Straight up so I'll call this meeting to order of the Metrolinx board of directors and ask for our safety briefing
From Frank Custio and our chief safety security and compliance officer. Go ahead Frank. Good morning. Good to see you again
So this morning, I will be providing your safety briefing in the event of a activation of a fire alarm
We were all uniformly and together
exit the building go down the stairs and stage in front of the Metro customer service awaiting further instruction from the fire department a
Rare event of an earthquake. We will drop and cover wait till the shaking stops and do an assessment to determine whether or not we will
conduct an evacuation
The event of a first aid situation. I'll be your first aid provider. I'll ask
the board secretary miss painting to contact 9-1-1 and
In the event of an active attacker. We do remind you run hide fight
That concludes this morning's safety briefing. Thank you.
Thank you, Frank. Next, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Paul Kakorian.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If you're able, please rise, face our flag, and mindful of the values
that it represents, join me in saying... Thank you. Madam Secretary, would you call the roll?
Certainly. Director Wapner, Director Dutray, Director Marquez, Vice Chair Chaffee,
Director Nguyen director Murphy second vice chair Bergson director Spiegel
director Middleton director Vargas director Tremblay director Chavez
director Barger yes director Corcoran director Najarian director Solis
director Hughes Leslie director O'Connor director Allen director Presiado
Chairman Cowan, we do have a quorum present. Thank you very much
next we'll go on to
Public comment on the consent calendar
We understand we have public comment. We do we'll call Donald Donald Harlan up to speak
You have three minutes on
the total consent calendar
Hi, I'm Donald Harlan
I I see that you guys want to restore regular and evening service to adult
valley lines train that would be great I'm totally in support of that I was
concerned about the regular calendar item 7a the billing for the storm damage
and the catastrophe caused by the collapse near the San Clemente track the
expenses and support required it says here there's something like 500 million
dollars going in there or something or it costs five million dollars to fix it
but just who to bill for that Metro link isn't to pay for that the people up on
the hill that cause the extra weight the illegal real estate developments on the
hill are to pay for that this storm damage I don't even know if their
insurance will cover it if they're not supposed to be there. And it's really easy to check
if it's real estate developed along the tracks, if they're supposed to be there or not, or
if it's mine or not. And based upon if they're not supposed to be there, or if they're promised
that's one thing, or if they're supposed to be there, it's another thing. But if they're
illegally there they're the ones who pay for that shouldn't be some politician
trying to get money or some people worried about their wedding chapel or
something you know they're gonna be the ones that pay for that I was concerned
about metric see who else pays for that there the developer the government who
endorsed that the builders the suppliers the banks all those people that funded
the real estate development on the Hill up about 7A.
I was concerned about, oh, consent calendar 12.
Sorry.
I was concerned about 12H, 12HIJ, KL, the contracts.
It seems that there's too many contracts
for controls for Metro Inc. that you guys,
under a pressure by political parties
or different groups to gain control of the rail systems
or the supply chains, and everybody wants a control system
in there, and you know what to do about those people.
Nobody can tell you guys what to do.
I'm directing you guys, not even the President
of the United States, Vice President, Attorney General,
cabinet member, none of them, transportation secretary.
None of them could tell you guys to install new controls.
You guys are supposed to have one control system and that's it.
And I'm concerned that there's too many contractors for it.
Seems like there's something else going on.
You know, they don't just sell your data in those companies.
They sell your identity, too.
We got to, I'm concerned about businesses with the cord label
on them or people that are cord.
Normally when something is identified as being cored,
it's being destroyed or hollowed out or eaten.
And I didn't want to hire people with companies
based upon that idea in metro or anywhere in the city.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Next we'll go on to our,
we need a vote on the consent calendar.
Second, Barger.
We have a motion and a second.
All those in favor, aye.
Any opposed?
Any abstentions?
Seeing none, that passes unanimously.
Under the regular calendar, seven a amendments
to the budget presented by Christine Wilson,
our senior manager of finance.
Good morning, Christine.
Good morning.
Your hair is so cute.
Well, thank you.
It's growing back.
You want to feel it?
It did really fast.
Good morning, Chairman McAllen, members of the board.
I am Chris Wilson, Senior Finance Manager,
presenting item number 7A.
This item requests amendment to the FY24 budget
as adopted in June 2023.
Next slide, please.
The first amendment item is to add cost
for enhancing service on the Antelope Valley line.
Your packet included details of service changes
in addition to current trains on the line.
This chart shows the revenue and expense
which would be added to the adopted budget
as a result of this service change.
It also displays the changes to the budget
as a result of added train miles for this service.
Because a number of allocations
are based on relative train miles,
When train miles are added to a particular line,
all other lines have a relatively smaller proportion
of the train lines and a relatively smaller proportion
of overall cost.
As you can see, the expense result is
that Metro's expenses increased
while all other member agencies' expenses are reduced.
Next slide, please.
The next two amendments relate to the San Clemente 1
and San Clemente 2 slide incidents.
The entire amount of these items are covered by OCTA
or California Department of Revenue.
We are moving previously approved,
but unused amounts from FY23 to FY24
for the continued monitoring and work on the two sites.
I might point, I wanna point out that there have been,
since the time of this item was brought,
A few more expenses were paid and as you know,
we haven't completely closed the books yet.
And actually, these amounts have now changed at this point
by us carrying forward instead of the 1588252,
we're gonna be carrying 1557288
because we paid more of the bills.
And in the case of the 488109,
it's gonna be slightly less,
it's gonna be 4887291.
Just wanted to make that point.
Next slide please.
Next, this is the settlement that's anticipated
for the Oxnard incident in the amount
of approximately 3.5 million.
The allocation for this expense is train miles lagged,
which means the last available actual train miles.
We have taken a five year average of train miles lag
to determine the percent to each member agency
and those amounts are shown on this chart.
Next slide please.
In summary, staff recommends that each
of the described amendments to the FY 24 budget be approved.
Funds will only be expended upon the appropriate approval
of member agencies.
Next slide please.
That concludes my report.
Can I answer any questions?
Thank you Kristin. Any questions? I'd like to make just a comment. First of all, I want to thank, I think I've thanked you 100 times, but I'll thank you 101 times, Darren and the staff for the work on this. You know, I think what makes it exciting for me is that I know that, you know, post-COVID, we've seen a change in ridership.
And I know that for the last 30 years we've had, you know, a system going in terms of how we do it.
And clearly this change is going to address what I see as a trend as it relates to those that are using our train.
And how we are going to modify our service delivery in response to the needs of the community.
So, I think it's important to recognize that this is going to be something that we're
doing to accommodate our ridership.
I know that we've talked about also collaborating with the local transportation to make sure
the bus service reflects the change.
I think that's important, again, looking to our ridership and responding to their needs.
I think that moving forward, it's going to be important for us to collect data to see
how this is working out, and then working with Metro, who I want to also thank for providing
the financial resources to expand on this, is going to tell us if we are on the right
track, so to speak.
So again, I know that this took a lot of work, and I just, again, want to thank you and
your staff. And then I would just ask, are we going to get quarterly data or feedback
in terms of the service level and the flexibility to make adjustments if need be?
Thank you, Director Barger. And my thanks back to you, because we wouldn't be going
down this path with this new approach to things were it not for your leadership and asking
for this. Short answer was through our quarterly updates, we will be providing ridership updates.
We always do that, also along with revenues.
We've built this schedule with an anticipation
of enhanced revenues, in fact.
So we will be tracking it quite closely,
and it will be very instructive for us
as we do start to look towards
this regional railroad model
versus the commuter railroad model.
And it will be instructive for us
as we look at next year's scheduling.
So to answer your question directly, yes,
we will be doing quarterly updates at minimum.
Okay, and then last but not least,
before I turn the mic over to my colleague,
I want to thank my fellow directors, Najari and Gregorian because this had to come to
Metro and the support that we had is what really brought it across the finish line,
so I want to thank you both for being such incredible colleagues in addressing this issue.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I just would like to build on those remarks.
I think it's very admirable and responsive to the requests of the commuters in the Antelope
Valley that we make these changes, it's really a great schedule if you look at
it, it's on the hour, well on the hour every hour, well on the hour every hour
but it's a regular hourly service at 39 after or 11 after depending
which way you're going and it's what they've been asking for for quite a
long time, think Marcia McLean who has been a constant advocate for this
service and let's hope that they use it let's hope that brings a lot of people
into our system that can then travel to all the other counties that we serve I
think we're really doing our part we will at the metro level be looking at
some adjustments we can make to mitigate the noise the horn noise etc we're gonna
have a motion coming up that that my colleagues are also co-sponsors of
because when anytime you add new service there are people who have been
disturbed by the existing service and they won't be happy with the extra
noise but we aren't ignoring those requests and those sensitivities so we're
going to be working on that. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Supervisor Spino. Can you go back to the
slide that had the Oxnard settlement? There it is. Yes that slide. Okay please
Okay, it's taking the five-year average of member agency percentages, okay, and then
all right, I just wanted to relook at that because it went by when I was trying to look
at that.
Okay, no one has a problem with that.
The next thing is it's in the agenda and I'm just curious what the reasoning of the person
and the budget committee said no on this budget.
They don't have to be the person here.
Right, yeah, so if I, Director Spiegel, there was a no vote from Director Nguyen from OCTA,
they had, OCTA had a proposed motion that would separate the two, two of the portions
of the amendment, San Clemente, Antelope Valley, have that go by itself, and then have Oxnard
be one that was treated separately and brought before the board separately and so I don't
certainly want to speak for Director Nguyen but I believe the no vote was the motion that
was made was for all three to go together.
And so the reason for the no vote was the OCT representative had desired for one of
them to go separately.
Interesting concept.
If I can add a drop to it just just a drop in this meeting
Mr. Chafee are you aware of that did he I'm just curious since that was oh
that's okay go ahead oh I was just gonna comment I mean I was in the room with
him during the discussion and there was some concern about wanting to have some
discussion around some of the communication back and forth as this
thing evolved subsequent to that the director had direct communication back
and forth with the CEO and and to the satisfaction of everybody involved so he
would not have moved that forward in a bifurcation today. He unfortunately lost
his father and the services are this weekend so I encouraged him to focus in
on the most important thing family and that I would represent him today. So keep
him in your thoughts and prayers this weekend if you would. Any other comments,
questions? Is there a second? We have a motion and a second. All in favor?
Any opposed?
Any objections, or abstentions?
Seeing none, it's unanimous.
Approval.
Next, we have changes to life, ADD,
and disability insurance benefits
presented by Roxanne Randolph,
our senior manager of human resources.
Roxanne.
Good morning, Chair McCallan and members of the board.
I'm reporting on item 7B, changes to life,
A, D, and D and disability insurance benefits.
Next slide please.
The authority provides basic life and A, D, and D insurance to eligible employees equal
to one times their annual salary up to a maximum of $250,000 per year.
Currently approximately six employees have an annual salary of more than the maximum.
Therefore, have a life and a D&D benefit amount of less than one times their annual salary.
Additionally, the authority provides long term disability insurance to eligible
employees which provides income replacement of 60% of
monthly earnings up to a maximum of $7,500 per month.
Currently, approximately 58 employees who earn more than $150,000 a year have a benefit
amount of less than 60% of their monthly earnings.
Next slide, please.
Therefore, staff is making the following recommendations.
Number one, increase the basic life in AD&D maximum benefit from $250,000 to $350,000.
With this proposed change, all eligible employees will have a benefit of one times their annual
salary for an estimated annual cost increase of approximately $2,508.
Number two, increase the long-term disability maximum benefit from $7,500 to $10,000 per
month.
With this proposed change, employees earning more than $150,000 per year, which is approximately
nearly 42 employees will have a benefit amount of 60 percent of their monthly earnings for
an estimated annual cost increase of approximately $10,428.
Number three, enter into an agreement with UNAM to provide individual disability insurance
for employees earning more than $200,000 per year.
With this proposed change, employees earning more than $200,000 per year, which is currently
16 employees, as well as the CEO, will have a benefit of 60% of their monthly earnings
for an estimated annual cost of approximately $23,890.
Next slide, please.
These proposed changes will help ensure that the authority's benefit plans are equitable
to all eligible employees.
The estimated total annual cost is approximately $37,000,
which is the total increase for supplemental benefits for 2024
due to other plans being under a rate guarantee.
The amount for which contract authority is requested
is included in the adopted operating budget for FY23-24.
I'd also like to add that at the e-comm meeting,
Chair McCowlin requested a comparison
of member agency benefits,
which is included as Attachment C in your packets.
Next slide, please.
Thank you very much.
I'm happy to answer any questions you have about this item.
Thank you, Roxanne.
I appreciate responding to my request.
And from my perspective, it appears
that the benefits across all the agencies
are really comparable.
So you have a question?
No, I just want to move the item.
We're going to move with the item.
Good.
Any questions?
Is there a second?
Second.
We have a motion to second.
Any objection to the motion?
Any abstentions?
Seeing none, that's approved unanimously.
Thank you.
Next, we have the financial results from the month ending
July 31, presented by Christine Wilson again,
our senior manager of finance.
Good morning, again.
This report presents the revenue, ridership,
and operating results for July 23,
the first month of our fiscal year.
Next slide, please.
This first slide shows actual ridership versus forecast for the past several months.
The forecast shown as the blue line is based on the forecast provided
to us by KPMG for use in FY24.
The green boxes are actuals.
As you can see, the forecast was conservative and for the month
of July the actual recovery is 44% while the forecast was 41%.
Next slide, please.
This slide shows our recovery over the last four years by month.
And once again, it shows that in July we are actually over what we forecasted
as being ridership.
Next slide, please.
This chart shows a fair box of revenue budget versus actual for the month of July.
Next slide.
These are the actual amounts that were over budget.
As you can see, revenue was budgeted at 2.6 million
or a 41% recovery whereas the actual revenue was 2.7 million
which is over budget by 102,000 and a 43% recovery.
Next slide please.
This slide shows the revenue by line compared to budget.
Next slide, please.
This slide shows the ridership versus actual.
As you can see, it's higher than the forecast.
Next slide, please.
This slide shows the actual amounts.
41% was what was forecast and 44% is the recovery.
Variants to the good over the forecast of 29,000 riders.
Next slide, please.
This shows the boardings by line.
Next slide.
Yeah, thank you.
Now on to the operating results.
The operating revenue at 4.5 million is $385,000 over plan.
Expense at 20 million point 7 is 3.9 million under plan.
You see listed here the major contributors
to being under budget.
This puts required support at 16.1 million
or 4.3 million under the budget.
Next slide, please.
Now on to Aero Service.
Next slide.
This slide shows the revenue and boardings for Aero Service
for the month of July, almost 19,000 in revenue
and 6.7 in boardings.
Next slide.
This shows an actual operating statement for Arrow service.
If you'll recall, the first three months of service, and we're going to be asking to
move to four months, are based on a continuing resolution to cover expenses.
San Bernardino requested that we defer adopting a budget and that budget should be adopted
in November of 23.
We've been working in collaboration with SBCTA
and that's their estimate of when
an actual budget will be adopted.
So showing on these, the revenue is 19,000.
Total expenses are .5 below the continuing resolution
and support is .5 below the plan.
That concludes my report.
May I answer any questions?
Any questions?
Mr. Chair, if I could just share one more piece
of good news.
this past Wednesday, we did break a post-pandemic record in ridership. We exceeded 20,000 riders
for a day. The only other time we've done that was one of our, I think it was Clean Air Day
last year where it was free. So on a non-free day, we have set a new record of post-pandemic. So
numbers are creeping up. You saw that in Christine's report that we're above forecast. I guess that
It helps when you forecast conservatively.
We have a better chance and things are making good progress.
But that news, Wednesdays have become our high day, just generally speaking.
And I think we're hearing that across the country as it relates to commutes and people
going into offices.
So in any event, good news story that we did set a new record.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Great.
Love good news.
This is a receiving file and without objection, that's what the order will be.
We'll go on to customer experience quarterly update presented by Scott Johnson, our Director
of Communications.
Scott?
Good morning, Chair and Board members.
Obviously, Chris and Darren have referenced it, but it's an agency-wide initiative to
increase ridership and provide outstanding customer experience.
We're excited to share that ridership in the fourth quarter reached 1.3 million boardings,
is an increase of 13.1% over the same period compared to 2022. It reflects a 17.1% increase
in weekday boardings and actually a 12.5% decrease in weekend boardings. The decrease
in weekend boardings are largely attributed to the track closures in San Clemente along
our Orange County and Inland Empire Orange County lines. Next slide please. Also during
In the fourth quarter, we completed a potential rider study.
The study included responses from approximately 3,500 potential riders, which identified barriers
to ridership.
We wanted to identify the issues that most commonly keep people from taking the train,
which would allow us to expand or initiate efforts to address those concerns.
As you can see, safety along our trains and our stations are of utmost importance to our
riders.
We acknowledge that some of our riders or some of the people who responded, maybe including
public transportation as a whole, along with Metrolink, but at the same time we recognize
those issues are real and we want to make certain that our riders are comfortable arriving
to our stations and boarding our trains.
Safety is and always has been Metrolink's top priority.
It is a multi-layered approach to safety resulting in an overall reduction of crime.
Also, the customer experience team is leveraging the research from this study and others to
deliver marketing and communication campaigns to drive ridership.
Next slide, please.
In the fourth quarter, we also promoted a pair of our free ride campaigns that Derek
had referenced prior to this item.
In April, we launched the Earth Day campaign that reached the previous high ridership of
20,846 boardings.
And then we also launched our summer travel campaign,
which included our bike-to-work week between May 15 and 19.
Following and during that promotion,
we saw an 11% increase in riders with bicycles
compared to 2022.
And then also as a part of our summer travel campaign,
we launched the summer day pass.
Sales exceeded last year's numbers between May and June
by nearly 70%.
Next slide, please.
That concludes our report.
There any questions, thank you Scott any questions of Scott
Seeing none. This is a receiving file and without objection. That's what we will do
Next is our September legislative update presented by Jeff Dunn our director of government and community relations
Good morning. Chair. McCall on members of the committee. Next slide, please
Starting with the local section dates for the Ventura County byline outreach meetings referenced in report are said
The meeting with city staff of VCL station cities and station adjacent cities is scheduled for October 17
Followed by an elected officials meeting whose jurisdictions include the VCL in both Ventura and LA County scheduled for October 24
Invitations to participants have been sent including to Metrolink board members who represent the areas served by the VCL
As with the San Bernardino bylined outreach meetings earlier this year
these meetings will focus on issues our communities indicate are important to them including planned and ongoing capital improvements to the line
quiet zone information and
assistance maintenance of way issues such as graffiti homelessness
Trespass and safety and efforts Metrolink has undertaken to expand its service and ridership
Among these Metrolink will share the message of its mobility for all fare program that provides deeply discounted fares for qualifying low-income
riders. We will also overview the student adventure pass MetroLink intends to
offer this fall that will provide free passes to students including high school,
trade school, community college, and university students which are paid for
by state grant funds. We will ask VCL communities to spread the message of
these MetroLink programs with appropriate materials and toolkits we
provide through their respective communications and social media
platforms as part of our broader strategy to inform the public about
about these exciting, fair products.
The effort, of course, seeks to continue
to expand our passenger base among these important
and underserved communities.
We will also use these meetings,
which are attended by our CEO,
executive and professional staff,
to listen to our communities,
to take action, to address community concerns
wherever possible.
We have found from the San Bernardino byline effort
that this outreach is a catalyst for better communication
and reciprocal action with our communities
strengthens our partnerships. We will report back to the board any significant
follow-up we undertake from these meetings. Next slide please. As included
in your report this year's state budget included a generous 5.1 billion dollars
for transit capital and operations funding. There has been an ongoing
process of communication between CalSTA and operators, culminating with recently
released CalST guidelines to govern the reporting and accountability provisions
from operators in order for these transit and operations funds to be released.
CTA has represented transit agencies statewide in the development of these guidelines to
ensure they are fair and safeguard the appropriate use of funds for intended purposes, both capital
and operating, without giving the authority to the state to pick and choose projects and
for agency-level use of these funds.
Again, I would remind, as we have previously reported, that any potential funding available
for Metrolink through this process would be distributed directly to the member agencies
then pass through to Metrolink based upon existing allocation provisions of law.
Metrolink is not a direct recipient of these funds.
In other state matters, I withdraw attention to our CEO's appearance before two state legislative
committees last month.
The state transportation subcommittee on low-sand rail corridor resiliency on August 15, and
the assembly select committee on regional transportation solutions at a field hearing
in Lancaster on August 25th.
CEO Mr. Kettle gave timely updates to both legislative bodies before the Senate Subcommittee
on the coordinated efforts of Metrolink, OCTA, and Losin to ensure the integrity of
the line in San Clemente, and to plan and prepare for future needs at this critical
juncture of our service.
And before the Assembly Select Committee on the efforts underway to enhance our service
to the Antelope Valley in the context of Metrolink's broader agency efforts to expand capacity
expand and enhance the network,
and recover and grow ridership.
Finally, in state matters,
the California Air Resources Board
has pushed back implementation
of the recently adopted in-use locomotive regulation
that we have reported on to you frequently in recent months,
by two years to January 1, 2026,
rather than January 1, 2024.
The staff has not been able to confirm
that the implementation of the CARB adopted
in use locomotive regulation was delayed
specifically due to freight railroad litigation
as was reported to the ECOM earlier this month.
But Metrolink has been working with CARB staff
on its alternative compliance plan
to comply with the regulation.
And now it has an additional two years
to continue work with staff to develop a feasible plan
to meet the ambitious emissions reduction goals
of the regulation.
We will keep you apprised as this process is ongoing.
beginning next month when staff will provide a more complete report on the
amended regulation. Next slide please. In federal matters, we have previous, as we
previously reported to you, there are significant funding differences between
the House and Senate T-Hud appropriations bills that will fund
transportation, including passenger rail for fiscal year 24-25. The Senate bill is
significantly more generous than the House bill, though both are funded below
authorized levels of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, passing
in 2021, which provided historic authorized investment levels to transportation.
As indicated in your report, there will need to be a continuing resolution passed by Congress
to provide status quo funding beyond the September 30 end of federal fiscal year to keep the
government running and allow time for Congress to reconcile differences between these and
the other appropriations bills.
Metrolink is sharing and affirming APTA's message to fully fund the IIJA authorized
amounts for transportation in the final appropriations bill.
We are engaged in this effort presently in two specific ways.
First, our CEO attended the national conference of the Commuter Rail Coalition just this week
in Chicago, where coordinated strategy sessions for advocacy to fully fund IIJE authorization
levels.
In this year's appropriations bill, including advocacy of full eligibility of Commuter Rail
within the CRISI grant program, a long-time Metrolink top priority were undertaken.
These messages will be carried by CRC to the Hill throughout the appropriations process.
MetroLink also participated this week in the California Transit Association federal advocacy
trip to Washington, D.C., where the same message advocating for full IIJA authorized funding
via the 24T HUD Appropriations Bill was delivered on behalf of the 225 transit agencies and
operators of CTA to key California congressional appropriators, both of its senators, appropriating
committee staff in both chambers, and at USDOT.
These efforts are well timed in advance of conference committee action taking place sometime
this year that will determine final funding levels of the transportation appropriations
bill eventually passing.
Additionally, Metrolink also met with California Senate and congressional offices to request
letters of support from Metrolinx application
to the Reconnecting Communities
and Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program
to be submitted at the end of the month
to provide $44.7 million of matching funds
needed to secure an additional eight tier four locomotives
to add to Metrolinx' current tier four fleet
and retire an equivalent number
of aging tier two locomotives.
Metrolinx has been already awarded $51.7 million
of state funds from the Carl Moore Grant Fund
purchase these locomotives, the acquisition of which will be critical to ensure that Metrolink
can meet the requirements of the aforementioned in use locomotive regulation.
Presently the Congress is far apart from passing a CR to extend funding of the federal government
beyond September 30. Both the House and Senate are done voting for the week, and though the
House is in recess subject to call of the Chair, it is clear there are not sufficient
votes at this juncture to pass a CR. From the meetings we took this week on the hill,
there was broad bipartisan and bicameral consensus that there would be a shutdown of unknown
duration on September 30. This makes timing of passage of the final transportation funding
legislation unknown, likely sometime this year, but stretching into early next year
is also a real possibility. It is important because the formula funding provided by this
legislation impacts Metrolinx overall budget for the fiscal year and thus
member agency contributions that also comprise the agency's budget. We will of
course keep you apprised of all relevant developments in future reporting. Thank
you for your time. This concludes my report and I'm happy to answer any
questions. Thank you Jeff for comprehensive report. Supervisor Spiegel. You ended on a
negative. You always should end on a positive, you just started with that and then built the other
stuff up. You look fantastic, is that right? Back to in the very beginning when you were
talking the student program, can you re-explain that? Was that for a specific area or was
that all students? Student Adventure Pass? Yeah, it's network wide and I'm not the expert
on this and we haven't rolled it out, but essentially, subject to the grant funding
that we're going to get from the state, from LC Tops, we'll be able eventually to offer
free student passes to university students and high school students, community college,
trade school, et cetera, system-wide.
Very exciting.
Okay, because I have a disadvantage and I'm thinking, wait a minute, that wouldn't be
system-wide if that was the criteria, so I wanted to make sure I heard that correctly.
And the other thing that came from that report is you were sure flying around places.
Director Spiegel, I was in Chicago, but Mr. Dunn was covering us in Washington, D.C.,
so I'm, yeah, absent cloning.
I can only do so much.
Where were you up and making some presentation?
Two committees.
Oh, that was some, that was just driving in the region, so that was in Lancaster.
I was in Sacramento, also.
See?
Yeah, I'm a busy, I'm a busy guy, yeah.
So we only talk to you see you without extras only three times a month one on a phone call and two is here, right? Yes
Jeff's job is to explain everything I have to do in my in those other moments. So which he does very well
Thank you
any other questions
Oh, I hate to go back to a negative but just for a moment
If in fact, there is a shutdown on the federal government
What impact, if any, would there be on our operations
and specifically thinking relative to Amtrak?
Absolutely none, unless it is of extreme duration.
There will be no impact to Metrolinx service
or to funding flow to the agency.
Or Amtrak's operations conducted?
Amtrak, I would assume not.
I'm not certain about that.
So Amtrak funding.
We'll do some homework and respond back
to that question directly.
Again, Amtrak operates off budget to a certain degree
from the federal government once the money's there,
so but let us do some homework
and we'll get a message out to the full board.
That would be great.
Thanks very much.
Any other questions?
Thank you, Jeff.
This is a receiving file and without objection,
that's what the order will be.
Next, always the highlight of any one of our meetings
as the chief executive officer's report.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I've asked him to address the recent ZEMU testing,
the testing of our Zero Emission Multiple Unit
that just happened also.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.
So a couple of items before we get into the slide deck.
I just wanna make a very quick introduction.
We had a chance to do this last,
during our committee meeting a couple of weeks ago,
but we have a new member of the MetroLink family here,
Angie Godines, our new assistant board secretary, has joined us.
She's a former employee of LA Metro.
So just a welcome to Angie, thank you for joining the MetroLink family.
Thank you.
I look forward to assisting you all.
To the chair's comments, I had communications with SBCTA leadership who were in Pueblo,
last week where that what I'll call is effectively the national test track for
rail equipment in this in the country and the new hydrogen fuel cell multiple
unit very similar to what we currently operate by diesel on the Aero service
those nine miles in San Bernardino was tested last week at full speed 79 miles
miles an hour. And so all the testing went very smoothly. Speeds were great. The energy
consumption model even performed better than had been anticipated. And that same vehicle
will be going to APTA, for those of you who may be going to the APTA annual conference
in Orlando, it will be on display there. And we expect to get it to the Aero maintenance
facility sometime right now, it's tentatively scheduled for April, at which
point it'll undergo some testing on the aero line service itself before it goes
into revenue operation. So very exciting time, again that zero emission multiple
unit hydrogen fuel cell, it will be the first operating in revenue service in
the country. So we are going to be testing something out on now that nine
mile corridor, and so far it is off to a positive start. So good news there.
Let's go ahead into the slide deck. During committees a couple weeks ago I
did inform all that were in attendance that a couple days later we were
going to have Trainfest at LA Union Station that was hosted by LA Metro,
ourselves, Amtrak. I don't know if anybody saw the reports on it. It was a
tremendous success. I and you can see in the bottom right corner of this
slideshow, that was the line that literally people waited in two hours to
be able to go up to the platforms to see our equipment. We had an F125, we had one
of our refurbished Bombardier cars as well as one of our cab cars. You can see
maintenance of way equipment there that was our equipment. I'm you know I'm a
bit biased but I believe we were the star of the show even if there was this
really cool old steam locomotive that was pretty cool too but I still think we
were the star of the show. Our staff was there my thanks to our operations team
that moved all this equipment in over the course of a Friday night and had it
on display for those couple of days where we did have staff actually
explaining to the public what that orange piece
of equipment does, and it was just a really great
celebration of trains in Southern California.
Union Station was beautiful, we had model railroaders there.
I got there around 8.30 for a press event.
The line that you see there actually had already gotten
to the point where it was gonna be over 30 minutes
to get to a platform, and that was an hour and a half
before the gates opened, so it was just a great event.
and I think we had our high weekend ridership days
on those two days as well, since the pandemic.
So a lot of positives there.
Next slide.
The day before that, we did have rail safety.
We start, well, we have rail safety month now,
and we're all gonna take a photo a little bit later
when we don our red and do our photo op
that I think Scott Johnson will be taking care of.
But we also had an opportunity to meet with first responders
with equipment out on the platform.
And we had a number of first responders
that attended and took training.
But we are in Rail Safety Month
and it's always something we try to emphasize.
Next slide.
As was mentioned by Mr. Dunn,
I was in Chicago earlier this week
for the Commuter Rail Coalition's annual conference,
which is hosted by our sister agencies.
METRA, the Chicago Commuter Railroad,
as well as the South Shore Line.
I know some of you may, I think Director O'Connor,
Director McCallin, it's not that far from Michigan,
so you might be familiar with the South Shore Line,
which is operated by the Northern Indiana
Transit Commuter District or something to that effect.
But in this photo is a couple of important people
from a Metrolink perspective.
FRA Chief Counsel Alison Ishihara-Folts.
She is, again, the Chief Counsel to FRA,
And there's a long standing relationship I've had with her prior to me joining Metrolink.
And then the other gentleman is Chuck Spitalnik, a name that some of you may know that have
been around for some time, but Chuck Spitalnik was one of our original, I'll call it, regulatory
lawyers that helped Metrolink in the negotiation of a number of our shared use agreements,
And as well as just other regulatory matters from, believe it or not dating back to 1989-1990,
he was recognized by the Commuter Rail Coalition as an unsung hero.
And so it was an opportunity to get a chance to be a part of that.
And see some truly impressive operations.
The Chicago Metra Commuter Rail System, 13 lines, 200 and something odd stations.
It was an impressive operation, beautiful facilities and all that being said, their
ridership recovery is about where we are.
You can have beautiful stuff at the same time we are all encountering this across the country.
It was something we all talked about at the event was how are we going to pivot to this
regional rail model like what we're talking about doing, we are doing with the Antelope
Valley line and what we want to do system-wide.
Next slide.
Clean Air Action Day events.
You can see this.
things coming up on October 3rd and October 4th. October 4th will be free ride day again
on the Metrolink system so maybe we can set another record there. You will note that there
is a social media toolkit that will be sent out to you in the not too distant future if
it hasn't already been done. It just, okay, alright, there we go. That's how efficient
we are to all of you. Next slide. Mr. Chair, there we go now. It was touched on this, Director
We are waiting on a announcement from Caltrans that the grant has been finally awarded.
You will see that the structure of this program is we'll go to all college students and high
school students, trade school, community college, universities with a valid ID, a student will
be able to acquire a ticket and ride our trains at no charge throughout our system, whether
it's for school or otherwise. It is funded from a LC Top grant. There will be two ways
that students will be able to get tickets. They'll either be able to go up to our ticket
vending machine or they will be able to sign up through our app with a .edu email address,
at which point they will receive tickets into their ticket wallet and all they would have
to do is to validate it. So excited about that. What we're hoping for, the plan is at
this point early October. I'm going to be careful with dates at this point because we
do have some ramp up time from a technology perspective. And so as soon as we get the
green light from the state on the grant approval, we would expect that the program will be in
place within seven to ten days from that. So stay tuned. You will hear about it as soon
as we get that information.
Next slide.
And there we go.
Mr. Chair, that concludes my report.
No UCLA on the previous slide.
I was going to put Big Blue up there,
but actually a big blue student, if you have an EDU, you can sign
up and we'll send even a student from the University
of Michigan a ticket.
Now, I don't know if they'll use it, but at least they would be able
to have it in their wallet.
Supervisor Speaker.
All over the student group
Bitch your pass
Now it's a scrap funding. It's for one year. What are we doing? Well? We have an allocation
I recall the exact dollar amount, but we it is it is being
Will be a pilot project for the life of the grant
We're hoping that it's in a great success and if it is
We work with whoever we need to work with to continue funding the program so we can continue
But I do think it's a real big part of our future,
because if we can capture this next generation,
and we capture this next generation
with this new regional rail passenger model,
so it's not just about the commute,
I think it'll be a double win.
So as long as the money will last, we will do it.
And we'll course work with member agencies
who do receive LC top money in their own right,
and use those funds for free transit passes
in probably almost all of your counties right now.
So if we can take advantage of that,
we will certainly work in that direction.
Anybody else, questions?
Let's see here.
All right, this is board member comment time.
Board members, want to comment?
Oh, Pam.
There she is.
Very good, very good.
Ryan?
After our committee meetings a couple of weeks ago,
I went up to extremely valuable for showing
how they remove a window in an emergency,
where the switches and knobs and buttons that they need to know about would be in place of some kind of, like I said, they went from the passenger cars all the way through the engine, walked through the engine, showed them all the blue hickies.
I read the two hickies.
And I got a great photo with myself and about 12 of them, but it was pretty interesting and very neat.
Anybody else?
Okay, we'll go on to Chair's comments.
I want to...
I have no comments other than that I want to adjourn this meeting in memory of Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Deputy, Ryan Clanken-Broomer.
He's a third generation L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy.
He dedicated eight years of service to his community and the profession he loved.
He was three years old and was fatally ambushed or executed while in his patrol cruiser outside
the Los Angeles Sheriff Department's Palmdale Station on September 16th.
We stand with his loved ones and men and women of the LA Sheriff Department in the wake of
this loss and adjourn this meeting and his memory.
Superfies your, would you like to comment?
Yeah, I would just like to say thank you
for recognizing and adjourning in his memory.
And this really is, hit our sheriff's department very hard,
but I think it's hit all law enforcement.
not only in the county, but I think throughout the state
and throughout the nation.
So I hope that you all keep his family
and his fiance of four days in your heart.
The funeral has been set, it's gonna be set downtown
in October and we'll just have to support them all.
And I would encourage you all to thank our men and women
in uniform each and every day
for the service that they provide.
into that we don't realize what what kind of dangers they put themselves in
to service and it's a tragedy four days after being, like I said, fatally ambushed
but really executed in my view. With that we will adjourn to closed session but
Before we go into closed session we will take a picture with everyone in red, reconvene
out of closed session and ask for the lawyer to tell us nothing to report.
With that we are adjourned.