General Manager Neil McFarlane has unveiled the results of TriMet’s 2013 Operator of the Year election. At an employee ceremony Thursday afternoon, May 9, he announced that the following operators had been selected for the honor by their peers:

Bus Operator of the Year: Willie Jack

Willie Jack, Operator of the Year 2013

With his seniority, Willie Jack could choose just about any route he wants. And these days, he chooses Line 17. It touches so many schools, work-sites, medical facilities, restaurants, stores, parks and other destinations as it travels from SE 134^th and Powell and Concordia University and back out again.

If you’re on the 17 and getting a ride that’s amazingly friendly, on-time, safe and smooth—take a look in the driver’s seat and see if you’re in the capable hands of Willie Jack.

He has been inducted into the Million Miles of Safety Club and was also TriMet’s Operator of the Year in 1985.

Here’s what we heard from one customer who starts their trip on Line 71 and transfers to Willie Jack’s Line 17, “I take this particular bus to dialysis about three times a week and I have had him as my driver for about 4-5 months now. I am in a wheelchair. Yesterday the 71 was late getting to my connecting stop, and the 71 [operator] honked the horn, and this operator [Willie, on the 17] waited for me to get off and to get to his bus. I would have missed my dialysis had he not waited. I thought that was just great and he is a wonderful driver.” The customer added that Willie Jack was especially helpful when she came back to the 17 after a few months as a LIFT rider, post-surgery.

MAX Operator of the Year: Ivan Semenyuk

Ivan Semenyuk, MAX Operator of the Year 2013

Is there anyone who hasn’t gotten a ride from Ivan? He works a busy Monday-Friday shift, operating the Blue, Green and Yellow lines, crisscrossing the region from Hillsboro to Gresham, Clackamas to Expo Center. Our numbers show he provided more than 323,000 rides last year!

He is now a two-time winner of MAX Operator of the Year. He won the award for the first time in 2008 and then again this year.

Ivan has received many commendations, including, “I received a bag turned into lost and found for a customer, who did not speak English. This operator talked to them on the phone and translated for me, and helped get the bag to them, as they were elderly.”

Part-Time Operator of the Year: Terrie Sweet

Terrie Sweet, Part-Time Operator of the Year 2013

Do you commute to Marquam Hill in the morning on the 61 or 64? Maybe you catch the 38 from downtown Portland out Tualatin way in the afternoons?

Then you might be riding with Terrie Sweet, whose split shift schedule makes a sustainable commute possible for hundreds of commuters each week.

Four generations of Terrie Sweet’s family filled a table in the report area for the awards ceremony. “Grandma won!” exclaimed the littlest guest.

Million Miles of Safety

The ceremony also honored eight operators for reaching a prestigious safety milestone and earning admission into TriMet’s Million Mile Club. This is no small achievement.

It’s estimated that it takes at least 29 years of safe driving to reach the million mile mark. That’s the equivalent of driving 182,000 one-way trips on Line 25-Glisan/Rockwood; 15,000 roundtrips on the MAX Blue Line; or two trips to the moon and back. Million Mile Club operators must earn 29 annual Safe Driver Awards from the National Safety Council.

Congratulations to:

Chris Wolff

Teresa Woods

Douglas Hills

Rose Jordan-Fairley

Greg Butler

Karen Asio

Dennis Withrow

Howard Lee

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An umbrella. A weed wacker. A cell phone. Some dentures. A paint gun. And one furry, spotted bicycle.

What do these things have in common? They’ve all been turned into our Lost & Found department recently. Lost & Found, located at our Center Street office in SE Portland, is staffed by station agents like Kathy Guirado, who told us that some of the items left behind on buses and trains are anything but “common.”

From wine and whiskey to dog food and cat litter pans, our Lost & Found department receives a steady flow of weird, lost items. A few years ago, someone even left a human skeleton on board! (That’s the weirdest one we’ve seen.)

In 2012, our Lost & Found department processed more than 26,000 lost items. For years, umbrellas were the most frequently lost item… These days, it’s cell phones.

Visit our website for more information on what to do if you find or lose something on TriMet. We’ll do our best to get your item back to you as quickly as possible. (Note that unclaimed items turned into Lost & Found are given to charity after 14 days.) Once, we returned a plane ticket to the airport so a rider wouldn’t miss her flight!

On Tuesday, TriMet Operator Richard Silverman was driving along 82nd Avenue when “a little pink thing” dashed across the lane to his right. Photo courtesy Kate Mather/The Oregonian

Somewhere in NE Portland’s Sumner neighborhood this Thanksgiving, there’s a mother who’s grateful that a bus driver was in the right place at the right time.

In the thick of Tuesday morning’s record-setting rainstorm, Operator Richard Silverman was driving his Line 72 north on NE 82nd Ave., not far from the airport. As he prepared to make a left turn on to NE Killingsworth St., “a little pink thing” dashed across the lane to his right. He stopped the bus and saw a little girl in pink pajamas and rain boots toddling across the busy street in the blinding rain, right toward his bus.

Richard stopped the bus, positioned it at an angle to block traffic in both northbound lanes, and contacted Dispatch. The bus was about half full; one of the customers got off and retrieved the girl, who looked to be about two years old. The police arrived within minutes, with the mother—who had also called 911—on their heels. Richard says the little girl was drenched but calm, “not saying anything, just busy looking at everybody looking at her.”

Sobbing, the mother told Richard that the first floor of their apartment was flooding, and that the little girl must have slipped away in the confusion as the family relocated upstairs. After interviewing the mother, the police left; mother and daughter went home; and Richard and his riders resumed their trip toward Swan Island.

In December, Richard Silverman will begin his 15th year as a TriMet operator. Before TriMet, he drove trucks and taxis and was a steelworker—“Whatever would help me feed my family and raise my kids.” As a bus driver, Richard’s seen a lot, but rescuing a toddler from traffic? “That’s a first for me,” he says. “I’m just glad it had a happy ending.”

Did you know construction is under way on the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge across the Willamette River between South Waterfront and OMSI?

It’s the first bridge to be built in Portland in over 40 years, so we want to keep everyone up-to-speed on how it’s going and what the bridge means for Portland and the river.

That’s why we’ve partnered with OMSI (and several exhibit sponsors) to create interactive kiosks featuring fun videos about the river’s role as important habitat for many animals, and about the decisions made to ensure the right bridge design was picked for the location and the project.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIteVbzOiK8]
Be sure to stop by the kiosks on your next OMSI visit! And to learn more about the bridge and the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project, visit trimet.org/pm.

Lead Field Operations Supervisor Ryan Hughes

When we think of Rose Festival, many think about colorful floats, marching bands and carnival rides. Ryan Hughes, lead supervisor for TriMet Field Operations, thinks about bus and MAX service for thousands of riders who take transit to festival events.

Before the first tuba is tuned, Ryan, one of four lead supervisors, works with Field Operations (the on-the-street operational arm of TriMet) to plan for and coordinate the events that will affect transit.

Planning for Rose Festival begins in January with TriMet operations staff determining where to allocate resources during the Starlight and Grand Floral parades, how to manage service when Portland’s bridges lift for fleet arrivals and how to best staff the emergency operations center set up for the parades.

During the events, Ryan is in contact with TriMet’s command center in Gresham, requesting resources such as trains for an area that needs capacity or dispatching any of TriMet’s 50 supervisors to locations where riders may need assistance.

“My job is to take care of the road and rail supervisors and provide them with the tools they need to do their jobs.”

He stays mobile during his shifts, lending support to his supervisors on the scene of an incident or helping make decisions at a moment’s notice. He also communicates regularly with Transit Police Division officers, TriMet’s contract security personnel and the agency’s customer service staff.

And for two action-packed weeks in June, Ryan’s big picture is Rose Festival and helping make sure all of TriMet’s preparations lead to smooth operations during Portland’s busiest time of year.