I'd like to call the order of this meeting of the executive committee and
As board secretary for housekeeping
Certainly chair because we have board members participating virtually
We do have to do all votes by roll call each county will receive one vote and we do ask that those
Participating by a zoom use the hand raising feature so that the chair knows that they would like to speak and for those in the board
Please speak into the microphone and announce your name when motioning so that those participating virtually and
Streaming the meeting from home can hear you and that concludes housekeeping
Thank you very much next our safety briefing be given by BJ Takushi our senior manager of compliance
Good morning, everyone
So we're gonna start our safety briefing with the evacuation
So in case we do need to evacuate the building we can exit these double doors to my left
There's a set of a stairwell that will lead us down into the plaza area outside the building and will muster in the on the
right side of the building
In case there is an earthquake we are protocol is to drop cover and hold
in
Terms of CPR and first aid if it needs to be rendered. I've talked to officer or
Do know in the back and he'll be able to render that assistance and in case we need to call 911. I've asked
miss Pena to
In case there is an emergency, in case of an active shooter,
we will follow the mantra of run, hide, and fight.
Oh, yeah, yeah, and that concludes our safety briefing.
Thank you.
Thank you, BJ.
Next is our Pledge of Allegiance
and it'll be led by Vice Chair Chafee.
Thank you, roll call, please.
Vice Chair Chafee.
Second Vice Chair Bergson.
Here.
Director Tremblay.
Director Najarian, Chair McAllen.
Here.
We do have a quorum present.
Thank you very much.
Next is our public comment period for things not on the agenda.
Do we have any public comment?
We do.
I have received one written public comment and then we do have one request to speak from
the audience, so would you like me to read the public comment first?
Please.
Okay.
Good morning.
My name is Kyle Stafford and I have been a lifelong resident of Southern California.
Over the past 24 years I have lived, worked and studied in San Bernardino, Riverside
and Orange Counties.
I have used Metrolink to go to LA Union Station and LAX multiple times and have thoroughly
enjoyed using Metrolink.
I recently moved within walking distance of Santa Ana's Metrolink station and currently
work within biking distance of Riverside's Hunter Park slash UCR stop.
Recently I have looked into utilizing Metrolink trains to travel to work and have been disappointed
at Metrolink's schedule for the route.
When I looked further into the stations, I quickly became disappointed overall at services not focused on LA Union Station.
Trains conversing between Riverside and Santa Ana.
Two county seats are unrealistic for any large number of passengers to ride,
despite over 200,000 people traveling between both counties, according to data a decade old from the state.
The current schedule does not start early enough to arrive at work or late enough to return from work,
while most trains would route me through LA adding another hour to my travel.
Every day I see stop and go traffic along the 91 freeway and wonder how many cars could
be removed if a reliable train schedule was implemented.
As Metrolink and the world continue to adjust to a post-pandemic world, increasing frequency
between all counties can have the most impact on cost-effective mass transit.
Thank you for your time.
I got a public comment here.
We'll call up Elena Garza.
Hello, my name is Elena Garza.
My original dream was to be a locomotive engineer and that's still a dream, but currently I'm
a software programmer for pleasure and I studied transport throughout my life.
I never felt unsafe on the MetraLink system and it's actually one of the most difficult
systems to improve because it's already so great.
So I never felt unsafe, but I would like to suggest things to improve public perception
and image of safety because these two things are more persuasive than reality to the public.
One thing is to use voice of announcements 24 hours a day in stations to discourage sleeping
in the stations for those using them like residences and also to give the energy of
the station being active. CCTV and signs would also help. And signs informing customers of
the presence of CCTV would help those using the station feel safer. There are currently
CCTV cameras and television screens to show arrival times, and my suggestion is to link
the cameras to the television screens so that customers are aware of their surroundings.
Another suggestion is motion-activated lighting for the night and single seats.
Currently, there are many benches which are very practical for distribution of personal
belongings and the use of stations as personal residences.
Single seats, like the ones used in the big blue bus system, discourage the distribution
of personal belongings and encourage riders to use the seats to wait for the train, not
to live.
Armrests can both improve comfort and discourage the distribution of belongings.
I also would like to encourage more frequent fare inspection and enforcement if possible,
encouraging the conductors to cycle throughout the train more frequently
and use different doors as the staff door as they go through the train.
And finally, I know that this may not be practical currently or possible currently,
but I would like to suggest police for the train
because of the ubiquitous unruly passenger delays
which can cause issues with a line ahead being blocked
because of an unruly passenger
and this concludes my public comments for now.
Thank you very much.
Any other public comments?
We just have public comment for each item
later on in the meeting.
very good received any other requests to speak
very good we'll close the general public comment and go on to our calendar
approval of a meeting minutes for june 9th
you need to change those or make any comments on them if not is there a
motion chafee seconds we have a motion and a
second madam clerk would you call the roll
Vice Chair Chafee, second Vice Chair Bergson, director Tremblay, yes, Chair McCallin, yes, that
motion carried. Very good, on to our item 6B, a zero mission technical analysis and
Antelope Valley Line pilot next steps, it's a receive and file be presented by Michelle Stewart,
our senior manager of special projects locomotive fleet and facilities and a consultant from Hatch
Michelle TK, Michelle and you're on.
Thank you.
Good morning, Chair McCallum and executive committee members.
Since late 2021, staff with the help of our consultant team have undertaken extensive
zero emissions rail and supporting infrastructure market research, which included presentations
from manufacturers, discussions with industry groups, and engagement with agencies deploying
zero emissions rail equipment.
The project team then conducted technical analysis
of the applicability of these new technologies
to the Metrolink system.
This analysis has helped to inform Metrolink's planning
for the $10 million in state TIRCP funding
intended to support a pilot on the Antelope Valley line.
This has been an opportunity for staff
across several critical departments
to learn about the state of the art.
The findings of this research and analysis
are summarized in the Zero Missions Technical Analysis
report attached to the board item.
Today, I'm joined by Jeff Stastny from Hatch,
who is representing the Consultant Project Team,
and who worked to develop the technical analysis.
Jeff will now provide a brief overview
of the analysis conducted
and some highlights from the report.
Thank you, Michelle, committee members.
This time, Metrolink principally uses
diesel-electric locomotives with bi-level coaches,
or for the aero service at SBCTA,
multiple unit, two-car multiple unit. We've narrowed the study to four propulsion and
vehicle combinations based on viable current technology. Electrification and other options
were ruled out due to cost or other factors in this analysis. Four combinations were reviewed.
They were in the upper left corner there. A battery locomotive, a hydrogen fuel cell
locomotive in the right upper corner, a battery multiple unit in the lower left, and a hydrogen
fuel cell powered multiple unit in the lower right. Next slide please. For the combination
selected, the configuration of each was assessed. We configured the simulation for an apples
to apples approach based on transporting similar numbers of passengers. There were other differences
between the vehicle types that affected performance in the simulation, but these differences were
were part of what built up to our final results.
The configurations used were, as the one showing up there,
a locomotive with two existing bi-level coaches,
which has the flexibility of adding additional cars,
has compact train length, but heavier,
and, let's see if the slide will, thank you,
the multiple units, similar to the Aero DMU,
but with additional passionate cars for similar seating
to the locomotive pull train set.
this would be self-powered and semi-permanently connected.
In comparison to what you'd see with the aero car,
you would have two additional passenger car sections.
Next slide, please.
So the four combinations were run through
the Antelope Valley line conditions.
AVL was selected because funding for the study
was targeted for the AVL.
Also, AVL was considered a good test
compared to other lines in Metrolink's system,
as it is the worst case for slope and elevation gain,
3,000 feet, and length, 76 miles.
Next, thank you.
So the same relative results were achieved on simulations
that were performed for shorter runs on Antelope Valley,
LA Union Station to be a princess of it,
as well as on San Bernardino and Paris Valley lines.
The results for the AVL simulation, as shown in the slide,
were that a battery locomotive
could make one round trip, next please,
the battery multiple unit could only make a one-way trip,
that being because it has less capacity to carry batteries.
A hydrogen-powered locomotive, again,
with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell,
would be able to get one and a half round trips,
and for the hydrogen multiple unit,
you would be able to get one round trip.
So the next two slides lay out several key takeaways
from our technical analysis effort.
So first, zero emissions rail vehicles
operating without full electrification
are still really in a nascent state at this point,
so we feel that pilots and vehicle demonstration
is really needed to push this technology
towards commercialization.
Secondly, the useful life of rail rolling stock
is very long.
It's 25 to 30 plus years, and so it's much longer
than passenger vehicles as well as buses,
which means that there are fewer opportunities
for investment in replacement or iteration
to try to improve emissions.
This means there's also less incentive for manufacturers
to invest their own research and development dollars
in passenger rail given the market is very small
and it also has an infra frequency of equipment turnover.
As my strategy office colleagues
have already updated the board, previous meetings,
The carbon use locomotive regulation passed,
which will require the purchase
of zero emissions equipment starting in 2030.
The passage of this regulation makes the advancement
of zero emissions rail technology critical
because we need to ensure the viability
of alternatives to diesel equipment.
Finally, zero emissions transition will also be very costly
and it's currently unfunded.
There is limited funding available to advance pilots,
but full replacement of the diesel rolling stock fleet
will be very costly.
We can go to the next slide.
So there are some great opportunities
along with those challenges.
Metrolinx collaboration with other passenger rail agencies
on zero emissions planning,
as well as exploring of partnerships,
will really help to advance the state of technology
while also managing new technology risk.
We are excited to see SBCTA's pioneering hydrogen fuel cells
Zero Emissions Multiple Unit,
which will arrive stateside later this year.
And we're ultimately going to be operating that vehicle,
which will provide us opportunities to learn
and understand this new technology.
Additionally, Metro, in partnership with Metrolink,
secured $10 million in state funds
to support a pilot on the Antelope Valley line.
And we'll be talking about that
a little bit more on the following slide.
Bringing the Zero Emissions Technical Analysis
to the board will conclude this first milestone.
The next key step for Metrolink is to develop
a robust rail multiple unit implementation plan
for the Antelope Valley line.
This plan will provide the agency
with a comprehensive understanding of the improvements
needed to support multiple unit operation
on the legacy Metrolink system.
This implementation plan will be undertaken
in conjunction with a parallel effort
on the San Bernardino line.
And lastly, Metrolink will continue to have discussions
Caltrans and the California State Transportation Agency about potential
opportunities to host and test Caltrans procured equipment. This concludes our
presentation. Jeff and I are happy to address any questions you may have. Thank
you. Thank you very much. Any comments or questions from committee members?
Go ahead, Director Burks. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm just curious, you know, you're,
When you, the chart with the one round trip or one and a half round trips, what would,
I mean, you're talking about different types of fuel, so one's electric, one's hydrogen,
fuel cell, what's the recharge time or, you know, how long does it take to refill the
tank so to speak?
Alright, so, yeah, so with the battery powered vehicles, you're looking at running it and
then at the end station being able to charge it at some way.
There would be some in route recharging that can take place,
some braking and all that, that you can recover and recharge.
But generally what happens is you would run it and then you'd have
to have a charging station at wherever you were.
And that would be, there are different levels of charging you could do.
I would say the more, if you were to do, say even off of our cars run off a 480 voltage system
from the locomotives, if you're doing that
then you're looking at something around 10 hours
or something like that is what you're looking at.
If you're doing something for a substation
with a lower power capacity, there's different levels
of charging station too, but with a high capacity
you'd probably be somewhere around four to six hours
is something that you'd be looking at.
So you'd have to stagger it, you would stagger equipment
there so you had to charge one ready to go,
pull up to that station then charge again.
With hydrogen fuel, you're looking at something
that's in between the charging and a standard diesel refuel.
So it's a little bit longer time to refuel
than you would for a diesel locomotive,
but it's around the same time.
So you'd have quicker turnaround
if you had the refueling at the location where you needed it.
So it obviously becomes problematic
if you're trying to run a bunch of trains on a schedule
and you need to park it for four to six
or so many hours to recharge.
There was a slide you showed, I don't remember which one,
but it had to train cars, and one car had something
in the middle, a small little something.
Was that for fuel cell, or was that, yeah, on the bottom?
So, for this, the more commercially available vehicle
is something very similar to what Stadler's running
for the Arrow, and the way the car is designed is,
the power source for the car is in the middle car,
and then you have the operating cab on each end,
And then the longer cars you see there are mainly
for carrying the passengers themselves.
So when you look at the additional equipment you need,
so adding, so on this car, the standard one,
the diesel-powered one, in there you have a couple
of diesel-powered generators and fuel tanks that power
up the electrical for the motors underneath that car.
When you add a battery system to it,
You have the transfer equipment to take
wherever your battery is to your traction motors,
but you have to find a place to put all these additional
batteries to give you the fire.
And it's the same thing with hydrogen.
You're putting hydrogen cylinders inside that power car
that's in the middle of it.
So the reason where I'm going with this was,
I was curious if on that bottom picture,
if that's the battery pack, could you have extra battery
packs so that one is just sitting at the end of line waiting for you know a full
ones ready to go as soon as you get there you could swap it out maybe within
20 minutes versus five to six hours of waiting for it to recharge then it can
be recharging while you go on your path you know if we had all the a bunch of
extra battery packs at the end of lines or wherever it needs to be is that
Is that something that would make more feasibility?
Conceptually that's something that could be done.
And if you think to automotive, that's where they've talked about different things like
Tesla originally, I think was going to be pretty much a car with a battery pack you'd
pull up and drop off, swap out, and all that.
That is a way to do things.
Commercially it's not really something people have pursued yet with these vehicles, but
But it is an approach that could be more investigation into it and maybe that would be a way to speed
things up.
You know, if we're trying to get things on a good schedule, you've got to have a way
to make that happen and you can't have.
One of my biggest pet peeves is Southern California Edison and power safety shut offs in the summer
or when it's windy, you just can't rely on power to be there every second of the day
because a lot of times it's not.
And what are we gonna do if we need to recharge a train
to get it to the end of the day?
If we had backup to that, then at least we'd have
that security blanket, so to speak.
That's why I raised the question.
Well, it's obvious to me that the hydrogen fuel cell
is the only way to go, because the battery electric
locomotives are good in rail yards to move things around.
But for long haul, getting upgrades and so on, there's no way a battery locomotive is
going to provide the power or whatever that you need.
Whereas with- did you see with the test, the simulation that was done with the hydrogen
fuel cell, at least you get one round trip out, just like you would with the regular.
So a battery locomotive two car, maybe you get a round trip, I would say, but I think
with a hydrogen fuel cell, that's the only way to go for the future long-term.
Batteries are not going to be the way I keep pushing at AQMD that we need to go immediately
to hydrogen fuel cell because batteries, we're solving one problem by creating another.
What do you do with all these batteries when they're worn out?
So that's my view on the whole thing.
Other comments?
Dr. Chafee?
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I know I've heard about technology where the charging is done as you roll over a certain area.
And I hear it's getting more and more efficient as some European activities exploring that for automobiles.
So as you're going over whatever it is, a roadway,
there's chargers are in the roadway,
and it doesn't have to be an actual wired connection.
It just picks it up and goes into the battery.
I don't know if that's been explored or not.
You can look at this as a definitive thing.
So you have your battery charged up.
You take your run.
The battery runs out.
At the end, you charge it.
You can also look at its target of things
where you could do something,
you'd see that in some electrified bus type operations
where you set up so every station along the way
has something that would drop on and would bump charge.
So like your phone, you know, your phone's going down,
don't have enough time to do a full charge
but you plug it in and you get enough
to get you to the next spot.
So there are things like that that you can do
as well as doing targeted overhead catenary.
So you would be able to charge,
maybe you have an area where you had access
to a substation, you could put in the overhead power
and pull up your pentagraph and charge
for that period of time, that would be enough
to keep you going and you could do that.
But again, that's added infrastructure you have to put in
for those different charges.
Okay, yeah, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Any other comments from committee members, Arro?
Mr. Chair, just to take note,
that the city of Lancaster is very advanced
in their hydrogen use and their hydrogen technology.
So whereas other cities may be challenged
to find a source of hydrogen,
I think Lancaster, if I'm not mistaken,
is really at the cutting edge of that.
So that would be, I presume,
a readily available hydrogen source along that line,
just to keep that in the back of our minds
as we think about this process.
Are you got any other comments from our committee members?
We have public comment.
We do have a written public comment from Paul Dyson and two requests to speak.
Okay, because of time, I'm going to limit public comment to two minutes.
Okay.
So if you would go ahead and read the Dyson.
Okay, sure.
Rail pack, one, commends SCRRA for taking action to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of diesel power.
Two, agrees with the consultant report that the Antelope Valley Line is an extremely challenging route to conduct an early stage trial of alternatives.
Three, likewise we agree with the consultant and with the CEO of Eisenbahnen und Werkester.
Rakescher, Triebert, Elbe, Vaser, and Germany,
that hydrogen propulsion has many challenges
and especially for a heavily graded route like the AV line.
The German trials are still keeping a full set
of diesel-powered trains and have to use them regularly
when the H2 sets are unavailable.
Since 2017, Rail Pack has suggested converting
retired diesel locomotives to battery power
with a pantograph and pairing them with the diesel
to provide hybrid power.
The majority of fuel use and pollution occurs
starting from a standstill, and the battery boost would eliminate a large
measure of the exhaust. Five, stage two would involve the installation of
overhead cantonarian phases, especially on inclines and close to stations to
recharge the batteries, with the goal of eventually eliminating the need for the
diesel locomotive. Six, the above ideas greatly reduce the capital required as
it uses existing coaches, maintenance depots, and station platforms. Seven, we
also suggest using LA-US to Chatsworth for initial trials to take advantage of
So we are able to double track and much easier grades.
Thank you, Paul Dyson.
Very good.
Next public comment.
Elena Garza?
Elena, two minutes.
Hello, this is Elena.
I would like to make a suggestion for helping MetroLink
potentially save money if this change is required.
I believe that these are no longer capable of running, but these could be a good source of material and structured to re-power with a new source of energy.
but these could be a good source of material and structure to repower with a new source of fuel if required by legislation.
And my inspiration for this was the success with the bi-levels restoration by the Taogo S.Y.S.T.R.A. Consortium.
And I was able to see that a restoration of existing equipment was able to improve the rider experience significantly without requiring the purchase or manufacture of completely new vehicles.
One other suggestion is that coupling, moving power supply to the locomotive potentially
in a retired freight or passenger carriage may help extend the range for emergencies.
And one final comment here is that multiple units may be less customizable in length because
because of semi-permanent and all and now.
Thank you very much.
Since you have those comments written down,
if you would provide those to our secretary,
we would make sure that every member got a copy of it.
Next.
Hi, I'm Donald Harlan.
It's about the Zero Mission Program for Antelope Valley.
Sorry you know that battery power electric trains
aren't really gonna work.
Probably not for Antelope Valley.
and just so you know that cheap batteries tend to catch fire
and that, I'm not trying to say they're gonna start fires,
but I'm saying that they haven't really,
they don't really have the resources
to be doing something like that
and they're not gonna be able to afford the electric bill.
I wanted to also bring up that,
something else to consider that
there's gonna be a lot of money coming in
for high speed rail and I need you guys
to direct some of the money to, for a tunnel.
Under the mountains there, San Gabriel Mountains,
I need a 20 kilometer long tunnel from San Fernando Valley
or Santa Clarita Valley to Antelope Valley.
And you would need multiple rail lines,
one for the high speed, one for the metro and for freight rail.
So large size tunnel.
I'm tracking 20 kilometers through the mountain.
I need you guys to pull that together.
There's gonna be a lot of money coming in there,
and there's gonna be chances for it.
That's one big project that I hope that you guys get through
that would make it even possible to have electric trains
in the future that there would be a tunnel through there.
I would do a lot for the freight traffic, too.
And also, I want to consider that there's a lot of,
people trying to get rid of oil and gas and change the way the transportation system runs
and all that kind of stuff, and just so you know, I am a monopoly on that, and that also consider
that you can't sell a stock on a commodity.
It's more than just illegal.
It's more than just wrong.
Thank you for your comments.
This is a receiving file.
I want to thank you Michelle for your presentation and consultant for your presentation, thank you very much.
This is receiving file and without objection, that's what the committee will do.
Next we'll go on to 6C, our Public Outreach for Low Income Fair presented by Henning Eichler,
our Senior Manager of Market Insights and Analytics, Customer Experience.
Sylvia Novo...Nova...Nova?
Poetry Affairs Manager, Government and Community Relations.
Sorry about the name, ergo...Go ahead, Henning.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the committee.
We are here to present item 6C.
This is an action item.
Next slide, please.
On May the 26th, the board directed staff to initiate the public outreach
for the continuation of Metrolinx' low-income fair discount.
The 50% discount for low-income riders
was launched as a pilot
and is fully subsidized through LC Top grant funding.
Since then, the number of low-income riders
and the number of low-income tickets sold
has more than tripled and reached 10,532 in June.
That is a average 15% rate of growth per month.
If approved, the low income fair will
become part of Metrolinx's regular fair structure
with continued funding through LC Top.
And I'm also very pleased.
I've been authorized to share with you the new name
for this low fair program.
It will be known as mobility for all.
Next slide.
And as required, under Title VI, the authority has conducted a fair equity analysis for the
low-income fair.
No disparate impacts and no disproportionate burdens were found to exist as a result of
the discount.
And now, Metrolinx Public Affairs Manager, Sylvia Navour, will brief you on the public
outreach.
Thank you, Henning Committee.
Thank you for allowing me to speak to you quickly on the outreach that we've done.
done a pretty extensive outreach effort. Starting on May 26, the board directed us to start
the public outreach effort. And at that point, we opened up a web link with a survey in English
and in Spanish so that people could let us know what they thought of the low income fair
discount and if they approved and actually used it.
On June 21, 2023, we held a community meeting, a virtual community meeting where we encouraged
community members to ask questions and participate and let us know what their
thoughts were on the program. We had 12 people participating in the program and
they were all very excited, not surprisingly, about what it was that the
discount provided for them. We posted our ad, our information, on Nextdoor where we
currently have a universe of four million people. We had a number of people
who viewed it and commented on the efforts.
On July 28th, there will be a public hearing,
but we also notice that public hearing
in multiple languages, I think it's a total of 14 languages
that have been identified as languages
that are in our total service area.
We will be providing the final tally
on all comments received for the July 28th meeting,
And I do wanna note that these public outreach efforts
are in addition to the public outreach efforts
that we had started back in March of 2023.
If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
Thank you.
Any questions from committee members?
Say none.
Do we have any public comment?
We do have a request to speak
from Elena Garza on this item.
Very good, two minutes, Elena.
It is very important to increase awareness of discounts
because a low fare is better for MetroLink than no fare.
I would recommend the creation of an event general calendar
on the MetroLink website to assist
in the promotion of this and other programs
available to customers.
For example, public hearings, events like an event
which I attended at a locomotive exhibit in Irvine
in addition to board meetings.
This would make it easier for members of the community
to be aware of what is happening in their areas
and when, and be able to take advantage
of MetroLink events without needing to struggle.
A good example of a calendar on a public transport agency's website is on the metro website,
metro.net.
There is a calendar containing the aforementioned types of events, all in one location, making
it very convenient for members of the public to identify what events they may attend.
I suggest a calendar with a welcoming interface, consistent with the blue and white theme of
the sites, which I find to be very welcoming and user friendly, especially as someone who's
also a programmer of web software.
And I would also suggest promotion of this program through voice announcements, schedule
flyers and thank you very much appreciate your comments if this is an
action item what's the committee's pleasure your motion
I motion second Madam Clerk would you call the role I share chafee second vice
chair Bergson yes director Tremblay yes director Najarian yes chair McCallin
motion carried unanimously. Thank you Hennig and Celia, thank you very much.
Next we have a student adventure pass program which is a receiving file
presented by Amber Moyers our manager one of corporate partner program. Amber, if you're on.
Thank you Chair McAllen and members of the committee. Next slide please. As you know
we offer a 25% discount to students with a valid student ID. The discount can be
applied to any ticket type and is available on the Metrolink mobile app
as well as the ticket machines. Students currently account for only seventeen
point six of overall ridership and fifteen point seven percent of overall
revenue. But we know that the majority of students purchase one-way and round
trip tickets and thirty percent of seven day passes and monthly passes sales are
from students. With over 2.7 K through 12 students and 2 million college students enrolled
here in Southern California, students represent a tremendous opportunity for Metrolink to
gain new riders in the short term and retain those riders in the future as they graduate
and move into the workforce. Next slide please. We want to remove as many barriers as possible
for all students and make it easy for them to make the decision to choose to take Metrolink
by increasing the current student discount from 25% to 100%.
Like our current student discount,
it will be available to all students
with a valid student ID.
The Student Adventure Pass will be available at ticket machines
as well as the mobile app, and will
continue to include free connections and other benefits
such as rail to rail.
With the Student Adventure Pass, students
will have access to the entire system
and be able to take the train at any time for school, work,
at Leisure throughout Southern California.
Next slide, please.
The pilot program for the Student Adventure Pass
will benefit Metrolinx in several ways.
First, we will drive increased ridership
by attracting a large number of students
to take the train and help fill trains
during off-peak periods,
thereby reducing operational costs.
The Student Adventure Pass will build customer loyalty
and cultivate a new generation of riders.
When students have a positive experience
Metrolink, they will be more likely to take the train and continue using the
service in the future when they graduate and move into their workforce. The
Student Adventure Pass pilot program will highlight Metrolink's commitment to
supporting younger generations and the communities we serve, enhancing our brand
reputation and reputation excuse me an image. We'll also continue to build
collaborative partnerships with schools throughout Southern California to
to promote the program, driving further success
and building advocacy for continuation of the program.
Lastly, the student adventure paths
will provide valuable data and insights
about the ridership patterns, demand, and usage trends.
This information will help us make informed decisions
regarding service planning, resource allocation,
and future program enhancements.
Next slide, please.
In May, staff applied for a $4 million LC top grant.
Although we initially expected to receive grant approval
in July, staff has been in touch with the grantor
and we now anticipate receiving grant approval in August.
Upon approval, the pilot program will launch
on September 5th.
This pilot program will last for six months
or until funds are exhausted and is expected
to generate 1.23 million in ridership
and will have no impact on the budget.
Next slide please.
Staff expects to receive grant proven in August, and continues to plan and coordinate to ensure
we can successfully launch the program.
Staff has been working with our member agencies, and meeting with transit agencies throughout
the country to learn more about how they implement and fund their student pass programs.
This will better enable staff to make a recommendation on how to fund the program long term, once
the pilot program concludes.
At the conclusion of the pilot we will provide a comprehensive support to the board.
On this map we wanted to highlight just some of the colleges and universities we are partnering
with throughout Southern California to promote the student adventure pass.
I appreciate your time today and I would be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you very much and any questions, comments from committee members?
Seeing none, do we have public comment?
We do have a request to speak from Elena Garza on this item.
Elena, you have two minutes.
Promoting this program to students
is very important because students
are capable of promoting public transport to others
and talking about their experiences
changing misconceptions of public transport along the way.
Newer generations possess the ability to influence
the travel habits of the future.
On the orientation day of my first day of university,
there were 450 students.
And I was actually the only one
to take public transport back home.
I saw a stream of students going to the car park.
And I took the time to talk to some.
And what I discovered is that many do not drive,
but they feel stuck because they wait for others to take them
to desired destinations.
I would recommend contacting universities and schools directly
about the benefits available to students.
Some universities, including mine, include offices or committees
for alternate transport, which is what they call public transport.
And even if I wouldn't call it alternate transport, they do exist.
And it is something which you may want to look into.
Other suggestions for marketing Metrolink to students would be articles about how
to reach popular destinations like museums and concert halls.
Also, I would recommend highlighting key benefits like how frequently trains arrive on time
the restored by-level carriages, and free transfers to local transport system.
Thank you very much. This is a receiving file. Without objection, that's what the
committee will do. Thank you very much for your presentation. Next, we have
potential, let me ask a question. Can we pass these on to the board? We're running
out of time. Certainly Mr. Chair we can the what I'd like to do if we could is
under probably item 6f we that's a which is also a receiving file item but if
Michelle could speak to that very briefly do you have because you have you
have a report on that correct Michelle but other than that the rest of them
One could certainly go to straight to the board.
Next slide.
Thank you.
This item is a receiving file provided in compliance with AB 1234.
Director O'Connor attended the California Transit Association's Executive Committee meeting in spring legislative conference in Sacramento,
California from May 15th through 16th, the cost to the agency was $820.85, broken down as follows.
lodging, $100.89, ground transportation, $43.39,
flights, $407.96, registration, $260, meals, $8.61.
Thank you, Chair.
That concludes my report.
Thank you very much.
Is there any objection to moving the rest of the items directly to the board?
Seeing none, that's what the committee will do.
our next item is the Chief Executive Officer's report,
which will be very brief.
Yes, it will.
We, the board's aware of the fact
that we're gonna be able to restore service
through South Orange County, through San Clemente,
thanks to the good work of a number of players.
That service will be restored as of Monday the 17th.
And then secondly, really excited that we are working
with the Ventura County Transportation Commission
to extend service that goes into Ventura
all the way to the LA County Fairgrounds
to support the X Games Finals,
which are being competed at the Ventura County,
did I say LA County?
I'm sorry, Ventura, this is what happens when I have to rush.
The Ventura County Fairgrounds in the city of Ventura.
So looking forward to, exactly,
we're looking forward to providing
that additional level of service to Ventura County.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Committee members, comments?
Anyone have comments?
Really quickly, I wanted just to compliment
on that prior item the picture that
showed all of the mascots.
One is my alma mater.
And I leave you guessing.
My daughter also, then x number of years later,
graduated from that same one.
And my wife just graduated after going back
from another one that was on there.
So way to go, matadors.
way to go for my wife, Cal Poly Pomona.
I can vouch that my daughter used to take Metrolink
from Riverside back and forth,
so the fact the students can utilize a pass
that's not gonna cost them that will, I think,
help quite a bit to get that knowledge out.
That's all, thanks.
Anybody else?
Seeing none, I don't have any tears, comments,
except I'm glad to be back in the saddle.
hopefully the Lord will keep me there and I appreciate all the cards, comments, phone
calls as I've gone through this battle. Thank you all very much. With that, we are adjourned.
Thank you Mr. Chair.