Good morning, Chair Wapner, committee members.
As a reminder, in the event of a fire alarm activation,
we will all collectively, uniformly, and calmly
exit the building.
We will stage in front of the Metro customer
service on the far side of the building
and await further instructions.
The event we have an earthquake, I'm
going to ask you to drop, take cover, and shelter in place
until the earth stops moving.
We'll make an assessment at that point
and determine whether an evacuation of the building
is necessary.
The event of a situation requiring first aid,
I will be your first aid provider.
I'll ask Miss Paney on a contact in Metro security front desk where the AD is located
and as always in the event of an active attacker, I'll remind you to run high fight.
That concludes this morning's safety briefing.
I wish you a enjoyable, safe weekend.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Karen, can you lead us in a pledge, please?
Thank you.
Karen.
Yeah, Michelle, can we go to a roll call, please?
Certainly.
Director Marquez, I believe you're muted.
I'm here. Thank you. Okay great vice chair Spiegel
director Vargas
director chafee
director do me true
director angler
here dr. Barger dr. Solis
director Allen here dr. Press the auto
chair Wapner
We do have a quorum present remind me is we have anybody voting this on?
video
director angler will be voting on zoom your fault we have to do a roll call I
want you to feel really bad about that okay that brings us to the public
comment portion are there any members of the public wouldn't address the
committee or have we received any written comments I did receive a written
comment that will be emailed to the committee after the meeting thank you
all right that'll close public comment brings us to regular calendar first
item as the approval of minutes. We have a motion on that. And I'll second. Thank you
very much. We do roll call vote please. Vice Chair Spiegel. Yes. Director Chiefy. Director
Engler. Yes. Director Allen. Chair Wapner. Yes. That motion carried unanimously. Thanks
so much. Brings the item number six feet. La Paz Road. And that's going to be presented
by I don't have anybody's name here. All right Katie. Good morning everyone. I'll be
presenting on the La Paz Road overhead widening project. This is amendment two
to the construction and maintenance agreement with the City of Mission Viejo.
Next slide please. The city is currently widening the La Paz Road overhead bridge
that crosses above the orange subdivision at mile post 190.3 to reduce
traffic congestion in the vicinity. The original May 2017 C&M agreement and the
subsequent November 2022 amendment 1 provided a total of $1,245,950.50 of city
funding or authority support services to ensure safe railroad operations through
project construction. An extended construction schedule through unforeseen
site developments and enhancements to railroad worker protection requirements
Have led to further authority support being required
Amendment number two to the CNM agreement provides an additional nine hundred five thousand two hundred forty six dollars and ninety seven cents
the city funding
through the completion of the project
It is recommended that the committee recommend the board authorize the CEO to execute amendment two to the CNM agreement
Between the City of Mission Viejo and the authority that will increase the funding for the La Paz Road overhead widening project construction support services
by nine hundred five thousand two hundred forty six dollars and ninety seven cents to a new not-to-exceed amount of two million one hundred fifty thousand
three hundred fifty six dollars and forty seven cents. Are there any questions?
Any questions of staff any comments from the committee?
Seeing none we have a motion on the item, please
I'd move Alan. Okay. We got a motion in a second. Thank you very much. Just do a roll call vote, please
Vice Chair Spiegel
Director chafee
director angler
Yes, director Alan
Director chair Wapner. Yes that motion carried unanimously
This brings a item number six see a reimbursement agreement and that is Chris Haskell
Morning committee chair members of the committee. I'll be presenting the construction reimbursement agreement with level 3 communications
For our score CME Valley project,
we are installing 2.2 miles of second mainline track
and at the existing CME Valley station,
a second side platform along with a pedestrian underpass.
During project design, we identified a significant conflict
with the fiber optic duct bank
that's owned by level three communications.
So we engaged with level three communications.
We have funded level three to do the design
for the relocation and that was completed in June of 2023.
Next slide.
So level 3 communications provide us with a cost estimate, which we received in November of 2023.
During negotiation, we identified significant value engineering efforts, as well as alternative construction techniques that we analyzed and considered.
We also undertook an independent cost estimate to ensure value for money was being achieved.
And at the conclusion of negotiations,
not to exceed amount of five million,
$750,625.35 for the relocation construction was agreed.
So the reimbursement agreement
ensures that level three communications
will undertake the construction of the utility relocation
in advance of our project construction.
Next slide.
So we're recommending that the committee
recommend that the board authorize the CEO
to negotiate and execute the reimbursement agreement
level three communications for the amount of five million seven hundred fifty
thousand six hundred twenty five dollars and thirty five cents. Happy to take any
questions. Mr. Chair Bob Engler. Go ahead. Yeah just just 6C and 6D are
very similar projects it looks like. Obvious question I had as I've read
through them is why are we tunneling twice? Can they be
combined? Is there some issue are they slightly different
locations? What why the why the two tunnelings that we have for
the same fiber optic type cables?
Yes, they are two separate fiber optic duct banks that are out
there. They're owned by two separate fiber optic companies.
Each fiber optic duct bank has cables from additional fiber
suppliers that are in those cables.
There's also a requirement for the horizontal distance
between those two fiber optic duct banks
to be separated by a certain distance.
So therefore, when we did the relocation,
we had to put one fiber optic duct bank
on the northern side of the railroad corridor
and one on the southern side of the railroad corridor.
And unfortunately, with the northern one,
there were additional utility impacts
that required an additional length,
which is the level three communications duck bank,
required an additional deep bore segment
that is a total of about 0.75 miles
or three quarters of a mile in length,
as opposed to spring communications, my next item,
which is on the order of three tenths of a mile.
So they have to be in separate,
yeah, they have to be in separate duck banks.
Well, they're just incompatible
for what we're trying to do there.
Given the existing duck bank configuration out there,
we do have to have two separate duck banks
that have the separate fiber carriers
in each of the duck bank.
Okay.
Okay.
So just a question I had as I was reading through it.
Okay.
Thank you.
And as mentioned, C and D are similar,
so without objection, I'd like to hear D
and we'll vote on both of them together.
Okay.
So this is the Construction Reimbursement Agreement
with Spring Communications.
Next slide.
Again, same parameters of the project.
But we started with Sprint in February of 2023,
where we funded Sprint to undertake the relocation design
for their cable duct bank.
And that was completed in August of last year.
Next slide.
So Sprint Communications prepared their cost estimate,
and they submitted that to us just back in February.
And after negotiations and not to exceed amount
one million five hundred seventy seven thousand four hundred sixty two dollars
eighty four cents for the relocation construction was agreed and this will
ensure that spring communications is able to relocate the duck bank in
advance of our project construction so we're recommending that the committee
recommended the board to authorize the CEO to negotiate and execute the
reimbursement agreement with Sprint in the amount of one million five hundred seventy
seven thousand four hundred sixty two dollars and eighty four cents okay happy
take any questions thank you any questions on either of the items from
the committee seen I can have a motion items number 60 and 60 we have a second
roll call vote please this is for C&D I share Spiegel director chiefy director
Engler yes director Allen chair Wapner that motion carried unanimously that
It brings us to item number 6E,
and Katie, you're back up again.
Good morning, stuck with me again.
All right, I'll be presenting on,
I'm a little shorter than Chris,
State Route 57 Northbound Overhead Widening Project.
This is another construction and maintenance agreement.
This one is with Caltrans.
Next slide, please.
Caltrans desires to widen the SR57
Northbound Stadium Overhead Bridge
that crosses above the Orange Subdivision
at mile post 170.8.
This is at the Anaheim Arctic Station.
They want to widen this in order
to reduce traffic congestion in the vicinity.
The Construction and Maintenance Agreement
provides $2,299,770 of state funding
for authority project management
and railroad protection services
throughout construction of the project
in order to maintain safe operations of the railroad below.
Next slide, please.
It is recommended that the committee recommend
the board authorize the chief executive officer to negotiate and execute the
construction and maintenance agreement between the California Department of
Transportation and the authority that will provide two million two hundred
ninety nine thousand seven hundred seventy dollars of state funding for
authority support services to the construction of the SR 57 northbound
stadium overhead widening project any questions any questions to stop any
comments. Seeing none we have a motion on the side and please. I'll move.
Engler. We have a second. I have a motion and a second. Roll call vote please. Vice
Chair Spiegel. Yes. Director Chafee. Aye. Director Engler. Yes. Director Allen. Aye. Chair
Wapner. Yes. That motion carried unanimously. Thank you very much. 6 F.
David's going to talk about system safety, security, and compliance. Morning Chair
and members of the committee.
Today, I'd like to start off with talking about
the 2,024 areas of focus.
SARA safety, security, and compliance
has identified the 2,024 areas of focus on the SARA system.
These locations were determined
through risk-based hazard analysis
to be areas of greater risk.
When I'm talking about the areas of focus,
what we did was look at indicators or risk areas
throughout the Metrolinx system
And how we found these risk areas were the reports
that conductors put in, maintenance employees put in,
or anybody on the system that places these reports in.
It goes into our vector system and then we take that data
and then we compile it to try and find out
where our highest areas of risk.
These would include homeless encampments, trespassers
that have been reported, near hits,
and eventually strikes.
So, within these areas of focus that we chose, on the Orange subdivision, the trespassers
that we had that were reported within areas of focus is 40 percent, homeless encampments
71 percent within that area, near hits 40 percent within that area.
River on the River subdivision, trespassers reported 54 percent, homeless encampments
33 percent, near hits 50 percent, St. Gabriel trespassers 38 percent, 64 percent.
And as we go on, we chose the highest locations
or the highest risk or percentage of frequency
within those locations that we focus on.
And this is focused on a weekly basis.
Next slide, please.
So moving forward, FY23, quarter three,
we had 19 strikes, and FY24, quarter three,
we had 21 strikes.
This is an increase of two strikes.
However, within the same time period,
We've also increased 894 trains within that time
with the increase of service.
Next slide please.
Which brings me to this slide.
So our system wide strikes, Q3, FY24,
if we look at it, Amtrak, this is the big Amtrak,
they have four strikes, three fatalities,
percent total of 22%, Amtrak Metrolink commuter service,
which is our Amtrak that operates on the Metrolink system,
they had 16 strikes, 10 fatalities,
which is 71% of the fatalities.
On the BNSF, one strike, one 7%.
Moving down to the bottom section.
This is a statistic that we start to track,
because although we show that we've had 21 strikes
on our system, 10 of those strikes were a foreign train
or were on a foreign track, and these are some things
that we don't have full control over,
which equal 48% of the strikes that we had.
Metrolink on Metrolink track was 11 of those strikes
which is the 52% of the toll strikes for Q3 FY24.
Next slide please.
Now with those statistics said, our strikes,
as you can see 53, 63, 98, 94,
the percent total that you see on the top slide,
decimal one four, you know, going across,
that's our strikes versus trains.
And as we increase trains,
And I would say we increased between 2022 and 2023
our miles that we increased for 438,627 revenue miles
on the system.
We also increased 14,551 trains between 2022 to 2023.
So using this here with the increase of trains,
that's the percentage that you see strikes
versus the trains, we're at decimal one seven.
so although the strikes are higher,
our risk is also higher because of the frequency
of the trains going through.
Next slide, please.
In reference to assault and reporting,
this is, I guess, I'm gonna say a lot of this
depends on what the situation is.
So we have assaults which are major.
We had one in January.
This is where the conductor was punched in the face
and pepper sprayed.
It is a FRA reportable event because of the personal injury.
Or it could be a NTD reportable event,
and that is where the depends part comes in.
That one, in that particular case,
it is a reportable to NTD.
However, if you remove the fact
that the person was transported to the hospital,
it's no longer reportable to the NTD.
So there's a lot of things in those situations
where it says depends.
NTD requires us to report non-major assaults.
Now, a non-major assault is an assault
in which the attack involves no physical contact
with the transit worker.
This could include threats or intimidation
that did not result in any physical contact
with the transit worker.
And then we have what is considered a non-major physical.
So an assault in which the attack involves physical contact
with the transit worker, this could include
any physical contact with the victim
from the attacker's body, a weapon or projectile,
or other item.
Within the Q3, 82% of the assaults that we're listing here
on the non-major or non-major physical were threats.
15% were spitting, non-contact,
and then two physical assaults were shoving of a person.
Next slide, please.
Our Q3 FRA reportable injuries, FY24 Q3 injuries.
So this is a struck by vehicle on a platform conductor
that was assaulted, which is what I was just discussing,
hand pinched in the door, and then a back strain.
that we were down to from previous same time last year.
Next slide please.
So our Q3 rule violations, FY23 versus FY24.
FY24, Q3 rule violation employee protection.
So at the same time last year we had five,
we're down four, some contributing factors
to decrease in rule violations is the compliance department
performing a random video reviews with the contractors,
safety department's workplace safety campaign
include all stakeholders in the planning, presenting,
and execution of it.
So what we do is we get all the heads of departments
or from their safety from each contractor,
we sit in a room and we all come up
and contribute to the planning of our workplace safety audits.
So we provide the contractors with valuable feedback,
which helps them improve their processes and procedures.
Next slide, please.
Human Trafficking.
So in January, CEO Darren Kettle signed pledge
committing to employee education,
public awareness and measuring impact
during FY2024 key three.
In the month of February,
over 250 SERA frontline employees
and contractor staff were trained.
We partnered with Marketing for Human Trafficking
promotional materials for public awareness
and staff incorporated tracking
in safety management reporting process
and database to measure impact.
no reports of human trafficking to date.
I would like to add, although there has been no reports
of human trafficking to date,
there is a passenger incident report
that came in from a conductor.
It was listed as a medical
because the person requested medical attention.
However, the person got on the train,
the conductors asked them for the fair questions.
The passenger was unsure of where they wanted to go.
They went from Sylmar down to Via Princessa,
got down there, realized that's not the location
that they wanted to.
The conductor continued conversation with them.
Ultimately, what happened was the passenger
asked for an ambulance to beat them back at Sylmar.
And the reason for this is because they just escaped
a situation of sex trafficking.
The conductor arranged through our security operations
center to have an ambulance and have those resources
set up at SOMAR when this passenger exited,
they were able to get some help.
Next slide please.
Our security update for FY24-Q3,
multi-agency engagement to address trespassing,
vandalism launched in January, this is a Tiger team.
Artificial intelligence cameras were deployed
to track trespassing activities, covert operations,
conducted by law enforcement and an active shooter
or equipment familiarization drills
with first responder agencies.
The Tiger team, what we do, we use the same approach
that we did with our areas of focus,
which is we gather the information that we have,
we get the data, and then we try to figure out
what are our risk areas associated with that.
While we were gathering that information,
this is where we were able to produce these locations
where it showed a homeless encampment vandalism,
or a homeless encampment vandalism,
plus within those areas of recycling center,
which helped, guided our resources that we had
to go out to these recycling centers.
And the idea behind that was if,
maybe if we cannot stop or prevent all vandalism,
we can prevent the incentive of why they're vandalizing
to go sell that carber wire.
Our active shooter drill that we just had
on the ninth and 10 was a huge, huge success.
We had over 15 agencies.
Our 15 departments, we had three counties,
We had DEA agents, Homeland Security and then several SWAT teams that went through this.
They went through on the DMU equipment, they went on the Coach cars, they went through a bus.
We had a bus set up there, so they hit three different stations over a period of two days that we had.
I believe it was around 85 people that went through that potentially did not understand our equipment
that now have a better idea of that.
of that. Our security update, vandalism incident system wide, we continue to
address vandalisms related to wires that staff and our Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Metrolink Bureau are working to implement mitigation measures and
some of these are mitigation measures. We got awarded USDOT strengthening
mobility revolutionizing transportation grants. Q3 FY2024 systems safety
security compliance department was awarded a 1.3 million grant to deploy
artificial intelligence. Currently we have two CCTV cameras operating right now
and then paired with positive train control systems on a 1.5 mile stretch of
regional railway in a dense urban area. Thank you for listening and I'm here for
any questions. Thank you very much any questions? Yeah, one quick question for
me just apologize for my ignorance on some of these terms,
but positive train control systems,
what exactly are those?
Director Engler, this is Darren Kettle.
Positive train control is a system that we follow
that's a GPS-based, satellite-based system
that protects our trains.
It came out of, it's a technology that came out
of the incident that occurred in Chatsworth
where we had the head-on collision,
it is what gives us the ability to protect our trains
from those kinds of incidents.
But what we've learned is that the positive train control
technology has many other values,
and we have recently attached it to ShakeAlert,
so that if there's any event that there's an earthquake,
we can slow our trains or stop our trains
depending on the magnitude of the earthquake.
And now we're looking at how we would be able to use it
with intrusion detection,
so that we can warn our engineers
if a potential intrusion on the right-of-way
that would allow, again, warn the engineer
so that the engineer can take necessary measures
to try to keep us from striking a trespasser.
Yeah, thank you.
I assumed that's what it was,
but I wanted just to verify it.
Thank you so much.
Any other questions?
Just to compliment, I credit you
and the staff, security staff for your efforts to deal
with the installation of the technology
and really a great report, but information, it looks
like you're really making an effort to deal
with the strike problem and providing the technology
to help avoid, you know, the high increase in strikes.
Thank you, sir.
I appreciate it.
I just want to thank the chair and the committee members for indulging us and sharing more information.
I know a lot of times you receive emails and notification about these strikes and vandalism.
We're trying to exemplify the fact that through our relationships and our resources, we're
looking to get at the root causes of some of these events.
So not just the numbers, what are contributing to them, public perception on our trains, adding
more private armed security, work with the sheriff's department to do more fare enforcement,
things like that.
These are the proactive things
that we're looking to implement.
So, we appreciate your time.
Thank you, and I'm sure we all recognize
that these aren't numbers.
These are all representatives of human beings,
of folks both on that railroad side
as well as folks that may be injured or killed.
So, always keep that in mind.
All right, if there's no other questions,
that's a receive and file that brings us to item number 6G,
a Metrolink rehab plan, and that's Aaron.
Morning, Chair and members of the committee.
Today I'm gonna be talking about the Metrolink
Rehabilitation Plan, which is also known as the MRP.
I'm gonna be giving a quick background
and how we developed the document and the history on it,
and then I'm going to be talking about
the latest numbers that we've developed.
So our MRP originally was established in 2018
as a direct recommendation
from our Transit Asset Management Plan.
Over the years, we've made several updates
and changes to it, and then in 2021,
we decided that with an influx of funding due to SCORE
and other rehab programs that we had done
through the years, we needed to re-baseline the document.
Next slide, please.
The MRPSS's are all of our assets for condition,
our historical performance on our system,
and then the lifecycle management needs of all of our assets.
And then it takes a comprehensive approach
to developing what the specific assets' needs are.
And then we take all of that data
and then we put it into some calculations,
and financial calculations and develop
what our long-term investment needs are
and then what the backlog of our unfunded projects are.
Next slide.
We've been coordinating the MRP 2.0,
which is the rebaseline version.
With the member agencies,
we coordinated with them in November 2021,
April 2023 and September 2023.
And we released the MRP 2.0 to the MAC
for comment on August 15, 2023.
MRP 2.0 updates all of our condition assessments.
It addresses all previous comments
that were received from the member agencies,
identifies risks with carrying a backlog,
and also the risks due to climate vulnerability,
which is those were additions to the MRP
that we didn't have in there previously.
And then finally, we have a list of backlog projects
in the updated document.
Next slide, please.
This table provides a comparison of the previous version
of the MRP to the current version.
The current version of the MRP has a backlog listed
at $849 million with an annual investment
needed of $135 million.
Please note that there is an error
on the text of the board item.
We put the draft version financials in there.
And as we were working to update the final version,
I forgot to go in and update those two numbers,
so I apologize for that.
It will be corrected on the board item.
This updated number for MRP 2.0 reflects a big increase
in both the structure assets and the system assets.
The structural assets have gone through
more material escalation
and environmental clearance procedures
than what we've had historically,
and so those costs did increase.
And our systems assets, many of those assets
were updated when Metrolink began service 30 years ago
and have reached their end of useful life,
and so the backlog does reflect that change.
Next slide, please.
I'm available for any questions that you may have.
Thank you very much.
Any questions?
Dean, thanks for your report.
Appreciate it very much.
Okay, that brings us to our CEO report.
Sorry, Mr. Chair.
I was getting some cracks from the peanut gallery over here.
Mr. Chair, I just have one item to announce to the committee.
I'm really pleased to be able to share this news
that next week I will be in Washington, D.C.
for the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee's
subcommittee on railways, pipelines, and hazardous materials
where I'll be testifying along with four other colleagues
from across the country at the committee's hearing
that it is entitled Getting to Work,
examining the challenges and solutions
in the commuter rail industry.
According to Mr. Dunn, Jeff Dunn,
this is maybe the second time
that the subcommittee has had a hearing
that involves commuter rail,
very privileged that I will get to represent Metrolink.
I'll be sharing in my testimony
a little bit about our preparations
for LA28, the Olympic Games,
our connections with Brightline West,
recognizing the significant investment
of the federal government in Brightline West.
And then our own Reimagining Metrolink Program.
And then finally a discussion related
to our excess liability cap issues.
Commuter railroads across the country
are struggling with being able to afford
and meet the requirements of the excess liability
that we have to purchase on an annual basis
to protect our systems.
So, I'm looking forward to that next Wednesday,
10 o'clock in the morning in D.C.
And I'll be taking a few other meetings with both USDOT
and our delegation, Congressional delegation.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Any questions of Darren?
All right, that brings us to a committee member comments.
Any comments from any of our colleagues?
And I have no comments.
Oh, I'm sorry, Karen, go ahead.
I'll be in Sacramento next Wednesday.
Oh wow.
He always has to one up everybody.
I'll be on Ontario which is probably the best place to be.
If there's no other comments, I have no comments.
Meeting to adjourn.
Thank you.
I'll be in Sacramento too.
Thank you.