Houston's Metro Named Best Transit Agency in North America

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Metro) is the recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Public Transportation System Achievement Award by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).

The national organization bestows the award annually to transit agencies in three categories.  Metro competed and won in the category for largest transit agencies, those which provide 20 million or more passenger trips annually. The award acknowledges transit accomplishments over the past three years.

"We're being recognized by our peers nationally for all our hard work and progress in all areas," said Metro Chairman Gilbert Garcia.  "I'm so excited that this will be the hallmark of the New Metro and it's a team effort."

"We have watched ridership increase system-wide for the past three years," said Metro President and CEO Tom Lambert.  "We have built new rail lines and provided new services. APTA  judged us over three years and determined this agency is delivering to the community travel choices that meet the standard of excellence and we're extremely proud."

Metro was judged on safety, operations and maintenance, customer service, financial management, sustainability, workforce development, attendance and employee costs, minority and women advancement, marketing, policy administration, and community relations.

Metro was also judged on quantitative measures including riders per hour and total passenger miles.

“Congratulations to Metro for winning the prestigious 2015 Outstanding Public Transportation System Achievement Award.  This means that Metro is the top large public transit system in North America,” said APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy.  “Metro has worked hard to transform and enlarge the reach of their system in a variety of ways. Metro employees and the residents of Houston should be very proud of Metro.”