said Luna Salaver, public information officer, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District and Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority. “I learned the role that APTA plays—and also, on the federal level, TSA, DHS, and FTA—in working together on safety and security issues….I think we learn so much from each other.”