Driven to Be the Best, 2 Are Honored by the RTD

Ask Blue Line Train operator Thurmon Green about his world, and he’ll describe a solitary job--just one man, one control panel and a lot of attention to 100 tons of rail car steel and passengers he guides from Long Beach to downtown.

“You’re in the cab by yourself for a reason,” he said Tuesday at an awards luncheon downtown, where he was named Metro Rail Train Operator of the Year. Green, 48, was honored for having a better safety record and more passenger commendations than his 28 peers.

“It’s impossible to bring a hundred tons to a standstill in just a flash,” he said. “So you want to be concentrating 110%.”

On the streets, it’s another world.

Doris Harris beat 4,500 peers to become RTD’s Bus Operator of the Year. She was honored for her stellar performance last year on Line 206, which cuts through the heart of South Los Angeles on Normandie Avenue, stretching north to Hollywood. She does three round trips daily.

Harris constantly fields questions from passengers, navigates around obstacles dotting her 17-mile route, and sticks to a tight schedule. She spends time observing life, too.

“The windshield is like one big moving camera,” said Harris, 49. “You see people doing everything.”

She’s been “mooned” by youths, lunged at by a wayward mental patient, and startled by a bellowing passenger in a gorilla suit.

The youths she just laughed at. The mental patient, who took offense when she told him to get off at the end of the line, retreated when Harris barked: “Buddy, this is your stop!”

As for the man in the gorilla suit, she waited for him to stop beating his chest, then replied, “The fare’s 50 cents. He busted up laughing.”

The winners each received a trophy and $1,000. The awards luncheon was sponsored by the Los Angeles Rapid Transit District.