What We Do
Overall Mission
TSA's Office of Security Policy and Industry Engagement leads the unified national effort to protect and secure our nation's intermodal transportation systems. We will ensure the safe movement of passengers and promote the free flow of commerce by building a resilient, robust, and sustainable network with our public and private sector partners.
Transportation Systems Sector-Specific Plan
The Transportation Systems Sector—a sector that comprises all modes of transportation (Aviation, Maritime, Mass Transit, Highway, Freight Rail, and Pipeline)—is a vast, open, interdependent networked system that moves millions of passengers and millions of tons of goods.
The transportation network is critical to the Nation's way of life and economic vitality.
Ensuring its security is the mission charged to all sector partners, including government (Federal, State, regional, local, and tribal) and private industry stakeholders.
Every day, the transportation network connects cities, manufacturers, and retailers, moving large volumes of goods and individuals through a complex network of approximately 4 million miles of roadways, more than 140,000 miles of active rail, 600,000 bridges and tunnels, more than 350 maritime ports, hundreds of thousands of pipeline, nearly 30 million trips using mass transit and passenger rail, and more than 450 U.S. commercial airports.
TSS-SP (pdf, 3,230kb)
Strategy
The Office of Security Policy and Industry Engagement has developed and is in the process of executing, a strategy to ensure effective, efficient, and standardized operations within and among transportation modes.
In short, the strategy calls for:
- Completion of industry threat, vulnerability, and consequence assessment
- Development of baseline security standards
- Assessment of operator security status versus existing standards
- Development of plan to close gaps in security standards
- Enhancement of systems of security
Related Statistics:
- 3.9 million miles of public roads
- 1.2 million trucking companies operating 15.5 million trucks including 42,000 HAZMAT trucks
- 10 million licensed commercial vehicle drivers including 2.7 million HAZMAT drivers
- 2.2 million miles of hazardous liquid and natural gas pipeline
- 120,000 miles of major railroads
- Nearly 15 million daily riders on mass transit and passenger rail systems nationwide
- 25,000 miles of commercial waterways
- 361 ports
- 9.0 million containers through 51,000 port calls
- 11.2 million containers via Canada and Mexico
- 19,576 general aviation airports, heliports, and landing strips
- 459 Federalized commercial airports
- 211, 450 general aviation aircraft
- General aviation flights represents approximately 77% of all flights in the US