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Volpe gave highest priority to coordinating the missions of the diverse agencies placed under the department's umbrella and developing a "balanced" transportation policy. Symbolic of this effort was the establishment of the Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He thought that he had effectively begun to coordinate separate agencies, each of which had its own constituencies on Capitol Hill, in industry, and among the public. For years, these agencies had acted autonomously and with little coordination or teamwork among themselves. Volpe believed he had begun to forge them into a united transportation agency.  

Volpe gave highest priority to coordinating the missions of the diverse agencies placed under the department's umbrella and developing a "balanced" transportation policy. Symbolic of this effort was the establishment of the Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He thought that he had effectively begun to coordinate separate agencies, each of which had its own constituencies on Capitol Hill, in industry, and among the public. For years, these agencies had acted autonomously and with little coordination or teamwork among themselves. Volpe believed he had begun to forge them into a united transportation agency.  

During Volpe's tenure the Department assumed a higher profile in resolving national transportation problems. These included airline hijackings, the sick-out of the fledgling Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, the decision to end federal support for production of the supersonic transport and to handle applications for Concorde landing slots, the financial insolvency of the Penn Central Railroad and the creation of [[Amtrak]], and the Coast Guard's handling of the case of the defection of the Lithuanian seaman [[Simas Kudirka]].  

During Volpe's tenure the Department assumed a higher profile in resolving national transportation problems. These included airline hijackings, the sick-out of the fledgling Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, the decision to end federal support for production of the supersonic transport and to handle applications for [[Concorde]] landing slots, the financial insolvency of the Penn Central Railroad and the creation of [[Amtrak]], and the Coast Guard's handling of the case of the defection of the Lithuanian seaman [[Simas Kudirka]].  

On December 6, 1972, Nixon named Dr. Claude S. Brinegar to succeed Volpe. Brinegar, a senior vice president of the Los Angeles-based Union Oil Company, had a Ph. D. in economic research and was a self-styled "non-political" professional manager. Reserved in management style and pragmatic in political philosophy, Brinegar successfully steered the department through Watergate and the energy crisis of 1973-1974. Moreover, he charted the Administration's response to the "Northeast Rail Crisis," the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, and at the urging of Congress, drafted a written National Transportation Policy in March 1974.

On December 6, 1972, Nixon named Dr. Claude S. Brinegar to succeed Volpe. Brinegar, a senior vice president of the Los Angeles-based Union Oil Company, had a Ph. D. in economic research and was a self-styled "non-political" professional manager. Reserved in management style and pragmatic in political philosophy, Brinegar successfully steered the department through Watergate and the energy crisis of 1973-1974. Moreover, he charted the Administration's response to the "Northeast Rail Crisis," the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, and at the urging of Congress, drafted a written National Transportation Policy in March 1974.