Critical Infrastructure Protection in Homeland Security: Defending a Networked Nation, 2nd Edition

15 Transportation

The transportation CIKR consists of highways, bridges, tunnels, and traffic control systems; trucks, buses, and other commercial vehicles; railroads, rail rolling stock, rail yards, rail SCADA and signaling systems, rail bridges, and tunnels; oil and gas pipeline safety; intermodal facilities such as seaports, intracostal ports and waterways, marine terminals, marine vessels, containers, barges, locks, and dams; air carrier airports, general aviation airports, air navigation and traffic control systems, airfreight and package express systems, passenger and cargo aircraft; and commuter rail and public transit systems, passenger ferries, Amtrak, and intermodal passenger terminals.

The transportation sector is transitioning from disparate land, air, rail, and merchant marine subsystems focused mainly on efficiency and profitability to an integrated intermodal network focused more on safety, security, and regulation. Complexity comes from integration of intermodal services across roads, commercial air, rail, and shipping—both for passengers and freight. Complexity also comes from increasing regulation in the form of safety rules, mileage goals for passenger and freight vehicles, modernization of air travel, and promotion of high-speed intercity rail.

In the United States, this transition is being led by the Department of Transportation (DOT) as the sector-specific agency (SSA) for transportation and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under PPD-21 (2013). ...