The 2005 "Rippers" for Best Agency

And here they are, Rippers for the Top Five Agencies! These highly coveted awards are based on the Quality of each agencies' Construction Documents, the Quality of their Relationships with Vendors and Suppliers, and the Quality of their completed Trackage Projects. Awards are limited to those agencies operating in the United States. The list obviously subjective, and is not necessarily in any specific order.

Utah Transit Authority: Small, knowledgeable staff, who have had to deal with unusual problems, but still remained consistent and fair. TRAX ridership is up, too.

Trinity Railway Express (TRE): When you see the "Rippers" for Worst Agency, you will wonder why TRE is top-five and the agency down the street is bottom-five. Almost everyone else wonders that, too.

Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink): Quality people, although there are lots of them. No major problems, an excellent outfit that sets an industry standard. And their ridership is up, too.

Regional Transportation District (Denver RTD): Major projects have been successful enough to convince even the voters! A few nit-picky issues from time to time, however.

Caltrain: Look what they have done in the past five years! They have gone from start-up to Baby Bullets and the upgraded trackage required for their operation.

Bubbling just under these Top Five: Portland Tri-Met.

To those involved with these agencies, congratulations! Your work, although perhaps underappreciated by your constituencies, has and should continue to result in quality work. Agreements and verifications are welcome! OK, even disagreements are welcome, too.

Look for the annual "Worst Agency Rippers" to be awarded soon.