SamTrans Scores Big At International Bus Competition

Team SamTrans went up against the big dogs and came away winners. The transit district’s team of bus operators and mechanics won a Grand Champion Award at the American Public Transportation Association’s International Bus Roadeo held May 4 in Nashville. The district placed second in the 32nd annual competition, only 3/100 of one percentage point behind Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Operator Edwin Freeman of South San Francisco came in third place, only four points shy of first place.

Mechanics Andrew McCambridge of Sunnyvale, Robert Santiago of Pacifica, and Ryan Plante of Fremont came in fifth out of 45 teams in the maintenance competition. The team also took first place for their work on a power-train from a diesel engine.

At the roadeo, bus operators maneuver a 40-foot bus through 11 practical driving situations set up on a timed course. Deductions are taken for errors, such as hitting cones, and for running over the allotted seven minutes. Drivers also are judged on their safety habits and smoothness of operation. Maintenance teams made up of three mechanics use state-of-the-art diagnostic tools to detect problems in a series of engine modules, “de-bug” a bus and take a written test.

This is the eighth time that Freeman has reached the international level of competition and the veteran operator had hoped that this was his year to be number one. At the end of the competition, Freeman was tied for second place. The judges turned to the rule book to determine the winner, using time to break the tie. Freeman took nine more seconds to finish the course.

To qualify to compete in the International Roadeo, SamTrans team members earned the best combined score at the local roadeo in August and the Regional Bus Roadeo on Oct. 21 in Sacramento.

The primary purpose of the roadeo is to promote safe driving practices. Measured by that yardstick, SamTrans is a winner. Last year, SamTrans bus operators drove more than 7 million miles. During that time, they drove half way to the moon, or 111,700 miles, without a preventable accident. The transit district’s 99 maintenance employees worked 146,000 hours with only four lost-time injuries.