Local Agencies Clean Up with APTA Awards

The folks in the entertainment industry aren't the only ones with an awards season. Here is a rundown on some transit-related awards that have recently been bestowed on local agencies, stakeholders, etc.

The American Public Transportation Association (a trade group for the transit industry) announced the individual and organizational winners of the APTA Awards Oct. 4, 2011 in New Orleans during the APTA Annual Meeting and EXPO. The 2011 winner of the Outstanding Public Transportation System Achievement award in the category of providing more than 20 million annual passenger trips was Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus. Appropriately Outstanding Public Transportation Manager Award was given to Stephanie Negriff, Big Blue's recently retired General Manager who is credited with the innovations and steady hand that led the agency to win the APTA honor.

Other local leaders honored include an Outstanding Public Transportation Business Member Award given to Sharon Greene, Principal of Sharon Greene + Associates of Laguna Beach, CA., and the Hall of Fame Award to retired Metro CEO Roger Snoble. APTA posthumously honored Cameron Beach, who died in March 2011, with the Local Distinguished Service Award for his four decades of work in the transportation industry.

Another to win an award in October was the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Transit Services Bureau Special Problems Unit, which was second runner-up for the distinguished Excellence in Criminal Investigations award co-sponsored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Thomson Reuters. There were 21 finalists so being among the three award recipients is an honor in itself.

Special Problems deals with property crimes such as graffiti. You can learn more about it via this press release

Lastly (and again given in October) the National Association of Railroad Passengers gave its Tracks to the Future award to Metro and Metrolink (per the citation) in recognition of their outstanding work creating an efficient, attractive public transportation system in a city many call the "car capital of the world.”

Congratulations to all the awardees!

My thanks to J.K. Drummond, a SO.CA.TA Director, for sharing a copy of the press release he picked up at a recent Metro South Bay Service Council meeting about the award to the Sheriff's Unit.