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The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) won the Rail Transit Team Achievement Award for the second year in a row at the 17th annual American Public Transportation Association (APTA) International Rail Rodeo, which was held Saturday in conjunction with the 2009 APTA Rail Conference in Chicago.  

The team award is given to the system that has the highest combined score between the rail operator and maintainer teams. Designed to encourage excellence and professionalism in rail transit operations, the competition was held at Chicago Transit Authority’s Skokie, Ill., yard.

The operators competition measures professional skills including: train operation; knowledge of safety regulations; train equipment; and track right-of-way rules and procedures. The Sacramento Regional Transit District team of Danai Lamber and William Collart collected the first-place prize, LACMTA’s Robert Rodriguez came in second, and Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Tri-Met) team of David White and Laura Walker placed third.
 
In the maintainers competition, which judges the ability to troubleshoot maintenance problems,  the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority team of Jason Rickert, Mike O’Grady and Ed Carruthers earned first place; LACMTA’s team of Eric Czintos, Ronnie Burt and Glen Abraham finished second; and Tri-Met’s team of James Bledsoe, Alford Fisher and Robert White came in third.