Information sharing among transit agencies and the Homeland Security Department needs improvement, says a Government Accountability Office report released Sept. 22. Seventy-five percent of transit agencies surveyed by the GAO are "generally satisfied" with information sharing, but programs such as the Homeland Security Information Network were highlighted as unsatisfactory.

"Among the 12 most frequently cited mechanisms, [public transit agencies] were the least satisfied with HSIN in terms of general satisfaction (19 of 33) and for each of six dimensions of quality--relevance, validity, timeliness, completeness, actionability and ease of use," said the report.

Last month, the Office of Management and Budget identified HSIN as one of 26 IT projects at-risk for termination or serious modification if projects are not significantly changed. Many of the targeted projects are over-budget or behind schedule--HSIN has a lifecycle cost of $473.4 million.

The Public Transportation Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and the HSIN Public Transit Subportal were established to serve as the primary security information-sharing mechanisms for public transit agencies. According to the report, agencies are concerned that accessibility issues, user-friendliness and information value may hinder HSIN from meeting the security information needs. What's more, awareness and use of PT-ISAC and HSIN among some public transit agencies is low and the PT-ISAC is not fulfilling it's agreed-upon responsibilities.

"While DHS and [Transportation Security Administration] are taking steps to improve information sharing with public transit agencies, this effort will not be complete until the accessibility and user-friendliness of HSIN are addressed. Moreover, the HSIN-PT subportal will likely continue to be underutilized until DHS takes steps to ensure that this mechanism contains security-related information that is of value to public transit agencies," said the report.

The report later added that "a systematic process for obtaining such feedback on the PT-ISAC and HSIN-PT is lacking. Such a process could help DHS and TSA assess the effectiveness of their efforts to share security-related information with public transit agencies."

Agencies said security information-sharing efforts must be streamlined. The report recommended that TSA establish time frames for the Sector Coordinating Council and Government Coordinating Council working group to address improved streamlining and the promotion of existing information-sharing mechanisms.

Homeland Security concurred with the report and recommendations, and said it supports changes to HSIN and the intensification of efforts to expand its use for the broader range of transit and passenger rail agencies. The report also said that in fiscal year 2010, DHS raised the awareness of HSIN through a targeted marketing strategy. However, GAO said DHS did not clearly identify the actions it will take to ensure that the HSIN-PT subportal contains security-related information that is of value to public transit agencies--a necessary part of meeting GAO's recommendations.

For more:
- read the report GAO-10-895 (.pdf)

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