Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

SFGTV Government Access Programming July 14, 2024

Talking about how different that service would be from the Caltrain Service today. We really are talking about migrating from something thats a traditional Commuter Rail service, where you have a few trains an hour, you have to remember your train number. To something that is for most stations in the system going to be much more of a showupand go service. By directional, allday, really an urban transittype service, where we would have express trains running all day. Express trains by directionally from gilroy all the way to downtown San Francisco. Faster, more frequent service, show up and go at most stations. Something that would have the capacity to triple our ridership and remove more than five freeway lanes worth of traffic from the system. Where we are in the process, we laid this draft vision out to our board in great detail in august. Weve been out taking input. And the t. A. Board is one of our last stops before we kind of go back and really try to distill everything we heard to make some changes to what were recommending. We will return to our board in october for their potential adoption of a recommended Service Vision. Were in the process of conveep ago special meeting to dive deep into the organization issues. Thats something we heard from the board and we wanted that and confirmed that for a november timeframe now. Our hope is to wrap up the complete Business Plan in early 2020. Weve been doing a range of outreach. Casey, our director of community affairs, has really been leading that effort. And really focusing on working with all of the different 21 local jurisdictions on our corridor, to make sure that they understand what were doing and what it could mean for them. Thank you. Chair thank you, sebastian. I dont know if you have additional preparations, and i know that mr. Hartnet is four minutes past his departure time. But, jim, if you want to wrap up and then i know that commissioner walton has some questions or comments, as do i. And well open it up to other members of this body and then members of the public. Just wanted to thank you again. And i appreciate the working relationship with your staff. Their report in support of this agenda item was comprehensive and it really very well done. I think they have a solid handle on the Business Plan and caltrain electrification, the p. T. C. Project. I appreciate all of the work they do, as well as, mr. Chair, and the board. I just want to say thank you. I think all of the presentations were quite a mouthful. There was a lot there. Chair thank you, jim. Commissioner walton. Supervisor walton thank you, chair peskin. Thank you director hartnet for coming down from san carlos today. I want to ask a couple of questions. You know, this is a very ambitious vision, complete with electrification, more trains, even during none commute hours. This vision is one to get extremely excited about, as this growing railroad, both in ridership and in service, will be a premiere means of transportation from San Francisco, at the transit terminal, through the south bay and into silicon valley, all the way to gilroy. This vision can only be realized with dedicated Funding Source and regional governance structure, worthy of a worldkensington palace. Were currently working to select the appropriate Service Levels of the Business Plan, as you heard in the preparation. The suggestion is the moderate stage. And the organizational structure that will help realize this vision. Just as f. Y. I. To my colleagues and to the public here in San Francisco, i have also made a request to consider a resolution to undertake procurement for general counsel and Legal Advisory Service for caltrain at the november meeting. This request is in good line with Good Governance and best practices. Also a testament to the understanding of the tremendous growth of the railroad. I do just have a couple of questions for john. As we know, moving forward with the Business Plan, electrification is a big piece of realizing that vision. And so i wanted to know the status of electrification in the budget. Okay. So on the electrification piece, the two major components both projects are on schedule and on budget. Starting with the electrification piece, the completion date is december of 21. And we have a Team Monitoring that on a daily basis. While were all sleeping, the infrastructure is being upgraded. On the e. M. U. Front, were working very closely with stadler usa, our electric train manufacturer. They have two and a half train sets. And when i say a train set, thats a sevencar set in various stages of assembly. Were monitoring the production very closely, as their fabrication of the car body occurs in europe. 60 components of u. S. Parts. To give you a sense of scale, theres about 25,000 parts are useed to assemble a vehicle. We have an outstanding Quality Assurance program that monitors serial numbers each component so we have a documented history of what gets incorporated into the car for its future maintenance and operation needs. Supervisor walton my followup question. Ensure our current contractors are able to deliver . Well, were as supervisor walton, as any large construction contract, its theyre challenging. Theres issues that arise every day. We have an Outstanding Team that works on resolving these issues. To highlight some difficulties with the electrification piece. Were encountering a number of underground utilities along the corridor. This corridor has been around since the time of abraham lincoln. And theres been a lot of things buried underground. Were in the midst of assisting in uncovering these utilities. Just helping them decide which ones are abandoned, which ones are actual live, working with them very closely to redesign components, as needed, as we set the foundations and the poles. And o. C. S. System is very intricate, in that one shift of one pole actually has cascading effects on the adjacent poles. So were working very closely with them to mitigate issues that are encountered. Working with the e. M. U. , the manufacturer stadler usa, we understand the challenges of actually establishing a new Assembly Plant in the United States working with u. S. Suppliers. And were monitoring the supply chain closely. The quality of the various components incorporated into the vehicle, so that we assure ourselves well have a very reliable train. And theres been some hiccups there in terms of labor, manpower, train staff, stadster usa has responded by shipping a lot of journeyman, trained labor forces from switzerland. And have brought them into the United States to act as train the trainer with a large u. S. Based workforce. I was there about a week and a half ago and noticed some of the improvements in the manufacturing facility in both train staff and quality enhancements. Wall supervisor walton i want to let everyone really know how excited really i am about this vision and this plan moving forward. Its a Business Plan. It really does take into account everything that will be necessary for this rail system to be one of most vibrant transportation rail systems that we have. And really in the state of california. And so its going to take all of us working together, understanding the intricacies and thank you for bringing the team in and presenting on the plan and on electrification. Were going to continue to work hard to do everything that we can to make sure that we can realize this vision responsibly as a team here in San Francisco. Chair thank you, commissioner walton. And thank you for your service on the j. P. B. Commissioner yee. Supervisor yee thank you, chair peskin. Also excited about your vision. Id like to recognize you moving, especially when youre talking about a system thats going to be almost like showing up and just catching the train. Although i wish we had this vision 20 years ago. So i have just some simple questions around the Business Plan. For my better understanding. On your summary page, when you benefitcost ratio that youre talking about. For the moderate growth its 1. 33 and for the high growth its 1. 04. So is my interpretation to say that were better off doing the moderate growth, because it has more benefit to the cost . Through that specific, somewhat admittedly narrow analysis. Thats why we did a comprehensive analysis. I think in doing this times of calculations, we looked at economic benefits in that specifically two caltrain riders. So really kind of benefits that are contained within the system. When we look at the highgrowth scenario, what were talking about building to achieve, that really requires building a lot of long fourtrack extensions. And theyre very expensive and they are costs that would some of the costs could be shared between multiple systems and multiple beneficiaries. When were going to the highgrowth and really building the long sections, theyre really costs that accrue to the regional railroad, to caltrain. That parts of what makes the costbenefit ratio a little bit lower. Supervisor yee and then because i saw another set of numbers. I forget what page its on. The percentage of operation recovery or something. Yes. Supervisor yee as soon as i the recovery for that was better for the high growth. So thats why i was a little confused. Why wouldnt we do that. I mean, so we could cover operations through the fares. Yes. And that was a finding. The capital costs in this case are so tremendous, they townsend to dwarf some of the ongoing marginal difference. Supervisor yee thank you for the explanation. Chair commissioner fewer. Supervisor fewer i think this is very exciting and i think super ambitious quite frankry. But im wondering when youre speaking to our regional partners, and you i guess when youre doing this plan, youre also taking in account Economic Growth of along that corridor and also about housing plans and developments, is that correct . Thats correct. So our the landuse forecast we used to do our ridership projections and Market Analysis are based on the adopted plan bay area. What weve done beyond that, looked to see if individual jurisdictions have actually approved or undertaken any developments that significantly change or exceed those projections. M. T. C. Is in the mid of beginning their next plan barrier process. So as they have new projections, well take a take a look at thod see how it changes as well. Supervisor fewer yes. Im wondering then are we taking into account, if there would be a slowdown in the economy . If we hit a recession. You know, in the bay area corridor we are very dependent on tech. That tech industry. And if we see fluctuations there, that might last for a long time. Do you have a contingency plan with your board about what might happen . And a modified timeline if we were to have actually a recession. Sure. I think the way i would answer that plan is, you know, we very consciously called this a 2040 vision. By doing that, really what were trying to say is a longrange vision. So were trying to look at everything thats on the board today and put together the pieces of what how does it all fit together in the longterm. When all of these big projects are built and done, how do we make a complete system. Some of the way weve built that analysis and the work were doing now, is looking at the path to get there. What are the different paths to get there. Thats sort of the space where i would really answer that question, of, you know, we know where we are today. We know what were building and buying for the early 2020s when were electrified. We want to know when were going in the longterm future, so we can go there efficiently. We have flexibility in terms of how fast we move on that path or how aggressively we move. Supervisor fewer and so then i imagine youre working with regional jurisdictions around their transportation plans, to actually have caltrain be accessible to all parts of their residents, is that correct . Yes. Some ofin fact, thats a major f the analysis to complete before we finish the Business Plan. Once we have a single specific plan to complete to, some of the major pieces of work were scoping out and starting now looking at connectivity to other systems, how people are getting to the station. If we triple our ridership, we dont want to triple the number of parking garages were building. Those connections will be very important to us. Similarly looking at the equity implications of the work were doing and really how do we as we shift to Allday Service thats more use to a broad range of folks and trip purposes, how do we make sure caltrain can grow the Customer Base to include all of the people who want to use the system. Supervisor fewer thank you. My last question is. The gentleman before mentioned that youre on budget with the electrification. And, i mean, and also it should be completed by december 2021. And yet in your report, you say that bellfor is now forecasting a substantial completion on april 16th, 2022. Why is the discrepancy and who is right . So thank you for that question. Sobellfor is currently under contract with the agency to deliver the electrification infrastructure. And that contract has timelines, listed costs, performance bonds. And so while we work very closely with bellfor in monitoring the progress and helping them be successful, bellfor is informing us its taking them a bit longer, as related to constant warning time, which is the grade crossing design component. So what they have said is that its taking them longer and we in our response to bellfor, were enforcing the terms of the contract, and have assisted them in the approval of the designs. As an example, they would issue they would give us a schedule asking for more time, because of extended design reviews. And so the way the Agency Responds to that is that we deny that request. And we give them assistance in getting and allowing bellfor to be successful in those design reviews, as a specific example, working with union pacific. We have a shared corridor, where freight operates along the corridor. And u. P. Has the Design Authority to approve or deny a certain type of grade crossing design. And so the agency is helped with that process. Weve received u. P. Approval. And in turn expect bellfor beety to give us to be able to pull that schedule back. Well continue to work with bellfor to be successful, but we are enforcing the terms of the contract. Supervisor fewer . Okay. Thank you very much. You mentioned about sadler and that they were importing people to train the trainers, is that correct, but in your report it actually says its securing alternative suppliers to pick up the shortfall. So that is a different i think tactic on being able to meet the requirement for our vehicles. So theres actual two questions there. So the alternative suppliers actually deals with sizenbocker, which is a they supply the finish components to the vehicles. And so sizenbocker is a European Firm that established a presence here in the United States. Its very good at what they do. And every train manufacturer is using them. And they are while the quality is high, theyre having trouble meeting all of their contracts. So were looking at stadler is looking at alternative alternatives, in addition to sizenbocker. Theyre putting a lot of pressure on sizenbocker usa to deliver on this job. They havent given up on that. But if for some reason the finishes are not arriving on time, theyll be looking at alternative suppliers. What i was referring to in my presentation was the labor force and the trained labor force was probably like any industry, its tough to get labor to theres so much work out there. And theyve imported folks from europe to help train folks, even without experience and helping them train and be productive on the Train Assembly line. Supervisor fewer okay. Thank you very much. Chair thank you for those questions and answers, commissioner fewer and mr. Fungy. And before i launch into and pull back the curtain on one sticky wicket, i do want to say that the best policy that any agency can have, with regard to the delivery of very complex Capital Projects is to be as honest and forthright with the public and Decision Makers. And im saying that in the wake of this is i know this is a sensitive topic. Im saying that in the wake of this is after your time, john. But in front of this body on a number of occasions, your successor in the central subway project said to this body and to the public and to members of media that we were going to be in Revenue Service by the end of this calendar year on the central subway. And, of course, it turns out that is going to be another year and a half. I suspect that mr. Hoe might have known that. And had clues about that, because the f. T. A. Oversight reports were already indicatingg that. And im not saying that anything is behind schedule or over budget, relative to this but when we start to think that, we should probably tell everybody that. Thats for what its worth. Its better than ripping the bandaid off at the end. But what i was actually going to touch on is that i would like to associate myself and this body and i think we have already done that in terms of a vote, with the words that our planning director and our executive director from this agency penned on august 30th, with regard to the caltrain Business Plan 2040 and the longrange Service Vision and organizational assessment, which i concur with all of the members who just spoke is a wonderful document to have. I think taking stock and thinking comprehensively at this point for the next generation, makes great sense. The issue around organizational structure and dynamics, i want to say for the record, isnt it an issue about any county or elected Decision Maker wanting to garn

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