All right, thank you everybody for being here today at the Metrolink board meeting and call the meeting to order
Friday July 24th 2026 10 a.m. And
First order of business is the safety briefing. So Hillary
Consul chief safety security and compliance officer, please
Provider safety briefing. Good morning vice chair board of directors in the event of
evacuation we will
Collectively walk out the room just make sure you there any tripping hazards chairs book bags that sort of thing
walk out the
entrance to the boardroom down the escalators the entrance to the building will turn right and we'll meet in front of the
Metro customer service area
Where we'll take headcount and and make sure everyone's accounted for in the event of a medical emergency
We do have an ad located outside at the security desk
We have our LA County Sheriff's Department who will also render aid and down 911
In the event of an earthquake
we'll take cover under the benches and where we can and wait for the rumbling to stop to see if further evacuation is necessary and
In the event of an active shooter will deploy the run hide fight tactic. Thank you very good. Thank you very much
Next item is Pledge of Allegiance. We'll ask director Michael Vargas to lead us today
All right next madam clerk the roll call
director Spiegel
This I'm taking my liberty. Everybody's asking about the flowers. It's not my birthday
Darren you wanna explain what they're from
Do I have to so yes the we're recognizing
director Spiegel for going above and beyond the call of duty we had a budget audit and finance committee meeting a couple of weeks ago and
We learned through council that and we had several board members that were taking that meeting remotely
outside of our region
so we were going to have difficulty getting to a forum of actually having a people here within the service area of
Metrolink, so I reached out to Director Spiegel the night before and
She was fine enough to
Yes, we're recognizing Director Spiegel for going above and beyond the call of
duty. It's an echo. Two of you. There's two of me. One of me is enough. So it's coming from the
control room. Okay, I think they've, they've corrected. Okay, so anyway, it's a
thank you to Director Spiegel for for joining us a meeting that she had not
planned on attending to make sure that we could conduct the meeting. So that's
So thank you director in in person so yes in the room in the region and
We will whatever she whatever she would like it's it's on us. Okay. Good. Not very good. Okay continue, please
director Vargas
director Molina
second vice chair trombley
director Engler here
director Barger
director Najarian
director Sandoval
director Solis
director Olson
director Allen
director O'Connor
director Camacho
director McAllen
director Wapner here
director do tray
director Marquez
chair chafee
director Nguyen
director go
director Tedamer
Vice chair Burksen here
We do have a quorum present
Alright, very good. Do we have any public comments for today's meeting of items not
on the agenda? We do not have any requests to speak for items not on the agenda. We have
a request to speak for four of our regular calendar items and we have received a few
written public comments requesting that we maintain funding and do not cut service that
will be emailed to the board after the meeting. Very good. So we'll go ahead and listen to
Public comments related to those items when we get to them
And we will move to item 6 approval of the consent calendars items 11 a through 11 f
There any items that need to be discussed old?
and I get a motion
second back up
Right all in favor. I
Opposed abstentions, I know that's not the way we normally do it, but in my head. That's the way I like to do it
I like to be awake when I'm having meetings, so I make everybody do something and say something anyway
It was a unanimous. Yes, we will move to the regular calendar item 7a fiscal year 27 budget
Development update presented by Tom Shamber chief financial officer
Good morning vice chair Burkson members of the board on
July 18th last Saturday a proposed FY 27 budget was provided to the member agencies
The budget, commonly referred to as Scenario 4, was based on maintaining the current level
of service for the duration of Fiscal 27.
Over this week and next, I will hold meetings with each member agency to review the budget
and to answer their questions.
It is then up to the member agencies to determine if there is consensus
to advance this budget to their respective boards for approval.
If consensus is not reached, the member agencies will need
to convene a meeting to discuss an alternative scenario
for development.
Next slide.
If consensus is reached to move the current budget forward,
there are two alternatives toward reaching budget adoption.
These alternatives were presented to the Budget Audit
and Finance Committee earlier this month.
The BAFCOM voted to follow alternative one.
Alternative one would involve a special board meeting in August
to formally transmit the budget to member agencies.
In early September, another special board meeting
would be held in lieu of the BAFCOM
to hold a public hearing and adopt the budget.
This budget would take effect on October 1st.
Under this alternative,
no continuing resolution extension would be required.
Next slide.
Alternative two would involve a special BAFCOM meeting
in August to review the budget transmittal.
The full board would hold a special meeting in early September in lieu
of the regularly scheduled BAFCOM meeting to approve the transmittal.
This would be followed by a public hearing and adoption by the full board
at its regularly scheduled meeting in late September.
The budget would take effect on November 1st, and in this case, a one-month extension
of the continuing appropriation resolution would be required.
The BAFCOM favored the alternative which didn't involve an extension
of the continuing appropriation resolution.
Each of these alternatives assumes the current budget
scenario is approved by consensus in a timely manner.
Should there be a delay in the decision to move forward
with this scenario or if the budget does not have
unanimous support, additional time would be required
to identify a new scenario
and develop another budget for consideration.
This would require an extension of the continuing resolution,
which is the subject of the next item on today's agenda.
Next slide.
That concludes my report.
I'm happy to answer any questions.
All right.
Katherine?
First of all, thank you for that.
So what is, I looked at the list,
what is the turnaround for the agencies
to get the information back to me?
Can it be extended, and if so, do you have enough
adequate cash flow to cover any costs
if we don't come up with finalization?
Yeah.
So we're hoping for a two-week review period
before we hear back definitively from folks.
We do get some feedback, but we're
waiting for that official decision from each agency.
We do have sufficient cash flow.
We are finalizing MOUs with the member agencies
to get their first quarter payment.
So as yet, we haven't received first quarter money.
But we do need it urgently to sustain operations.
And then, Darren, is Metro working with you?
I mean, I'll be very transparent.
My goal is to make sure that we limit any cuts.
And so I want to make sure that Metro is working with you
and providing FaceTime to go over scenarios.
Yes, all the member agencies are working with us.
We have different challenges in each of the counties
that have given us targets.
Tom, we'll be meeting with LA Metro staff
Monday of next week, so we will have
person-to-person conversations at that point.
And I would ask then if there are any problems or concerns,
you will alert us so that we can be on top of it with you.
Sure. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Tim, did you have a comment?
No. William, anybody else?
Thank you. Just a quick question.
The continuing resolutions,
if we engage in more continuing resolutions,
is there a financial issue going forward?
Is there a danger that we're going to run into spending more or less?
We would get a second quarter payment
along with that second continuing resolution.
So we would continue to operate at
last year's funding levels, and get a second support
payment for that quarter.
So no, there would not be an issue.
With one proviso, and that is that the member agencies,
when we bill them, they pay us.
So that is out there, and given the uncertainty of things
in interest of full transparency,
there could be pushback.
We do know, in the case, correct me if I'm wrong,
Tom, that Orange County is giving us
the number at which the target reduction is,
which is lower than last year's.
They're still paying.
It's just at a lower rate than what
would have been in the continuing resolution.
Is that a correct statement, Tom?
So that said, at least we're getting something
coming through the door.
And as I have said in past years,
that please notify us as directors
that if our agency hasn't paid, that we are aware
that we can help in getting that payment done
because sometimes we just don't know
that the agency hasn't paid.
So I would appreciate all of us
if our agency hasn't paid that you notify us.
So we told you very clearly
that we don't wanna study any other alternatives,
that we wanted the current service level
to be the focus of the studies
and the budget development process.
That being said, because we have such a short timeline,
and in the event that there are some shortfalls
in the revenue contribution side,
or perhaps on the cost-cutting side as well,
I don't wanna call it a secret plan,
but do you have a concept of a,
alternative to coming out of my pot. I don't want to call it a plan B because
that goes against what we asked you to do. We said there's only plan A. Are you
ready at that point to move quickly to develop different suggestions to this
board as to what we need to do to move forward? We are looking at other savings
opportunities because we we are looking at other savings opportunities that I
will call also somewhat low-hanging fruit to find savings to address the
certain the two counties that have had that have given us a target to try to
aim for and we're working closely with both counties on that to where we help
sweeten the pot at Metrolink where there might be a few dollars found some place
else where we find some other savings in our operations.
So we do have that.
The only question will be, does that get us far enough?
And we are looking deeper into those.
Because we do know we have to focus on, particularly,
the two counties that gave us a target.
So yes, we are working on stuff behind the scenes,
given what we've heard, at least as initial feedback.
And obviously, the constraint is there
isn't going to be much time to go through that.
So you know that I mean, I'm not telling you anything new but I'm just raising that out
We are doing what we can to make sure we're as efficient as possible
To the point where again, we are doing our own revenue forecast
We're not going out to that we've modified that so that we can keep the streamline any other comments
I just want to add to that that, you know, we voted for our budget was ETA. So we're
We're pretty adamant on those numbers. I don't know how how much flexibility we'll have so
There is going to be a plan be that it basically is planning at this point, right?
All right, very good and if I can just ask I believe the the new budget was provided to the member agencies a week or
week last weekend
And if if I didn't study it myself, but I've relied on some others that are the professionals
And it appears to them that
Orange County is still has a higher than what their target was by some six or something million
Which which just sends a flag out to me saying alright well if we're not at that level with this plan option for
What are we doing a four point one and figure out if there's a way to somehow?
Get them to where they need to be you will not sacrificing service throughout the rest of the system
Vice chair Burks and I only say give us a chance to work it out
I think we got some things happening in fact we have I presented to the CEOs a
week ago
an option where something we've never done before, we receive on an annual basis a funding
source called State Rail Assistance. We normally use it because it's a volatile number. It's
not much usually five to six million dollars. We usually use that to match capital grants
and that kind of thing just because it's not something that's sustained through operations.
But we did receive a bigger bump in FY 25, 26 of $9.3 million.
And what I shared with the CEOs is that I would be prepared to recommend to this board
that we would take that full amount of $9.3 million to offset some of those numbers.
So the numbers that the staffs has seen does not include what I shared with the CEOs.
So there's 9.3 in our challenge does not go very far.
But it does it does hopefully soften the blow and show the commitment at Metro link of what we're trying to make happen. Very good
Any public comments in this item? We do have one request to speak. All right from Adriana Rizzo
Hello, hello everybody, my name is Adriana Rizzo representing California's for electric rail here from Riverside
really happy to see they were getting close to a budget and happy to see that the
More severe service cuts are mostly off the table
I just want to emphasize again the need to avoid all service cuts including the temporary March cuts
Which we have seen serve it ridership growth stagnate
And I know several people who have stopped using Metrolink for certain things because of the last
Eastbound 91 train of the day has been eliminated just as an example
One opportunity for additional revenue. They don't think has been explored yet is TDA funds the Transportation Development Act
Metro yesterday voted to allocate 35 million dollars in money transit money intended for transit and cities on the Antelope Valley line
This is enough to fix Metrolinx operating deficit
I think this needs to be looked into further and I would urge all all of the member agencies not just Metro to
avoid certifying unmet needs when that funding could potentially be used for Metrolinx.
I also want to emphasize the importance of continuing to adhere to Metrolinx service development plan.
Are we still on track for 30-minute San Bernardino Lions service by 2029?
As we think about the future, this board needs a plan for how can we continue to
fulfill these plans, fulfill the service benefits promised by the school program, which we've invested, you know,
Millions hundreds of millions of dollars in state money for and ensure that those investments don't go to the waste by
continuing to plan for increased service and
Deliver a better experience for riders. Thank you. All right, very good. Thank you for that and this item was receiving files
So unless there's objection, Mr.. Sure
I just want to make sure I know the focus right now is what Orange County and LA County want to do
But you can't forget about the other three counties
Our commitment may change depending what everybody else does
You have to make sure that you stay aware of what the other counties are deciding to do.
Don't go into assumptions that everyone's remaining the same.
We just have to worry about what the other counties are going to do,
because that may not be accurate.
Well, I agree, because Riverside County wanted more service this year, not less service.
So, I mean, and willing to pay the price.
But, of course, our lines go through either Orange County or LA County.
So, you know, we all have that challenge, and hopefully, we can get to that point
where everything works out.
So we will receive and file that and move to item 7B,
approval of an extension for the continuing appropriations
resolution for fiscal year 27, again presented
by Tom Chamber, Chief Financial Officer.
Good morning again.
I just went over the status of the FY27 budget.
It was distributed to the member agencies on July 18th.
As I mentioned, there are two pathways towards adoption,
which are dependent on the timing of key decisions
and the direction of the board.
I presented two alternatives, which both assume
that the member agencies approve advancement
of the currently proposed budget.
One pathway avoids the need for an extension
of the continuing appropriations resolution.
The second pathway requires a one-month extension.
The third pathway, which would arise
if the member agencies determined
that a new budget scenario should be developed,
would require additional time for agency staff
to complete their work.
Exactly how much time cannot be determined at this time it will depend on the timing of the decision to pursue another scenario
the time taken to finalize assumptions for that scenario and the timing of
future bathcom and board meetings
next slide
We are recommending approval of a three-month extension of the continuing resolution until December 31st
for the Metro link and arrow operating and capital budgets
The budget will be developed as quickly as possible and it is possible that a budget can be adopted before then
This extension is a precaution in light of uncertainty and it also takes into consideration the board calendar for the remainder of the year
next slide
That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. All right, very good comments questions Karen. That is
with the caveat as
Mr.
Had honcho here said that we would continue to make our payments correct correct
So that is has to be part of this that we continue to make our payments of last year's amounts
Until the resolution of what we're going to nip doing
Thank You mr. Chair SPC TA stands ready to support the continued resolution
But we are asking we're ready to do the budget for the airlines
We'd like to see that come back to the to the board for approval
Understood we will so in this case that it would be a
Modified the recommendation would be an amendment to the staff recommendation
That arrow comes back
At the earliest possible time and that the continuing resolution for Metrolink proper
Would proceed as as recommended any other comments?
We have any public comments
We do have a request to speak from Adriana Rizzo
Hello everybody
First I want to say that I I support extending the continuing resolution and urge the board to vote. Yes on this item
I think it's important insurance in case member agencies are uncooperative
but I think the fact that we're in this situation where we
potentially won't have a budget as till as late as December, you know halfway through the fiscal year is a
symptomatic of deep dysfunction
within MetroLink governance.
The JPA structure of MetroLink requires cooperation,
but what we've seen this year is sort of the opposite
of that, where we can't even get agencies to agree
on if we should follow our own service development plan,
if we should have more or less service.
And I think that this crisis highlights a need
for deeper structural reform.
In particular, most urgently,
I would urge the metro, like, to explore a permanent,
sustainable, additional source of operations funding,
such as a new regional tax measure
that is not dependent on the member agencies.
Really, we need a source of this,
all of this complicated process
of getting all these different actors to approve a budget
is just really failing to deliver the service,
frequent reliable service, our rigid needs.
And we need to think bigger,
and particularly with the need for a funding source
that is controlled by the Metrolink board
and not reliant on so many different actors.
I support Metrolink's move to find more state money,
but for the last five years,
we've really not seen interest from the state
and sustained, reliable operational support.
And I think that's going to continue to be a challenge
until we have more statewide reforms
that stabilize the state budget for meteor.
And so I would really encourage the board to look regionally
and think about what we can do here in Southern California
to strengthen MetroLink as an agency
make it less sort of everybody's last everybody's last priority thank you
very good thank you appreciate your comment any other comments we just want
to make sure that even though it looks like we're gonna try to get more time on
this we want to keep working towards the fact that you know it's a it's a
difficult problem to solve but it's also just a math problem right so we have
the variables defined. Where else can we pull numbers from to get this to where we need
to be? That's the issue for us is, you know, we've spoken our kind of levels that we were
able to fund through tax dollars and through tax dollars allocated to this so that we can
continue to service at the time we need it to keep going to. So I urge that we continue
keep working together and just do as much as we can to get there sooner or
better. I think delaying this further just puts us in a precarious situation
towards to what end what if December 31st we still don't have all the full
solution so with that said you know just want to keep that in mind that to
everyday problem that we need to solve for the writers okay I definitely agree
That if if we can't buy December 31st, there's just not going to be a solution. I'll be quite frank
I appreciate LA stepping up and reconsidering and working. I just hope Orange County
I know you're saying you're hard cut and dry, but
If you know LA stepping up, I hope that you can maybe reconsider and we realize we want to cuts but
You made a comment about
Constituents and ridership and wanting to help them
That's not going to happen in doing cuts
All right, and I do want to from the La metro side express
our deep appreciation for our other counties
for San Bernardino Riverside Ventura
We hope that you remain firm in the commitments. We understand. There's budgetary pressures, but we're sort of all in this together and
We're we're only as strong as our weakest link good. No, I know. I mean I appreciated it and
We're all I think and in that corner
so
Thank you for working with your boards and maintaining the level that you have
other others of us have some different issues that we have to work through and it's
Everyone has a different
Road row to ho I guess
The the you know as as we talk about this
I wanted to make sure that staff is engaging with the member agencies because
we're going to get through this budget and it's already going to be time to start the next one and
and before we you know conclude are we
Have we had discussions with other member agencies to determine whether or not they're going to be pulling any additional funding?
for next year's budget and these are things
that are coming up quick so we can't wait
till the last minute.
That's what got us in this position
because we found out at the very end
of the fiscal year that all of a sudden,
not just one but two counties needed to pull back
and that created a major race
to try to get a budget that worked.
Well, what happens next year if we know ahead of time
that we're gonna have additional constraints,
We need to start building that in.
So Vice Chair Burksen, I think one of the things
we are learning from this year is we
are in a sort of a reset of our budget process.
We had a real whiff, to a certain degree,
on the budget process last time because we anticipated
more fair revenue.
And this is not just a member agency challenge.
We didn't get fair revenue that we were expecting.
So that was 50% of our challenge.
We now know where we stand as it relates
to ridership and revenue.
We're in a much better place.
We know where our escalators are and our contracts.
We also know, at least from the one letter from Los Angeles
from LA Metro, that the target was for next year
and then flat for three years after that.
Our delivery of our service, that
is not going to go down over those period of years.
We have various obligations to do that.
So our next year will be as difficult, if not more,
because again, I mentioned the 9.3 that we're
prepared to put on the table.
That is not going to be a source that is going
to be reliable or sustainable.
So we are going to have to wrestle with that issue,
and which is why it has been so critically important for us
to continue to lobby in Sacramento for state support.
And I mean, that is, I don't know how we get there,
absolutely absent the other, the targets
that have been presented to us from member agencies.
So we should expect something as challenging next year
as we are dealing with this.
We will know it sooner though, to answer your question.
will know it we will know it much sooner all right well my goal obviously in my
head is let's not have to have any continuing resolutions for next fiscal
year let's get it done on time knowing where we're at this year so all right
this is an action item so the action item is asking for a three-month
continuing appropriations do we have a motion for that with it with the proviso
on the arrow that would not require that so just make sure with that
At recommendations modified to that words an amendment second a second
All in favor. Aye
opposed abstention
Opposed so motion carries all in favor minus one
All right with that we move to item 7c
Internal audit proposed fiscal year 2027 annual audit plan presented by Elizabeth Pizzardi director about it. Good morning
I'm reporting that I can see this recommended
that the board approve the proposed 27 audit plan.
Next slide, please.
The internal audit charter requires the internal audit
department to submit an annual audit plan to the board
each year for approval.
The five-step process we use to develop the annual audit plan
is summarized here.
Next slide, please.
This slide highlights our newly proposed audits.
Next slide.
and we cared forward a few audits we started in fiscal 26,
which we will complete in fiscal 27.
Following board approval, we will provide the board
with the status of the audit plan on a quarterly basis.
At the budget audit finance committee meeting on July 10th,
in response to Director Tetimer's request
for an update on process improvements
related to parts challenges and mechanical failures,
management will provide the board
with a quarterly report on these areas going forward.
The first report will be in October.
Next slide.
This concludes my item.
Happy to answer if you have any questions.
Very good.
Comments or questions about the audit report.
So we did bring something up at our board briefing yesterday
in regards to possibly talking about adding another item
to this list, but wanted to just bring that
to the board for consideration with the number of issues
that have been publicly blasted about Metrolink with trains
and having the mechanical issues we had earlier this year
to the one Saturday where, I don't know,
between 150 and 500 stranded people in the blazing sun,
fire department supplying them water and things like that,
and some had heat stroke or whatnot.
Obviously, the conversation basically is about whether or not we add an item to the audit
plan to basically determine if our response teams, the ones driving the regular little
Metrolink cars that might have water in the back or the backup trains, are they doing
what we need them to do?
Do we have that plan in place?
the checklist there and they know what to do and when. I'm not sure what the
feeling is here but I think that at least you know in discussion with our
board briefing it seems like that might be a good item to add so that we can at
least make sure that the public is being treated as quickly as possible and the
people that are representing Metrolink are getting out there as fast as they're
supposed to. So I'm not sure, you know, if we've ever had an audit like that, not
that I recall myself, but I wanted just to bring it out and say that is
something that I was thinking we might want to engage with if there's. I think
that's something really important we look into. I'm not sure it's quite an audit
kind of function. Perhaps it's just something we have there and, you know, take
a look at and bring it back. Mr. Vice Chair, I was going to suggest that
This board has probably not been briefed in some time about how we handle those types of actions
Between our safety security and compliance team and our customer experience team
We can put together a presentation for a full board meeting that lays out because we do have
We have a long list of what what's supposed to happen doesn't always
work perfectly
but we do have we do have a plan in place, so if
We can do that and if we encounter a need potentially in the future how it could be treated through Liz's team
That may be something but maybe we get a bite at the apple from a management perspective on that one as well
I have no issue with that myself
So is there a reason and I and this may be what you're asking
As indicated in our report, we have a table identifying areas
of high risk, definitely that's one of the high risks
that were not selected for an audit for the fiscal 27 partly
because as management's working on it,
they also have their internal working group looking
into this for process improvement.
And again, as I already mentioned
at the budget audit finance committee meeting during the
the discussions, Director Najarin, Director Tedemers
obviously raised that issues and then feel free to chime in.
But it was agreed that an action item of management
will provide quarterly report on those areas.
Okay, because given that that seems to be
the equipment failures?
And that's so, we have new leadership over the area
that deals with our parts and operations.
They're stepping up.
We have this internal working group.
One of the, to be real blunt,
the locomotive that you see in front of you
on these screens, the 40 of them,
they have had a reliability.
We are actually getting the parts we need.
When we do have failures, the situation that occurred
on Saturday was something that we've become, unfortunately,
a custom tube.
They just happen to be a surprise every time it happens
because you don't know when a fuel manifold is going to crack
and renders the equipment completely unusable.
We have fuel manifolds in inventory.
We have spider shafts in inventory.
So we know what our problem parts are.
We just don't know when they're going to fail.
And that is a problem with this particular locomotive
that I have now determined to be a DeLorean as we struggle
with some of the reliability challenges,
but the team is working on the parts of material side.
We've got a, and we're making, trying to come up with ways
to reduce even the part failure issue
with the various manufacturers.
Thank you, thank you.
All right, any other comments?
All right, this is an action item to approve,
Oh public comments do we have a public comment? Okay. Now. It's an action item. Do we have a motion to approve the?
audit plan as is the staff report
All right, all in favor. I
opposed tensions
Not a lot of yeses, but no knows
Item 7d contract number sp 645-2 7 customer service center recommendation to award 22nd century technologies
presented by Rachel
Chair is senior manager customer relations in Tammy Phillips senior contract and compliance administrator
Good morning, Vice Chair Bergson member of the board
next slide, please
Metrolink's customer service center handles over five hundred thousand customer contacts each year
Providing real-time information on schedules fares connecting transit and assistance during service disruptions in addition to supporting
marketing campaigns special trains and mobile app issues
Live agents are available via phone and text during designated business hours seven days a week and
Recorded information is available 24 hours a day next slide, please
This procurement will ensure uninterrupted high quality customer support for riders when the current contract expires in November
2026 we began with a request for information in October that drew 33 responses
sorry, that drew responses from 33 firms, giving us strong insight into modern
customer service tools and staffing models. The request for proposal was
issued in March and generated strong industry interest. Of the 83 firms that
downloaded the solicitation, 25 attended the pre-proposal conference. Staff
answered 348 follow-up questions and ultimately received 11 proposals. Eight
were responsive and six advanced to interviews after meeting the technical
threshold. Proposals were evaluated on capabilities, staffing, operations, and
price. After combining technical and cost scores, 22nd Century Technologies Inc.
received the highest overall ranking. Their proposal demonstrated strong
operational readiness, a modern technology platform, and a staffing
approach that aligns with the Metrolink's performance expectations. 22nd
Century has been in business for 29 years as an IT services integrator and
and has 12 years of experience
operating customer service centers.
The company is headquartered in McLean, Virginia
with an existing customer service facility in Dallas
and the capability to establish a local operation if needed.
They currently employ more than 350
trained customer service agents
supporting federal, state, and local government clients,
including several public transportation agencies.
To support a seamless transition,
they also intend to recruit experienced staff
from the incumbent contractor.
Next slide, please.
Staff recommends awarding a three-year contract
to 22nd Century Technologies, Inc.
with two one-year option periods
for an amount not to exceed $8.5 million
and authorizing the CEO to exercise the option periods
at the authority's discretion.
Next slide, please.
This concludes my report,
and I'm happy to take any questions.
All right, very good.
Is the current company okay with us recruiting,
with the 21st, 22nd century, recruiting their folks?
That is a standard.
When there's a transition of customer service
center contracts, the new contractor will reach out
to the incumbent to determine if there are staff
that is interested in transitioning over.
And where is our incumbent based?
in Brea, California.
So the new one is in Virginia?
Yes, they're headquartered in Virginia.
And there doesn't seem to be a problem,
because it's straight over the phone customer service?
No, we have several SOPs that we'll be sharing.
We'll be working closely with them
on developing their training curriculum.
They also operate customer service centers
for transportation agencies across the country so we're really confident that
they will be able to support us successfully. Thank you. Ellen, thank you.
Did you have the opportunity to actually visit their customer service center to
see how it operates? I have not. You think that that might be advisable? Is that something we would do normally?
Historically, I mean, Director Wapner, that's that's not something where we've
We've gone to those, and not to say it's not a reasonable idea, that's not been a practice
of Metrolinx in the past to go and visit those centers.
We generally take the references we have from those agencies that they recognize that they
currently perform work for as sufficient for our ability for them to perform on our contract.
I'm just wondering if sometimes the functionality of the customer service center, are they really
using folks that are there they're using the address and there's other folks
working somewhere else in the world how do we know that how do we know that the
folks that are working for them are actually working within the United
States and they're not using folks in other countries thank you for the
question they have confirmed that their entire staff is located within the
United States yeah thank you you'd mentioned that they're based in
in Virginia, they have a center in Dallas.
And then you also said, if I understood correctly
that there is the possibility of a local option,
maybe you didn't phrase it that way.
What triggers that?
Because what I assume to be a local option is California
or somewhere in Southern California.
Can you explain that?
Yes, they indicated that if we require them to be local,
that they can secure a facility here
Set up operations locally it just at a curiosity is the reason why we wouldn't do that given
proximity given is there additional cost what
It's close by we could go see it
Just any thoughts on that would be insight would be appreciated. Yeah director Sandoval and I don't know Tammy or Rachel
if if there's an added cost for them to
To tool up a facility in Southern California that we would then be on the hook for
So much of what customer service does happen is almost by its very nature is kind of remote
But it is nice to be able to go, you know kick the tires locally if we can
Can you answer that question Rachel is there or Tammy is there additional cost to have or Sabrina who stepped up behind you?
Just so you know
They did not indicate an additional cost but I can certainly find out and get back to you and maybe one of the questions is
This is a three-year contract two additional
years maybe through our process of
Just monitoring
Perhaps we go back to them and say listen
We really would like for you to bring a local component here certainly it could meet some jobs
I'll be it probably not a lot of positions, but just something to be aware of
the other comments questions any public comments
All right. This is an action item asking for the contract. Do I have a motion to approve?
And do I have a second all right?
All in favor aye opposed extension motion carries unanimous
27 e contract number C three one six seven dash two six score
Marango and Rancho siding extension projects construction recommendation to award granite construction company
Resident by Katie Thorpe principal engineer capital and third-party construction director Burksen before Katie starts
This is a really big deal
Go ahead Katie
No pressure. Good morning vice chair and members of the board. Next slide, please
Authority proposes to extend both the existing morango and Rancho siding tracks on
SCRA's San Bernardino line to improve frequency and flexibility of future service. Next slide, please
Invitation for bid was released on February 6th
2026 we received four bids and the lowest was 39 percent over the designers independent cost estimate
Authority staff analyzed the bids alongside the designer and determined a few key factors and the bid and
independent cost estimate discrepancy were as follows
The designers escalation factors were too low
Material cost escalations have been particularly volatile in recent years
With some track and signal components doubling in cost
Lastly due to the number of current and pending construction contracts in the southern, California area. Sorry here
There is a concern amongst contractors regarding labor availability
and potential labor shortages, which may lead to premium pay
in order to obtain qualified workers.
After review, granite construction was determined
to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.
Next slide, please.
It is recommended that the board authorize the CEO
to award contract number C3167-26 for the score of Moringo
and Rancho Cucamonga siting projects to granite construction.
in the amount of $51,502,175, plus a 5% contingency,
bringing the total not-to-exceed amount to $54,077,283.75.
Next slide.
Thank you.
All right.
Very good.
Comments or questions?
That $0.75 is important.
It just sounds like a 5% contingency is kind of low
when it comes to a construction project.
Ten percent is typical, but I just don't look forward a lot of change orders. That's all
Any public comments on this
We do have a request to speak from Adriana Rizzo on this item
Everybody this is really exciting
I'm very happy to see that these projects are moving forward and getting close to the construction phase
It's going to be a game changer to have
30-minute side service on the whole San Bernardino line and hopefully have that be a little more reliable than we've been
Seeing with the attempts to do 30 minutes for part of it
So this is really great. I
Have a concern though that this is one of the only score program
Projects, it seems to be moving forward in anywhere near on time. I mean we were supposed to have
Score phase one done by 2028 now right and some of these projects have been
indefinitely canceled like they're indefinitely delayed like the Sarah
sighting others are these projects like the Balboa track Balboa double-track
some other projects in LA County have been delayed like 10 years like I think
some of the AVL projects are not supposed to be complete until like the
late 2030s based on the latest update I saw and this is really concerning for
for writers and for people who want to see a better, more serviceable metro system.
I'm wondering, first off, it's quite difficult to actually find information about where the
status of these projects.
I'm wondering if the score website page could be updated more frequently to provide more
information about these projects.
And secondly, I'm wondering, has Metrolink done any kind of comprehensive audit to study
the reason for why there's so many delays?
This would be helpful for us as advocates to identify ways where we can push for legislation
or other changes that could help us deliver some of these projects faster.
So we want to see these projects on time, on budget, but that's not really what's happening
right now.
So, thank you.
All right, thank you very much comments
What were you so excited about this item?
Because this is where the as actually the speaker just mentioned we have not had many score projects get out of the gate and
this
This project on the San Bernardino line our most used line will give us
Awarding this contract today having the funding in place means that this project will be done in advance of 2028
Which will give us the ability to run 30-minute
bi-directional frequencies on that San Bernardino line, so it is setting us up for success and
It's just great to finally get that project out the gate. You look like a little kid looking at that Andy
You were just you know
You can turn to Katie and Justin and the team on on this this these are these are long
processes to make happen and and I will say that we you know the fact that we had the
Budget bust on the independent cost us and was like okay
How are we gonna track down the money and we now have two different sources to cover that the Delta?
So we're just excited about getting the project
getting shovels in the ground
So Darren, can you?
So going back in my dusty memory bank here score program if I'm not mistaken was supposed to be a ten billion dollar
It was set up to be $10 billion of funding coming in and doing all these programs.
So the speaker that mentioned so many have been canceled or postponed.
Is that because I don't know what the exact amount we brought in, but I know it's nowhere
close to the total that we were seeking.
So is that kind of the reason for the delays and the cancellations?
And where are we with the total score of the 10 billion?
Where do we get to?
So where we are is in phase one.
And I want to say the original cost estimate was $2.3 or $2.5
billion.
But that number was developed seven years ago.
And we, as Katie indicated, some of these factors
that are hitting us are blowing cost estimates right out
of right through the roof.
So we can certainly provide more information.
There are various reasons why we've been challenged.
We were delayed for some time
on our Simi Valley double-track project
because we had a dispute with Union Pacific Railroad.
That's been resolved, but in the meantime,
construction costs have escalated
so the project isn't fully funded, so there's a variety.
That's just one example.
We've found other ways to try to get some benefits
that deliver without the serociting
being one of those projects, where we have a project in downtown Riverside that was going
to be funded, and we've been able to find a more efficient way to get benefit from it.
It's going to be less expensive.
So we're always trying to be recreated.
Again, that plan was developed seven years ago.
So as we have to bob and weave to a certain degree, and this is why this project is, we're
excited about it, is because we're going to make this one happen.
Good.
All right, any other comments, questions?
Okay, this one is an action item.
So moved.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Eventions?
Motion carries.
Item seven, F,
System Safety, Security and Compliance,
SSSC, Department Activities Update,
Quarter Three, Fiscal Year 2026,
presented by Hilary Conscole,
Chief Safety, Security and Compliance Officer.
Good morning. Again today I'm here to present our third quarter safety, security, and compliance
stance. Next slide please. So total train strikes for quarter three were flat compared
to quarter two. If you look at the bottom there, those are the number of train strikes
by type. Nothing alarming, but we are trending downward for the year, which is very, very
positive. Next slide please. So here you'll see the train strikes by county. LA
Riverside Ventura County's recorded one less train strike in Q3 than Q2. Orange
County is flat and San Bernardino County recorded three more train strikes in
the third quarter than they did the second quarter. So we are watching those
closely and again as I said we have a total of 15 train strikes for the year.
Next slide, please. These are the same numbers broken down by line, just to give you a different
visual perspective. Ventura line is flat, Antelope Valley, 91 Paris, Valley, Orange,
and the IEOC lines all recorded one less train strike. San Bernardino recorded five more
train strikes than they did in Q3. In Q2, they had zero train strikes. Riverside recorded
two less train strikes and then an arrow line recorded one more train strike and
as a reminder a lot of these lines go through more than one county so that's
why we do it both ways. Next slide please. So here we have our fare evaders unruly
passengers they're up quite a bit don't want to alarm you. The reason why they
are up quite a bit is because we have increased our fare fare collection
strategy, so to speak. Alstom obviously increased their requirement to 50 percent, and we also
increased the amount of street carring we're doing at Union Station. So what we do is we'll
hold the passengers, our customers at the ramp to make sure they have a valid fare to
get onto the platform. And that's helped immensely. That's a lot of the reasons why the fare
of Asian is up and then the unruly passengers is tied very closely to
veritators because once you tell somebody that they can't take the train
then it gets confrontational so then we have them ticketed or arrested and
that's when they become an unruly passenger. Next slide. So we have our
these are basically conductor assaults or assaults on trains that are recorded
through the National Transportation Database.
We've recorded six for the month of February and eight for March.
You know, they were non, even though it says non-major physical.
The non-major physical ones are if somebody is pushed or, you know,
there may be a nudge or something.
So, but we do watch those.
And our law enforcement is always close by to handle any of those assaults.
Next slide, please.
So these are law enforcement activities by county.
These are conducted by the LA County Sheriff's Department.
I just want to specify that.
And for the three months for quarter three,
there were a total of 6,821 law enforcement details
that were conducted by the LA County Sheriff's Department.
The next slide, please.
So this is the same information,
just again, broken down by line,
by the LA County Sheriff's Department.
Again, for a total of 6,821 details,
law enforcement details that were conducted.
And this I just want to remind you,
these are in addition to all of their other duties.
A lot of times there's a call for service.
We have to handle a fare evasion,
dealing with right-of-way inspections.
So there's a lot of things that go on
in addition to this right here.
Next slide, please.
So these are the same law enforcement activities
by the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department.
They monitor or patrol the San Bernardino County line,
or the San Bernardino line, I apologize,
from Montclair through Redlands University Station.
So they had a total of 3,027 law enforcement activities.
The rule violations, I'm happy to report, are trending downward, even though it increased
by three in the third quarter.
Last year, if you remember, we had a spike in rule violations.
We created an action plan, and I'm happy to report that our rule violations are down for
the year 78 percent.
So this is a positive story, even though there's a little spike in rule violations there, and
and we do continually watch them
and work with our operations team.
Next slide please.
So FRA reported injuries.
We recorded two less injuries in Q3 than we had in Q2.
We have injuries that are down 18%
compared to the previous year.
A lot of them were like, we had two pinch points,
I think one slip and fall.
But nothing major to report.
Next slide.
So training, you know, we continue to train our employees in numerous safety and operational
practices.
Safety is the most important thing here at Metrolink.
In addition to a lot of other operational, and we did a phenomenal job when I say we,
I say Metrolink as a whole.
There were no safety issues, no incidents, security incidents whatsoever.
We did have a crease in ridership.
I believe the 15% increase in ridership that I put
up there may be low, but those were initial numbers that I got
when I was putting together the presentation.
So, just wanted to point that out that, you know,
even us as an agency, we should be extremely proud.
I've worked on NATO, the Obama campaign, his inauguration.
These national events are huge.
They take a lot of coordination with Secret Service, FBI,
you know, DHS, TSA, and with the limited number of resources
that we had, our team did a phenomenal job.
And at Darren's leadership, I should say.
So just want to point that out there.
Next slide.
So these are just a few.
I can't go over everything we did because a lot of it,
we don't want to give our secrets away.
Because we're going to start preparing for the Olympics next.
But you know, we've held two active shooter
drills before the event.
They were simulated.
We had law enforcement on the train.
We had actors that acted as an active shooter.
So we did a lot of preparation.
LASD, we had a workshop with them or drill with them,
and then San Bernardino County.
And we also included local law enforcement.
The all forward-facing employees were trained in bomb detection
to know what to look for if they seen a suspicious package
or bomb along the railroad right of way or what have you.
And we had limited resources, but we
were lucky through LA County and the county sheriff's department
to be able to obtain 22 additional officers,
two sergeants and a lieutenant for match days
at no cost to Metrolink.
So that was a plus.
And they helped us out with allied universal.
We had 15 additional armed.
We were able to obtain 15 additional armed security guards.
So, they were strategically placed throughout the system.
And then our LA County Sheriff's Department and our San Bernardino Sheriff's,
they did over 200, I say facility inspections.
But those are everything along our 564 miles of track that they were, you know, patrolling.
Next slide.
You know, the other thing we did was we, before the beginning of the matches,
We did high rail trips with an officer in the high rails,
make sure that there's nothing along the railroad,
right away no sabotage, suspicious people.
We increased our street carring, our fare enforcement,
and then we worked weekly with LA Metro,
and we had one of our employees,
a security employee, safety employee,
and then an LASD sheriff deputy in Metro's ESAC,
which helped us coordinate the busing to our trains
at Union Station and vice versa.
So there was a lot of coordination, it all worked well.
You know, I'd be remiss if I didn't think Michael Litchy
and the customer service team as well
and the operations team, but that will conclude my,
oh, I'm sorry, hold on, one more slide.
This is what I really wanted to thank.
So I just want to recognize a few people.
And if you're in the room, please stand up.
I know that two of them are on vacation.
Captain Abby, Ben Saheli from the LASD Metrolink Bureau.
Lieutenant Nick Aguirre for the LASD Metrolink Bureau.
Sergeant Ryan Bresler, he's on vacation.
He worked too much.
He said he needed time off.
And Nicole Adams, our security manager for allied security,
who's in the back.
And Tim Kwok, manager of security and law enforcement,
who works for me, he is actually on vacation.
and then Eric Smith, who's to my left,
our manager, Emergency Preparedness and Operations Trainer,
this guy, I call him Professor.
He's phenomenal, but I just want to thank everybody.
Thank you.
And that will conclude my report.
Very good, with applause at the end, that's amazing.
Comments from the board?
That's a question.
Quick question.
We get reports of trains versus unoccupied vehicle.
What is normally the cause of having
an unoccupied vehicle on the track?
Usually the vehicle will stall and the person will get out of the vehicle
There's been a few instances where a vehicle was stolen and they parked it on the track
but not most of the time it's somebody that gets stuck on the track the car might die and
They just out of panic they get out and you know trying to call 9-1-1 and stuff like that any
investigations of any of these are intentional
There are there are there are a couple that are intentional and we get that determination from the coroner
Like a lot of times when the police department when they're doing their investigation
those suspect it's intentional, but
We really go off of the coroner's manner of death. So yeah, I guess I'm talking about unoccupied vehicles
Anybody parked their car and leave just to cause a collision. Oh, no. No, we haven't had that since way back
I don't want to mention it
All right, any other comments or questions
Very good. We I guess that was a good test test run for what's coming up in
2028 and it was nice to see
And and you say a 15% increase in ridership during that period roughly. Yeah, there's
All right, and with that those were preliminary numbers
Perfect. We have any public comments
Okay, that's receive and file that be the order of business for that and we will move to
Item 7g July legislative update by being presented by Jeff done good morning vice chair chafee members of the board next slide, please
The California legislature is presently in its summer recess will return on August 3rd to begin the final stretch of the legislative session
That time lawmakers will take up legislative fixes to the budget act passed in mid-june including various trailer bills to amend clarify and amend
implement specific provisions of the budget. It is within this budget
trailer bill activity that MetroLink is seeking state assistance to appropriate
35 million dollars of operations funding to the railroad to avert or
relieve the budgetary challenges that we are tasked with addressing to allow
MetroLink to operate at full service. We are circulating a joint legislator
sign-on letter to be delivered to the governor and legislative leaders in
early August and our CEO Mr. Kettle will be traveling to Sacramento August
fifth to pursue in person this advocacy with lawmakers and administration officials.
We will keep you apprised as these efforts continue.
On the federal side yesterday, the House departed for summer recess after narrowly passing
a continuing resolution to keep the government funded until December 4th.
It will return to session on August 30th.
The Senate remains in session until August 7th before it takes its recess.
Regarding the FY27 T-Hud bill, the House bill cuts passenger rail by an estimated $17.2
billion, which includes exploration of advance appropriations under the IIJA, cuts to Amtrak,
intercity rail, and the Chrissy Grant program.
The bill passed the Appropriations Committee on June 3rd via a party-line vote.
In the Senate, the Appropriations Committee is yet to release its bill or set a date for
markup.
Current level funding expires on September 30th unless a CR or successor T-Hud Appropriations
bill passes by or before that date. In Olympics funding, as reported to you last
month, Metrolink has held a senior level meeting with FEMA officials to share its
recommendations for funding allocation best practices in the soon to be
released notice of funding opportunity to guide allocation of the $1 billion
of Olympics security funding provided by the big beautiful bill. Metrolink will
continue meetings with FEMA district staff and state officials at Cal OES to
ensure these processes are implemented as efficiently as possible once the NOFO
is released and we'll keep the board apprised. This concludes my presentation
I'm happy to take any questions. All right very good comments questions Karen.
That word continuing resolution I know we just I believe that's the first time
we've done that. We've had to do it in the past but it's been a number of years.
number of years.
And the opposite, has there ever been legislature
that didn't have a continuing resolution?
It seems in Washington, DC, not in recent memory.
Of course, I think it's reflective
of the budgetary divide in both chambers.
Your comments were very much appreciated
when you said we'll start working on it earlier,
so we don't have this again.
Because you do it the second time,
It's gonna become a habit, so I just want to make sure
that we work really hard not to do that.
I certainly, I have ill feelings towards our legislature
that continually do that.
Now they're on break, because they did the
continued resolution, it's kind of, you know,
it's disingenuous to us.
So, thank you for your sharing of wonderful words.
Well, I would say, at least on the federal side,
if a continuing resolution passes,
and funds the government through December 4th.
That means status quo funding, which is actually good
because the House bill cuts passenger rail significantly.
The Senate likely will not do a bill.
If they don't, they'll have to go by CER
and it's level funded through December 4th,
which is better than cuts, so.
Okay, all right, yeah.
So, and thank you for that.
On the federal side, on the Olympic security funding,
I'm assuming that you are coordinating with LA 28
so that when we're asking for the security funding,
holistic approach to? It is a holistic approach absolutely with actors now in
terms of our meeting with FEMA we were focused on our recommendations for
Metrolink and for passenger rail when procedurally when the NOFO is released
so that is efficient as possible but of course the security funding is is very
much holistic from from all the edges. Are you meeting with LA-28 or do you have a
relationship with LA 28. We do have a relationship with LA 28 where I'm not
meeting with them specifically on security funding I don't know if we are
there. Yes we are director Barger both myself and then Hillary Consul is
coordinating we regularly coordinate with LA 28 on the security side as well
as Metro. Because I would just think if we're applying if we apply supporting
one another. I don't know what amount, what amount are you requesting? Yeah, I just, I'd
like to find out more about this because what I'm finding is happening is that many
agencies are kind of working on their own without coming together and I think
it's important as we move forward, we move forward with one voice so that we have
coordinated effort because while you're doing security on Metro Lincoln, by the
By the way, I'm really proud of, like we all talked about, the fact that we had no incidents
with the World Cup, and I want to carry that over to the Olympics, but I think it works
when you are coordinating across all regions to make sure that we are coordinating our
efforts and not duplicating.
And Jeff, correct if I'm wrong, so we know FEMA has already been given, it was, I thought,
a billion, right?
Right.
Yes.
our role has what we have tried to do is that for the Olympics and so what we're
trying to do is as as FEMA develops its notice of funding availability that
there is a recognition of the role that commuter rail we would play in that
larger situation so that we are able to access those dollars directly but we're
doing it in collaboration with all of the law enforcement that's involved.
Yeah and I would agree that you all play an important role especially in bringing
people into the region for the games and so I mean I'll advocate that you all are
an equal member at the table because when it comes to transportation we're
looking at across the board accessibility and and giving people
options to get to the venue. Thank You supervisor I would say one of the things
that we're going to be focusing on and that we communicated with FEMA is that
there be flexibility once the NOFO is released to have funding move as
expeditiously as possible to agencies that need it in order to allow enough
time to implement the requested funds for. For example, we need to install
camera systems on our entire fleet across the entire network and that takes
time. And so if the NOFO and the process goes too far into the abutting the
actual Olympics themselves, even if the money were to be appropriated beyond a
certain period of time, we would not have enough time to make those types of
investments. So that's one of the messages that we're that we're
communicating that there's flexibility in the process that we not only get the
funding that we're asking for but we get it timely. Good. Any other comments? Thank
you very much. Oh, public comments. We do have a request to speak from Adriana
Rizzo on this item. Okay. Hello, there is a line in the packet agenda packet for
item that was not in the report, but I thought was really important about the
need for sustainable funding sources that are not one time. Just want to
highlight that. I think there's a couple of opportunities for MetroLink to
advance that goal. The current lobbying efforts are really important, but I
think there's a couple of opportunities looking a little bit farther in the
future for Metrolink to advance that goal. One of them is there's a
proposition on the ballot this year, I believe it's Prop 2, to increase the
state's rainy day fund. I think this is really important for the state to be
able to find more sustainable lessons or middle funding for transit
because we have kind of a feast or famine budget situation at the state and
more stable year-to-year funding will make it easier to provide stable funding
for transit. Secondly, another opportunity is reforming the Transit Development Act.
As I mentioned in a previous comment, the unmet needs process allows millions of dollars
in transit formula funding. They can go to operations to be spent on other things every
This is a big priority for trans advocates, and I'd love for Metrolink and member agencies
to get involved in that process next year as well.
And then finally, just again, we need, I think Metrolink needs its own income, kind of, so
to speak.
We need, needs the ability to find new revenue that is not controlled by member agencies
and this is something that will require state authorizations,
so just flagging that for the board as well.
Thank you for all your efforts.
All right, very good.
Thank you.
Any last comments on this from the board?
All right, good.
We will move to item eight, our Chief Executive Officers report.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.
Next slide.
So we touched on the mechanical challenge
we had over last weekend.
I've used the term that it was a bit of a perfect storm of factors and again a fundamental
part of this is the challenge we're wrestling with the F125 locomotive, the only 40 in operation
anywhere in the world.
So we wrestle with those challenges with the manufacturer and again I think we're going
to see some progress in some of these areas but it is just one of the challenges of that
locomotive.
So it was not lost on Metrolink staff by any means that this was there, there are, there's
room for improvement and under Rod Bailey's leadership as the interim chief operating
officer there's already lessons, learns, effort in some of these things.
And as usual sometimes communication breakdowns are the biggest challenge that we experienced
and that was one of the cases that happened here.
But nonetheless it is, it's got our full attention.
next slide. Some really good news. We're really pleased to be able to share that our
finance team once again received the GFOA Certificate of Achievement, 10 years running.
So we always, that's a decade of success in this area and some of you have been around
for an extended period of time and will remember that times when we were not getting this award.
So I think it's a testament to our finance team
that we were recognized again this year.
Next slide.
All right, so we're all just reveling in the glow that
came out of the World Cup.
So we have a video here, and I'd just
like to share with board members what
our customers shared with us during World Cup.
Go ahead and roll the tape.
I'm really excited because I love soccer.
And especially because I'm around soccer.
That's why I do.
And right now, we're on the train.
It's my first train in the U.S.
And it's been a pleasant experience so far.
Once I realized it was at Union Station,
once I Googled it, I said, oh my gosh, I have to go.
I don't have to, I don't have to drive.
I can take the Metro link all the way up
and not worry about parking, get there safe and sound,
and enjoy my times.
I was telling my family that this
is a really nice, very clean station, very clean train,
and it branches out all over the place now.
So it's just a lot more affordable.
And also, sometimes it's just more convenient.
If it's rush hour, it's so much easier
to just get on a train somewhere than sit in the car
and like inch forward every few seconds.
So thanks to our comms team for going out and convincing people to share a few words
on their experience with World Cup,
whether it was going to a match or going to the fan zones.
Next slide.
All right, so a couple things.
Picture to the left, you'll recognize the guy.
The lovely lady to his left is my wife, Carrie.
We did have a chance to go to the Spain-Austria game,
one of the knockout stage matches,
and we experienced what our customers experienced.
We took, caught the train at the Moore Park station,
made our way to Union Station.
And then from LA Union Station, we got on a Metro bus.
My compliments to Metro, the full Metro team.
I had a chance to see Conan Chang the other day
and complimented him.
We got on a bus that was clean, smooth.
My wife was a little nervous of a neighborhood bus
doing 65 miles an hour on the flyover
between the 110 and the 105 as we got there because I felt a little bit like
Scotty from Star Trek that it's like we're gonna break up we're gonna break
up because it was shaking a little bit but it was a it was a great experience
and other than the portion of just being in LA traffic that unfortunately we
found ourselves in the bus was well air-conditioned the staff was great we
We had a great experience.
Along with that, though, I had the chance
to volunteer with a number of our Metrolink staff
in the tunnel.
And so this was after our board meeting last Friday.
Friday of last month, changed into a different suit
and joined our team volunteering and helping
guide customers.
That was obviously on a game day.
had a great experience with helping our staff.
We had something on the order of 60 out of our staff
volunteered, a number of people volunteered
on multiple occasions.
So it was just a really good feel-good moment
to be a part of the Metrolink team.
And we got a Jersey out of it, a Metrolink Jersey out of it.
Just let us know if you'd like one.
They run big, though.
But going back to one of the other questions,
how we saw success out of it.
Weekend boardings increase of 26% compared
to the prior six weekends prior to the World Cup.
So weekend boardings, 26% increase
over the prior six weeks.
We had a system-wide ridership growth of 12% year over year.
This is the statistic I'm most pleased with, though.
Nearly 25,000 new Metrolink mobile accounts
were created representing a 22% increase of new riders
introduced to our system over that six week period.
So that is directly attributable.
They're going to matches, they're going to fan zones,
they downloaded our app, and they signed up for it.
So I think that's a real positive story.
And just what a great experience across Southern California
to be a part of it.
And yeah, it was a great experience.
Next slide.
And that's it, Mr. Chair, thank you.
Very good, thank you.
All right, board member comments.
Anybody have anything to talk about?
Lunch.
Chair's comments.
I just wanted to mention a couple of things.
One, I went over after that last BAFCOM meeting
with Director Dutre and Marquez, and we went to the fan zone.
I thought kind of a precursor to what I expect.
The Olympics will be something similar.
And LA Metro, I have to complement their staff
And the way they set it up, it was neat.
You felt like you were really involved in the game that
was on and just the fans and the support, it made sense.
And I hope that they take that forward to 2028.
And the other thing, I guess that is going to be it.
If I can, I think, thank you, Metrolink, for this.
This is my mom passed just a week or so ago.
And thank you, Karen.
I was in Vegas where she lived during that meeting,
and Karen stepped up and appreciate that
so that I could tend to that.
But I would like, if possible, to just conclude today's
meeting in the memory of my mother, Audrey Phyllis
Reitman-Burksen who was born in December 15th of 1936
and passed July 1st of this year.
So 89 and 1 half wonderful years with myself
and my two sisters and her three grandchildren.
All going to miss her.
And you know, but with that, we will
close the memory of my mother.
And this meeting is adjourned.
Thank you.