The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has been designated as the sector coordinator by the U.S. Department of Transportation in the creation of an Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to further promote security for the public transportation industry. As the designated sector coordinator, APTA will serve as primary contact to organize and bring the public transportation community together to work cooperatively on physical and cyber security issues. Throughout the implementation of the ISAC, APTA will work directly with U.S. DOT to further define the transit sector's participation. Specifically, the public transportation ISAC will collect, analyze and distribute critical security and threat information from government and other sources. Best security practices and plans to eliminate threats, attacks, vulnerabilities and countermeasures are drawn upon to protect the sector's cyber and physical infrastructures. "The safety and security of our customers, employees and the general public is of the highest importance to the public transportation industry," said APTA President William W. Millar. APTA will retain a private sector contractor to establish and operate the ISAC. Initially, 20 public transportation systems will participate in the pilot project. Once the ISAC is fully established, all participating transit systems will be able to access analyzed security information.