Bus system gets grant for terrorism, hostile situation training

Courtesy KCATA.

The Kansas City bus system is going to get training on how to respond to a terrorist attack on the transit system

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded a $175,000 federal grant for training and developing a plan for responding to a terrorist attack to the Kansas City Area Transit Authority (KCATA).

The KCATA says of the grant, about $100,000 will go toward developing a blueprint for coordinating with local law enforcement and other public safety agencies responding to any terrorist incident on a bus or affecting bus service.

It says another $74,000 is earmarked for an exercise responding to a simulated terrorist attack on the city’s bus network.

Some of the money also is expected to be used for teaching more than 450 KCATA employees the best methods for defusing hostile situations on a bus. Each employee would receive four hours of training during the course of a year.

The grant money coming to Kansas City is part of a national program to protect the country’s transit infrastructure, including bus, rail and ferry systems, from a terrorist attack.