MEETING NOTICE ANND AGENDA LOSSAN RAIL CORRIDOR AGENCY TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (TAC) The LOSSAN TAC may take action on any item appearing on this agenda. Thursday, March 7, 2013 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. L.A. Metro Mulholland Room – 15th Floor One Gateway Plaza Los Angeles, CA Staff Contact: Danny Veeh (619) 699-6957 [email protected] AGENDA HIGHLIGIGHTS • LOSSAN COMMENTS ON DRAFT CALIFORNIA STATE RAIL PLAN AND REVIEW OF SERVICE DEVELOPMENT PLANS • LOSSAN CORRIDORWIDE FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND OPERATIONS INVENTORY REVISED DRAFT REPORT • CROSS-COUNTY COMMUTER RAIL AND CAMP PENDLETON STATION RIDERSHIP ESTIMATES To request this document or related reports in an alternative format, please call (619) 699-1900, (619) 699-1904 (TTY), or fax (619) 699-1905. 1 MEETING LOCATION The main location for this meeting is at Metro in Los Angeles. Several LOSSAN member agencies will be attending this meeting via teleconference from the following locations: • Amtrak, 530 Water Street, Oakland, CA • Caltrans Division of Rail, 1120 N Street, Sacramento, CA • Riverside County Transportation Commission, 4080 Lemon Street, Riverside, CA The public is welcome to attend and testify at any of the LOSSAN member agency locations listed above, all of which are accessible to the public. For more information, please contact LOSSAN staff at (619) 699-6957 or e-mail [email protected] for specific meeting room locations at least 72 hours in advance of the meeting. Otherwise, conference calling is available. 2 Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Rail Corridor Agency TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Thursday, March 7, 2013 ITEM # ACTION 1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS 2. PUBLIC COMMENT/COMMUNICATIONS Speakers are limited to three minutes each. +3. FEBRUARY 7, 2013, MEETING MINUTES (Danny Veeh, SANDAG) APPROVE The LOSSAN TAC is asked to approve the minutes from the LOSSAN TAC’s last meeting. Please see the attachment. 4. STATUS OF MEMBER AGENCY APPROVALS OF LOSSAN JOINT DISCUSSION POWERS AGREEMENT (Linda Culp, SANDAG) Senate Bill 1225 authorizes a local authority to oversee Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner service. In order to implement this legislation, LOSSAN is required to amend the LOSSAN Joint Powers Agreement, which needs to be approved by the governing boards of each voting and ex-officio member. TAC members will discuss the status and schedule for these approvals at the meeting. +5. LOSSAN COMMENTS ON DRAFT CALIFORNIA STATE RAIL PLAN APPROVE AND REVIEW OF SERVICE DEVELOPMENT PLANS (Emily Burstein, Caltrans; Linda Culp, SANDAG) The TAC will develop final LOSSAN comments on the Draft California State Rail Plan and direct staff to submit a comment letter to Caltrans by the March 11, 2013, deadline. Caltrans staff will also provide an update on the service development plans. +6. LOSSAN CORRIDORWIDE FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND RECOMMEND OPERATIONS INVENTORY REVISED DRAFT REPORT (Linda Culp, SANDAG; Lane Fernandes, PB) Staff will review the revised Draft Corridorwide Facilities, Equipment, and Operations Inventory report and response to TAC comments. The report includes an inventory of intercity rolling stock, property, and facilities available to the intercity service, including ownership, type, and physical characteristics. The TAC is asked to make any final comments and recommend approval to the Board for its consideration at the March 22, 2013, meeting. This item was not ready at time of mailout and will be available under separate cover when completed. 3 ITEM # ACTION +7. CROSS-COUNTY COMMUTER RAIL AND CAMP PENDLETON INFORMATION STATION RIDERSHIP ESTIMATES (Johnny Dunning and Kim Hayford, NCTD) NCTD staff will present the findings of the cross-county commuter rail service ridership estimates. This study includes ridership projections for a proposed Camp Pendleton station. 8. AMTRAK AND NCTD COORDINATION EFFORTS (Nick Freeman, INFORMATION NCTD) NCTD staff will discuss its recent coordination efforts that are underway with Amtrak. +9. CORRIDOR TRENDS (Danny Veeh, SANDAG) INFORMATION The latest corridor statistics, including ridership and revenue statistics and customer satisfaction indices, are attached. 10. LOSSAN NORTH ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT/ INFORMATION ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (EIR/EIS) (Joe Valdez, Caltrans) Caltrans Division of Rail is working collaboratively with Caltrans District 5 to prepare a program-level environmental document. Project scoping meetings were held in January 2012 and the draft document is expected to be released to the public in August 2013. The Federal Railroad Administration requires rail corridors to have a programmatic EIR/EIS and an SDP in order to be eligible to receive federal funding for capital projects. +11. REVIEW FEBRUARY 20, 2013, BOARD OF DIRECTORS DRAFT REVIEW AND AGENDA (Linda Culp, SANDAG) COMMENT The LOSSAN TAC will review the draft agenda for the next LOSSAN Board of Directors meeting. 12. LOSSAN TAC MEMBER UPDATES INFORMATION 13. NEXT MEETING INFORMATION The next LOSSAN TAC meeting is scheduled for April 4, 2013, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Los Angeles. + next to an item indicates an attachment 4 Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Rail Corridor Agency TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE March 7, 2013 AGENDA ITEM NO.: 3 Action Requested: APPROVE FEBRUARY 7, 2013 MEETING MINUTES File Number 3400600 The LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) met on February 7, 2013, in Los Angeles. In attendance were: Mark Waier, Metrolink Via Teleconference: Trichelle Baysden, Metrolink Brian Hart, Amtrak Jay Fuhrman, Metro Noemi Rios, Caltrans James Hinkamp, VCTC Alan Miller, Caltrans Kim Hayford, NCTD Sheldon Peterson, RCTC Jay Fountain, Amtrak Lea Simpson, Caltrans Scott Spaulding, SBCAG Emily Burstein, Caltrans Linda Culp, SANDAG Jonathan Hutchison, Amtrak Danny Veeh, SANDAG Leo Hoyt, Caltrans Steve Fox, SCAG Joe Valdez, Caltrans Michael Litschi, OCTA Don Wong, Amtrak Karen Sakoda, Metrolink Henning Eichler, Metrolink WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS Danny Veeh (SANDAG) welcomed everyone to the meeting. PUBLIC COMMENT/COMMUNICATIONS There were no public comments. JANUARY 10, 2013, MEETING MINUTES The January 10, 2013, meeting minutes were approved. STATUS OF MEMBER AGENCY APPROVALS OF LOSSAN JOINT POWERS AGREEMENT Linda Culp (SANDAG) provided a status update of the LOSSAN member agency approvals of the Joint Powers Agreement (JPA). Since the TAC last met, VCTC, Metro, MTS, and CHSRA have approved. MTS approved with a request for three additional amendments: (1) require a super- 5 majority vote for final approval of the interagency transfer agreement (ITA); (2) include a clause that if the ITA negotiations fail, the LOSSAN Agency would revert back to the 2011 version; and (3) include a clause that should the state fail to fund an agreed-upon minimum level of service, management would revert back to the state within 30 days. The Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) group continues to discuss these amendments, which will need to be approved by the LOSSAN board for distribution to member agencies for their approval. The CEOs also recommended waiting on releasing the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Managing Agency until the JPA is approved. PACIFIC SURFLINER EXPRESS SERVICE EVALUATION REPORT Alan Miller (Caltrans) presented a review of the Express Train pilot project, which was launched in February 2011 and reduced the number of stops between San Diego and Los Angeles for northbound train #565 from nine to six, for a reduction in travel time of 12 minutes. The trip has suffered from poor on-time performance (OTP) and declining ridership with the exception of the past few months. Jay Fountain (Amtrak) stated that however you look at the data, the Express Train is not working. Mr. Veeh mentioned that in January 2012 there was a significant drop in ridership that coincided with the introduction of the single-level Horizon car consist. Lea Simpson (Caltrans) mentioned they have previously compared this train to other successful routes and there are a number of reasons why this train is not working. Ms. Culp suggested that a summary of lessons learned be compiled and presented to the board. Jonathan Hutchison (Amtrak) stated that regardless of how you look at the numbers the overall outcome is the same; the Express Train is not working. LOSSAN CORRIDORWIDE FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND OPERATIONS INVENTORY Ms. Culp noted that the TAC had discussed the need to develop a capital and operations inventory for the entire corridor as well as the major components of the report at the past two meetings, and introduced Lane Fernandes, with Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), to provide an overview of the draft report. Mr. Fernandes mentioned there are sections on the history of intercity service in the corridor, ownership of track, stations, and other infrastructure, and the process for changes or additions to train service. PB has collected several agreements pertaining to the corridor and will include them on a CD in the final report. Ms. Culp will collect the TAC comments until February 20. A revised report will be part of the TAC’s March 7 agenda, where the group will be asked to recommend approval to the board at its March 22 meeting. Overall, the comments were positive. Jay Fuhrman (Metro) stated that this will be a fluid document. Scott Spaulding (SBCAG) also mentioned the need to update this document annually. DRAFT CALIFORNIA STATE RAIL PLAN Emily Burstein (Caltrans) provided an overview of the draft State Rail Plan. There have been a lot of changes since the administrative draft, due in part to comments from LOSSAN TAC members. She noted that this draft attempts to better capture the blended rail service idea, with the goal to show the link and interdependency between intercity rail and high-speed rail (HSR). Section 2.1 describes the Southern California and Northern California working groups that are collaborating with CHSRA regarding early implementation of the blended system. This section also mentions the legislation that supports the transfer of management to local authorities for the LOSSAN and San Joaquin corridors. The goal of Chapter 8 is to explain the dynamic nature of capital improvements in the state and projects that are needed for blended service.