Just given the green light good morning everybody welcome to Metro link audit and finance committee meeting February 9th
2024
Call the meeting to order at 9 a.m.
Frank Castellan chief safety security and compliance officer will give us our safety briefing, please
Morning director Burke's and committee members both present and remote as a reminder invent a fire alarm activation
We're going to exit the building uniformly.
We're going to stage outside and away from the building by metro customer service and
await the all clear or further instructions.
If we have an earthquake, we're going to drop, take cover, wait until the shaking stops,
and then do an assessment of whether or not we want to evacuate the building.
The event of a situation requiring first aid, I will be your first aid provider.
I will ask Ms. Peña to contact Metro Security Front Desk and alert EMS.
And then finally, as a reminder, in the event of an active attacker type situation, we advise
you to run high fight.
Hopefully the rain has not impacted you too bad in slides, et cetera.
But as we recover here, we look forward to a nice weekend and whatever team you're rooting
for, I hope the best for you.
Very neutral footing there, I see.
Thank you.
the Pledge of Allegiance. I'll ask our general counsel to Don Del Rio to lead us in the pledge.
Thank you for that. Item number four is our roll call, Madam Clerk.
Director Middleton, Vice Chair McCallin. Here. Director DeTrey. Here. Director Nguyen.
Director Murphy. Here. Director Tremblay. Here. Director Corcoran. Director Najarian. Here.
Director O'Connor, Director Hughes-Leslie,
Chair Burksen, we do have a quorum present.
Excellent.
All right, very good. Thank you. Do we have any public comments today?
I do not have any requests to speak, but I do have a written public comment
from Lucas Chang that I will email to the Audit and Finance Committee after this because it's a little bit lengthy.
Okay, very good.
we will move to the regular calendar approval of the minutes for January 12th 2020 force audit and finance committee any of my
colleagues either on zoom or here have any comments or questions or want any revisions on that
Seeing none. Do we have any public comments on this item?
Seeing none. Do we have a motion to approve?
move approval Murphy
We do have a motion in a second because we have zoom we will be doing roll call for everything today
So madam clerk and we please have a roll call
certainly
Vice chairman Callan. Yes director Murphy
Yes, director Tremblay
abstain
director Najarian
On here. No one else from LA is here
You are the voting member right now. Yes. Okay. Yes
Chair Bergson, yes that motion carried with director Tremblay abstaining
Excellent. Okay
We are moving to item 6b
adoption of investment policy 2024 presented by Vivian Avila senior manager of finance
Good morning committee members and chairman. Next slide, please
The California government code states the treasures or chief financial officers may provide an annual revision of their investment policy to their governing
their governing bodies. For further clarification, Metrolinx current
investment policy requires that annual revision. Secondly, a further code section
allows the governing body to delegate investing authority to the treasurer for
periods of one year. Given that background, the purpose of this agenda
item is for the committee to recommend that the board approves the annual
investment policy revision and two, for the committee to recommend that the
the board approves the delegation of the treasurer role
to our CFO for an additional one year period.
Next slide please.
Regarding the updates to the proposed investment policy,
no material changes or changes
to permitted investments have been proposed.
The extent of the changes is to provide
clarification of language and definitions relating
to reporting and investing requirements.
The changes staff has proposed result
from a fairly comprehensive review of code regulations
and interpretive guidance documents published every year
by the California Treasurer's Office.
And the proposed policy is fully compliant
with code regulations.
Next slide, please.
This is a brief summary of the areas
that staff reviewed and proposed changes.
We strengthened and clarified reporting requirements,
permitted investments and diversification guidelines,
the use of derivatives, financial derivatives,
and also clarified financial benchmarks for performance.
Next slide, please.
So in conclusion, staff is requesting
that committee approve and forward to the board
the two items, which are designation of the CFO
as treasurer for an additional year
and the approval of the proposed
investment policy annual revision.
And that concludes my presentation.
I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you very much for the report.
Do we have any questions from any members of the committee?
Anybody on Zoom?
Mr. Chair?
Yes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And I realize that I'm on the rookie on the committee here.
I do have a specific, a couple of questions
regarding the investment policy, the red line version.
And I recognize fully that our policy needs
to be consistent with Government Code Section 53-646, because that's what's required.
But I'm curious, on Page 10 of the red line, and I don't know if you can put anything up
on the screen right now, but there is a matrix that is utilized, and it indicates that the
investments are compared, what staff did was to compare the MetroLink investment policy
to the code, which I interpret to be the government code provisions on this. And it says that
they compared the concentration to the code allowed concentrations. And what I took that
to mean is that with respect to any of these particular instruments, there's a percentage
from a diversification standpoint that's permitted under our policy.
So my question is with respect, it appears that we've added at least one instrument
in, which is a collateralized bank deposit with code-qualified institutions.
But am I reading this correctly in that we could conceivably invest up to 100 percent
of our available investment funds
in collateralized bank deposits?
Yes, that's correct.
Do you think, so let me raise this as a policy
because with my city, for example,
we do not allow specific,
we don't allow total agency investments
to exceed 75% of the portfolio.
We don't allow any investments in any particular instrument
to exceed X%.
We don't allow up to 100%.
So conceivably, we could, Metrolinx, if this is adopted,
could put all of its investments
in collateralized bank deposits.
I guess what I'm asking is, do you think that
that's a good idea, or should,
from a diversification standpoint,
we indicate that only a certain percentage
should be in any one instrument?
So the nature of collateralized bank deposits?
Vivian, if you could face this way,
I think cameras cover that.
It's total natural tendency to look back at the screen
that's behind you, but go ahead and face the dice.
Thank you.
Right, so in the hierarchy of permitted investments,
collateralized bank deposits are of the highest safety
and security as it descends from there.
There are, we're talking about investments
that are subject to market fluctuations,
fair market value adjustments, and lack of collateralization.
And so I understand the question regarding 100%
within one category, but collateralized bank deposits
are with their qualifications in terms of the banks
that we can place them with.
They have to be qualified financial institutions
and furthermore the code provides
for collateralization requirements.
All banks have to provide 110% collateral
in the highest caliber of government-rated agency securities.
The bank deposits are all of our institutions participate in a federal program to have this
collateral level for local agencies, and these are liquid on-demand deposits that have stable
market value.
understanding diversification bank deposits are typically viewed as the
safest and and reasonably at 100% of our portfolio holdings. Thank you for Mr.
Chair. Thank thank you for that answer. I appreciate it. I think agents public
agencies tend to do it differently. There's there are different practices
practices by I understand and I understand the I understand the collateralized nature
of bank deposits and that particular instrument under the government code because I've had
clients utilize that before and I understand that they have to put in 110% in the securities
pool.
It's just in my experience it's a little unusual to find that any one instrument that
an agency can put up to 100% of its funds in any one instrument.
But given that, for example, U.S. Treasuries and collateralized bank deposits are fully
secured, I don't think it's an issue, but it still is, I guess, of some concern to me
from a diversification standpoint.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for that comment, Mr. Rookie.
Yeah, right.
Do we have any other comments?
Okay.
Do we have any public comments on this item?
We've not received any written public comments or any requests to speak.
Any members from the audience wishing to speak?
Larry McCallin has questions or comments?
No, I'm just going to move the item.
Okay, we do have a motion to move the item.
Do we have a second?
Second.
And Mr. Najarian is the second.
So maybe we please have a roll call.
Vice Chair McCallin?
Yes.
Director Murphy?
Yes.
Director Tremblay?
Yes.
Director Najarian?
Yes.
Chair Burksen?
Yes.
motion carried unanimously.
Thank you very much.
Item 6C is the fiscal year 2023, 2024 quarterly accounts
receivable status report, quarter ended December 31st, 2023.
This will be presented by Vivian Avila,
Senior Manager of Finance.
Welcome back.
Good morning, committee members and chair.
Next slide.
This slide shows our total billed receivables
of $22.3 million at December 31st, 2023,
which compares to 44.3 million in the prior quarter.
A further note is that past due receivables declined
from 34.4 million in September
to only 11.3 million in December.
The significant reduction is due
to strong collections activity,
particularly on member agency support receivables.
Staff worked with our member agencies
to collect nearly all Q1 and Q2 member support receivables
within the quarter, and this followed the conclusion
of the MOU process for fiscal year 24.
Next slide please.
This last slide is a graph of the 11.3 million
in past de-receivables by entity as of December 31st
to highlight a few items.
The OCTA past dues are related
to the San Clemente emergency projects,
and since the date of this report,
We've resolved and collected 2.4 million
and have a commitment for the balance to be paid next week.
The VCTC receivables are primarily
member support receivables from Q1 and Q2
and they remain outstanding.
Our score receivables passed due were 2.1 million
and those have increased slightly to 3.3 million in January.
We continue to work on a very regular basis
with our partners at Caltrans to resolve
some transitional issues occurring there
that have resulted in some past dues this fiscal year.
The LA Metro receivable of 1.1 relates to a capital program
receipt under one of our many MOU agreements
that we've since resolved and have received payment for.
And the other items are not overly significant
and we're working those in due course.
So that's the end of my presentation.
happy to answer any questions. All right well that's good news all around from the member agencies
and staff and getting all those MOUs resolved so that payments could be made and I'm glad that is
behind us. Do we have any other comments or questions from any colleagues here? Mr. Chair
yes please go ahead. Yes thank you appreciate the comments and also the extra efforts put together
since OCTA finds themselves sometimes on the highlight of that over overdue category accounts
receivable category. I just I wanted to also point out that you know all the agencies I'm sure work
towards timely invoice payments and I wonder if there is any process piece that we can look at
so as to better reflect the level of effort required in the reporting than what we've seen before,
because it seems as though we're always sort of chasing the accounts receivable to a certain
extent. I'm not an accountant by trade nor did I ever play one on TV, so I'm not sure what that
recommendation is, but I just wanted to highlight it because I'm sure none of the agencies like to
to be featured on that particular list.
But sometimes the level of detail requires that
in terms of audit purposes, source of funds, et cetera.
So those are my comments, Mr. Chair.
Thanks again for the extra efforts from staffs
to reduce that number certainly dramatically
versus where it's been.
And thank you for your comments, we appreciate that.
Did we have any public comments?
I've not received any written public comments
or any requests to speak on this item.
Okay, I'm not seeing any raised hands.
Look at this, we've got a full bench up here.
Welcome.
All right.
With that, we are looking for a motion to approve.
Oh, I apologize, this is just a receiving file.
I take that back.
So, with that said, we will receive and file this
unless there's any objection.
Not seeing any, that will be the order.
Item 6D is fiscal year 2023-2024,
preliminary quarterly investment report
for the quarter ended December 31st, 2023.
This will also be a receiving file.
And again, Vivian Avila, Senior Manager of Finance,
will be reporting.
Good morning, once again.
Next slide, please.
This is a summary of our cash and investments
as of December 31st, 2023.
Total cash was at 183.4 million,
which is a $26.3 million increase from the prior quarter.
The primary reasons for the increase
were the strong cash collections and reduction
of accounts receivable that resulted from the payment
of past due member agency receivables
that I had spoke about previously
that had been delayed by the MOU agreement process.
The outline box on the slide is shown
to highlight attention on the portion of our cash
that represents liquid on demand funds,
which is 132 million versus those restricted
or reserved for other funding purposes.
Next slide please.
So this slide breaks down our liquid funds
and shows a four month history of our cash balances.
On the far right hand column for December,
the committee will see that Metrolink had 132 million
in our financial institutions
that were on demand liquid funds.
However, the authority prudently manages its liquidity
to consider third-party claims on cash that we hold,
which includes member agency surpluses,
preventive maintenance funds we have drawn on their behalf,
as well as significant advances
for third-party capital agreements.
As these claims are subject to refund
and are appropriately classified
as liabilities on our balance sheet,
we do not include these claims as available cash
as we define and report on our monthly and quarterly reports.
So at the end of December, the authority had 52 million in available cash,
which is above the required reporting threshold.
Next slide.
This slide shows interest income received for the most recent two quarters.
Metrolink received $957,000 in cash interest, which is more or less flat to the previous quarter.
Interest rates have stopped their very dramatic rise, and therefore we're seeing a plateau
in the growth of our interest income,
but still a very strong number
at close to a million dollars for the quarter.
Next slide.
This slide covers required disclosures
that the authority has to report.
The first two requirements are mandated by the code.
The first is that all local agencies must report
whether we are in compliance with our investment policy,
and the second, the code requires us to include a statement
in our quarterly investment report,
denoting the ability of the agency to meet its expenditures for the next six months and if not to provide an explanation to the governing body
These are code requirements mandated by the state
Metrolinx investment policy further requires that at each month end
Staff must report that if the projected cash balance will fall below 50 million for more than two
Consecutive months it will notify the board
so next slide
So, in terms of how we fared against the compliance reporting, number one, as far as
compliance with investment policy, there are no known instances of noncompliance.
Two, staff cannot confirm sufficiency to fund the next six months of expenditures due primarily
to the fact that while adequate funds are budgeted and sourced for operations, these
funds are also leveraged to fund our capital program. And secondly, a portion of operations
funding provided is currently derived from external grants where the timing may be delayed
and cash collection timing is uncertain. On the last provision, which is a monthly reporting
requirement, staff did notify the board as required throughout the quarter of available
balances as they fell below $50 million. In conclusion, the December month unbalance has
returned above $50 million as has the estimated preliminary January balance at this point.
That concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you very much on that. Do we have any questions from any of my colleagues here?
Larry McCalen, please go ahead. Thank you. No questions. I just wanted to
complement staff on this detailed report. I've heard a lot of the investment
reports over the years and they've been given short shift and I think that this
the detail that's provided here is very helpful. Thank you very much.
I had one comment, an observation. We're at 52 million in the cash unrestricted
funds, which is just over the threshold and as you reported on the prior item,
our receivables are really almost all under control.
Are we in any jeopardy of dropping back below
that 50 million threshold in the near future?
So I can tell you in January we moved up
into the 70s range, it's all preliminary at this point.
That was because we started to see an inflow
of member support receivables for Q3.
So I don't see an issue in January and February.
Beyond there, the concern that I would have
is that there's a portion of member support receivables,
I believe it's about 25 million,
that is where the funding source
is related to external grants,
preventive maintenance grants, CMAC grants.
And the concern there is while both grants are executed,
It takes, those are on a reimbursement basis.
So it takes time for us to incur the expenses,
process that, pay, and then of course,
submit it to the grantor.
So I would have some concerns as we sort of reach
the back end of the year,
as those grant funded member support payments
have been back ended.
So I would have concern going into the spring months
that we're gonna drop below 50 million,
but we'll be working and advising as efficiently
as we can on that progress.
Well, at least we'll get another quarterly update
before we get there, so, okay.
At least nothing in the right near future,
so that much I was concerned about,
but now you say we're at about 70,
so that's a much bigger cushion.
It was in January, in January.
That's a bigger cushion, so.
All right, thank you for that.
Any public comments on this item?
All right, this is a receive and file item,
So unless there's any objection,
we will go ahead and receive and file.
And we will move to item 6E,
which is the fiscal year 2023-24
quarterly fuel purchase program update quarter ending
December 31st, 2023, being presented by Arnold Hackett,
the Chief Financial Officer.
Good morning, Chair Burksen and members of the committee.
I'm Arnold Hackett, Chief Financial Officer.
This is a receive and file report
for the FY 24 second quarter fuel program,
fuel purchase program.
As a reminder, typically Alex Barber is here.
He's with his son on a field trip, so he's not here.
But he wanted me to remind everyone
that the purpose of the fuel hedge is to minimize risk
resulting from the purchase of fuel on a spot basis
and to seek an overall lower fuel cost in the long term
while managing risk.
Next slide please.
So as of December 31st, 2023,
the authority's hedging account had a value of 13.6 million.
That's a decrease of 1.3 million from September of 2023.
This includes interest totaling $159,000
earned for the quarter.
So any monies we have sitting in the hedge,
we are earning interest now.
We've made sure we put that in a T-bill
And we're making sure we earn interest
and it's not just sitting there.
So this concludes my presentation.
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you for the report.
Do we have any questions from any committee members?
Seeing none, do we have any public comments?
No?
All right, this is receive and file.
And without objection, that will be the order.
Okay, item 6F, fiscal year 2024, financial results
for the six months ended December 31st, 2023,
ridership revenue and operating results,
presented by Christine Wilson,
excuse me, Christine Wilson, Senior Finance Manager.
Good morning, Chairman Bergson and members of the committee.
I am presenting item number 6F,
which is the revenue, ridership, and financial results
for the six months ended December 31st, 2023.
Next slide, please.
This slide is a visual depiction of our progress
in regaining ridership and adhering to forecast
during the past year.
The green columns are actual
while the blue line is the forecast.
The ridership includes the student adventure pass.
Our recovery in the month of December
as compared to December of 2018 was 41%.
This recovery decline from prior months
was primarily the result of holidays
and our system-wide shutdown at the end of December.
Next slide please.
You see here a chart depiction of our revenue thus far in FY24.
Once again, the green columns are the actual revenue while the blue line is the budget.
As I mentioned earlier, the December decline is primarily the result
of holidays and our system-wide shutdown.
Next slide please.
These are the actual fare box revenue amounts for the fiscal year shown by month.
Year to date, through December, total farebox revenue was budgeted at 17.0 million, or a
44% recovery, while actual farebox revenue is 18.5 million, or a 48% recovery, over budget
by 1.5 million.
In the month of December, the student pass activity contributed 480,000.
Year to date, the student adventure pass contributed 2.2 million.
Next slide.
As you see here, the ridership follows the same trend as the revenue with December down.
Next slide, please.
The ridership numbers are shown here.
The year to date forecast through December is 2.6 million riders or a 43 percent recovery.
The actual ridership through December is 2.9 million or a 49 percent recovery.
Operating ridership over forecast by 33,000.
The ridership includes student adventure pass with total 67.5 thousand in December and 328,000
year to date.
Next slide, please.
Now the operating statement, through the first six months of the fiscal year.
Operating revenue is 30.8 million or 4.5 million over plan.
are 136.6 million or 15.3 million below plan.
We show here some of the large items currently under budget.
I would like to strongly caution that these amounts are based
on accruals, not actuals,
and that many items may not be expended till the near the end
of the year.
Next slide, please.
These slides show the operating statement in detail.
First is revenue.
Significantly, the student adventure pass reflects 13 percent of the pro forma fair
box revenue as you see there, 2.2 million.
The large amount you see in other revenues is generated by improved interest earnings,
which we could not forecast at the time the budget was constructed.
Next slide.
As you see, the train operation's portion of expense
is under plan by 7.1 million.
Next slide.
Maintenance away is under by 1.1 million.
Administration and services under by 5.8 million.
And insurance is under by 1.2 million.
Next slide.
You'll notice he made some changes
to the operating statement to more closely track
results of various unbudgeted special trains. The holiday train is showing a
profit of 28,000 but remember because these trains were run in December not
all the information is in yet. The insomniac trains are also showing a
positive number. At the bottom you will see you'll see we are currently showing
a 19 million dollar surplus actually 16 million after the settlements expense.
Once again, remember these are our corrals.
Next slide.
Here we show, well, I'll go past these slides
because Vivian has made a really complete report on these.
Next slide.
Next slide.
Now we're to AeroService.
Next slide.
Fairbox revenue year-to-date
for AeroService is 115,000 with 14,000 contributed
by the Student Adventure Pass.
Ridership is $49,000 with $10,000 coming
from the Student Adventure Pass.
Next slide.
The Arrow Operating Statement shows 121,000
in operating revenue, $6 million in expense,
which is $3.3 million below the continuing resolution.
The amount SPCTA has presented to their Board
for Aero Service is $15 million for expense.
This is more than sufficient so they have made the decision
that they will stay on the resolution for FY24
and bring a regular budget in FY25.
Next slide please.
The FY25 budget status.
Next slide.
We have the first, this slide shows our schedule.
And in brief, we have the first drafts
of our proposed budget for FY25.
and the Metrolinx CFO will be scheduling meetings
over the next two weeks to discuss the FY25 budget
with each of the member agency CFOs.
Next slide.
These are a list of the assumptions which were used
in the proposed FY25 operating budget.
The first one says the service level, current or optimized.
Well, we've also produced a hybrid budget
with the service from July to September
on our current schedule with the optimized service schedule beginning in October.
For revenue, we will be using the Sperry Capital forecast.
There'll be no fair increases.
There'll be some new fair promotions.
Mobility for all program will continue.
The program which is a question at this point is the Student Adventure Pass.
We currently have funding for this program through the end of the current academic year,
but not for FY25.
We are seeking funding and will continue to try to identify funding, including working
with member agencies to continue this very important program.
We believe that in addition to being highly successful, it is the groundwork for our future
success.
Expenses?
Contractor increases only as mandated by agreements, no new FTE head counts, 3% mirror, 3% COLA,
and ARRO will be a separate budget.
Next slide.
That concludes my report.
May I answer any questions?
Thank you for the report.
Appreciate that.
Do we have any questions?
Mr. Najarian.
Thank you for the report.
Can you give me a little bit more details on the nuts and bolts of the student adventure
pass since it's playing such a significant role in our ridership and revenues and as you
said going forward.
How does that all work out?
How do you apply, what's the deal with it?
Well, I'll take this for Christine.
So we launched the program again in October.
It's an opportunity for students to ride free
throughout our system.
We have seen great success out of the gate.
So I want to make sure I, Director Najarian, I want to.
So where does the funding come from when we see extra funding?
Right.
Is that state funding?
Yes, the funding is low-carbon transit operations program funds,
LC Top Money.
Ourselves and a number of the member agencies
use that funding source to support programs
like the Student Adventure Pass.
So that is the funding source for it.
We dedicated LC Top Funding.
And actually, at the executive committee,
we're going to shift some money that has previously
been on mobility for all.
And because of the success of the Student Adventure Pass
program, drawing down those funds,
we're going to move some money around to fully fund student
adventure paths through this fiscal year.
But it is funded entirely from LC Top.
And one of the things that we're trying to explore
as we look towards, because of the success of the program
and the desire to try to keep it operating,
working with our member agencies to identify other revenue
streams, because it has been such a success
to continue to support it.
And is there growth potential then,
despite budgetary constraints on the LC TOP
or the other funding for that you're talking about?
Well, I think, you know, LC TOP is oftentimes,
it is the logical revenue stream to support this,
given just the nature of its flexibility.
We've seen the growth already under student ridership,
and it's a statistic I just got this morning, in fact,
that students accounted for 24% of our ridership
during this second quarter, October to December.
Previously, before the student adventure pass,
it was right around 16%,
so in that very first quarter of operation,
we've seen an 8% increase
in our average ridership being students.
I can tell you personally,
I see them on the Ventura County line regularly.
I think that's great, and if we can,
it really serves two purposes.
Not only does it get us ridership and revenue,
but it sort of brings people into the system.
These students will be graduating
and become full paying riders.
So whoever came up with that idea,
I know we voted on it, but I don't know,
whoever advanced it, kudos to Immorte, is that you?
Is that you?
Think about it, Darren, think about it.
I'm really pleased at the success of the program.
I hope we're able to continue it.
Okay.
Thank you for this report. Un- ridership. The good news is that we've gotten through pretty much a full year with actual ridership exceeding budgeted ridership and that's fantastic and it's a change from where we've been for the most of the last most of the time since March of 2020 so because we've always been chasing that and readjusting our budget.
So it sounds like we're there with accurate projections, and so that's the good news.
The not so good news is we're still at or just below around 50% recovery of ridership.
And, you know, nationally APTA reports that heavy rail is like 70% or more recovery.
So I'm wondering why it is that we're still at that level.
what are the steps that we're going to need to take to catch up?
Is this the new normal with the change of work in this country now?
If so, what's our strategic plan for really
rethinking the service that we're providing?
Because it's not sustainable to continue to move forward at 50 percent of previous ridership.
So how do we compare with other commuter rail,
I guess, and what are we doing to help bump that number
back up to at least the national average?
So, Christine, you want to take that?
No, I'm kidding.
Yes.
I would if you told me to.
Yeah, I know, yeah.
So, Director Corcoran, yeah,
commuter rail systems across the country
have continued to recover ridership much more slowly
than I'll call it, heavy rail systems
or neighborhood transit systems.
As far as California goes,
We are actually slightly ahead of most of our sister agencies.
Caltrain in the Bay Area is still only hovering around 30 to 35%
of ridership recovery.
Now, Grant, they also started at a higher base.
So there's that.
We right now are pretty much tied with Chicago Metro.
Every month, we go back and forth in a friendly rivalry
as to who has got the better ridership.
Right now, we're ahead of them.
Other than the New York, Long Island Railroad,
Metro North, those are the ones
that are at 70 to 80% recovered from pre-pandemic.
So to your point, though, there's a new normal,
but we can't be settled with the new normals
that relates to commuters.
And so we are right now working on this concept
that really does change who we are as a regional railroad,
a regional passenger railroad,
where we hope that the budget that was,
that we are working on right now,
recognize what we call an optimized service schedule
where we're adding trains throughout the day.
Because we can't just be about the commuter,
we have to try to attract new markets.
So that is our hope.
This new schedule that we have developed runs service
very similar to what we've already started
with the Antelope Valley line.
Antelope Valley line, we expanded service in October
significantly, trains throughout the day, very regular clock faced and we saw an immediate
in the first two months of that we saw an immediate 16% increase in ridership on the
Antelope Valley line alone. So if we drop that into other lines that we can do that
on where we have control over, you know, the San Bernardino line is another example on
the Orange County line where we know we have ridership opportunities and it's not just
about the normal commuter, I don't, it's going to take us some time to get back to 100%,
I know, but if ever, but we are taking steps, our budget that we're developing, Christine
mentioned that we are, we've put together this, this hybrid budget that for the first
three months of the next fiscal year, we would generally have service that we run today,
but starting in October, we would go to this optimized schedule with more frequent trains,
trains into the evening, and some very robust service, sort of close to the urban, what
I'll call the urban core of LA metro area, but with very regular service in the regions
that extend out to San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, and South Orange County.
So we're excited about this potential, you know.
We have a budget that we have to get adopted, but if we adopt it, I think we have some real—there's
some real promise.
We have any other comments or questions on this item
Although our did did basically say what I think you were gonna say and yesterday at our RCTC board briefing
I brought up the same exact
comments about
The free adventure pass those are going to be our future riders
those are the ones that we get now we have to not only showcase the
efficiencies and the benefits of Metrolink
The on-time performance all of those things because they will be here tomorrow and they will then bring new people
So this is our new group and we really in essence in my opinion need a caterer to making their experience
Amazing and continue on a regular and continual basis. So I
Would love to see us be able to continue this program and find some funding for it
so hopefully that happens.
This was a receive and file item.
Did we have any public comments on this item?
No, very good.
We will go ahead and receive and file this
and move to item seven, our Chief Executive Officer's report.
Thank you, Chair Burksen.
One quick follow-up on that last discussion
regarding student adventure paths.
I have a little story, just a quick story to share.
Yesterday afternoon, I was on my train home
to Ventura County and I get in the car
and there's always the same group of students every time.
About 10 or 15 of them, it is a, it's, you know,
you want to be entertained to get in this car.
So our conductor, I heard the kids talking
and they said, did you get your student adventure pass?
Did you gotten your student adventure pass?
And I just overheard the chatter.
The conductor comes up and checks the tickets
and one of the students asks, hey,
is that the Metrolink CEO?
And I sit and the conductor said, yes, that is, that's Mr. Kettle.
And the first student turns to me and she says, I love you.
And then a second student says, you're my hero.
So that is the kind of thing that's coming with this program.
And it's all about just the nature
of how these students gravitate to the program.
They see it.
These are high school students that are at Charter High School
Cal State LA and then they do the trip here and then up to a venture and then
spread out all over. But just a little anecdote on how well this program is
being received. So let's talk a little bit about the CEO's report. Let's first...
The weather did have an impact on us over the course of the last week, although it
could have been a whole heck of a lot worse. But when you have the threats of
of flash flooding, we had water over our rails,
number of different things, so we had some delays
throughout the system, but in most cases,
we got people where they needed to be,
just maybe a little bit behind our normal schedule.
So the hats off to the operations team
for making sure our trains ran smoothly, ran safely,
got people to their final destinations.
We did have San Clemente, of course everybody's familiar
with what's been going on in San Clemente,
we took 7.7 inches worth of rain in San Clemente
over those few days, thank goodness.
We had tarped the landslide area,
because had we not, who knows what would have occurred?
But again, that was a tribute to the program deliveries team
and the operations team getting that already.
We are now still continuing to clean out San Clemente,
because we just have a lot of,
there's still just a lot of mud and debris.
I have issued a emergency contract
for a design build contract for the construction
of a barrier wall.
That will be brought back to the board
at our February board meeting for ratification.
We have received emergency funding
from the California Transportation Commission
to fund that.
As crazy as it was on Sunday, where we had all that rain,
we still had transit equity day.
We had a doubling of our ridership
that would normally ride on a Sunday,
so people decided to brave the weather.
I guess we you know it's a safe clean warm dry ride so there was they had that going
for them and then just no potholes and then next week just as a reminder we have customer
appreciation day the 14th of February Valentine's Day you have all received a request if you
can join us at a station we'd love to have you come out and greet our riders and so please
if you go back check your emails Michelle I think sent that out so we
would love to have more participation from our board members we will have
staff and attendance I will be here at LA Union Station I think director O'Connor
is going to be here at LA Union Station so you could be here we'd love to have
you join us thank you mr. chair that concludes my report very good committee
member comments anybody anything to say alright chair comments I have nothing we
We will go ahead and adjourn this meeting at 9.48.
Thank you.