Mineta Forum Evokes the Question: Where Were You on 9/11, and How Did You Get There?

ANNA LISI
Director, Publications and Senior Managing Editor, Passenger Transport
American Public Transportation Association

At a special event titled Honoring a Legacy of Service and hosted by the Mineta Forum on Transportation Policy and Leadership, speakers recalled where they were on 9/11—a collective memory of my generation.

I was working in my first job out of college, commuting from Virginia to Washington, DC, via public transportation operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA/Metro). I worked in an interior office among a sea of similar rooms across the street from the White House, a few floors below the National Press Club.

Reflective of a different time, my job involved recording and editing news segments on VHS tapes. That morning, as my fellow production assistants and I were watching the Today Show, we saw something dreadful—aired live from New York City—that changed the world we live in.

My immediate thoughts were of personal safety. I wondered how I would get home as there was talk of another hijacked plane that might be heading toward the White House. What I didn’t think about were the frontline workers—including bus drivers and other transportation employees—who put themselves at risk to get people like me to safety.

That same day, my APTA colleague Polly Hanson was responding to the crisis as Metro transit deputy chief of WMATA’s Patrol Division. Reflecting on her experiences that day, she said that Metro employees, “without regard to themselves or their families, made sure that they did everything they could to help people get home.”

Twenty-Five Years Later

I’m back in that downtown building at the National Press Club with Hanson at the Mineta Forum. We’ve gathered to commemorate those lost, honor the legacy of former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta—who grounded all planes on 9/11—and to explore the challenges and opportunities for the future of American mobility.

Common themes included the advancements made in technology and the dedication of public transportation personnel and public servants like Mineta. Speakers gave extraordinary examples of his bipartisan leadership, innovation, mentoring, hard work, and compassion. Former Secretary of Transportation James H. Burnley IV said the country was lucky to have Mineta as secretary at the time, while another former transportation secretary, Rodney Slater, called Mineta a master in carrying out his responsibilities. Mineta’s sons spoke about their experiences as their father put the needs of the nation first.

A panel with John Flaherty and Genie Norris Murphy, who were senior advisors to Mineta, detailed the events of the day. As the White House was being evacuated, Mineta was escorted into a bunker with then-Vice President Dick Cheney. Flaherty described phone calls from heads of airlines with transponders that were no longer working. Rumor management. Mineta’s bold decision to “bring them down” (ground all planes, no pilot discretion). A call to the Canadian head of transportation who said they would “take them all” (land all overseas flights heading to the U.S. in Canada). Murphy said, “We were successful under extraordinary circumstances,” due to the example set by Mineta.

In another panel, Wendy Morse and Sara Nelson provided moving perspectives as airline personnel who lost friends and colleagues. As a pilot, Morse had landed one of the planes used in the attacks the day before. Nelson, a flight attendant, talked about how frontline transportation employees “put the power behind the creation of the TSA.” No longer would they be trained to comply in the event of a hijacking. They advocated for self-defense training, additional physical barriers, among other changes.

Closing the event, a panel discussed the current state of transportation security, moderated by former FTA Administrator, and APTA Hall of Fame inductee, Nuria I. Fernandez. WMATA General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke and United Airlines Vice President Steve Morrissey discussed how advances in technology—such as biometrics and AI—improve security and efficiency but also pose a threat from cyberattacks. Joanna M. Nunan, retired vice admiral, U.S. Maritime Service and rear admiral, U.S. Coast Guard described the decline of the maritime sector as a real vulnerability.

Panelists agreed on the need for better coordination among all modes of transportation to protect critical infrastructure, protect against cyberattacks, regulate drones and AI, and manage risk. As modeled by Mineta’s bipartisan leadership, there’s a need to build relationships, coordinate, and work through political gridlock to secure transportation infrastructure.

Transportation Ties Us Together

Fernandez’s closing words, “transportation ties us together,” takes me back to my commute home 25 years ago. Metro made its own bold decision to stay open to get commuters back home. However, my route, which bypassed the Pentagon, was suspended. With limited to no cell signal, and before modern smart phones, I somehow found my childhood friend. She had walked into the city from her job across the river to find her mom, who worked at a Smithsonian museum.

One of my most vivid memories of that tragic day is walking together across the bridge to Virginia and along an eerily quiet riverfront, incredulously watching as smoke billowed from the Pentagon. Eventually we arrived at an open Metro station, relieved to rest our feet and have public transportation take us the rest of the way home.

Learn more about how transit systems responded to the events of 9/11 in Saving City Lifelines: Lessons Learned in the 9-11 Terrorist Attacks