MEETING NOTICE AND AGENDA MEMBER AGENCIES LOSSAN TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE California Department of The TAC may take action on any item appearing on this agenda. Transportation Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority North San Diego County Transit Development Board Tuesday, September 9, 2003 Orange County Transportation Authority 11:30 am – 2:00 pm San Diego Association of Governments th San Diego Metropolitan Transit Santa Monica Room, 13 Floor Development Board Metropolitan Transportation Authority San Luis Obispo Council of Los Angeles, CA Governments Santa Barbara County Association of Governments Ventura County Transportation Commission SANDAG Staff Contact: EX-OFFICIO MEMBER Linda Culp (619) 595-5357 Southern California Association of Governments [email protected] SANDAG ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL 401 B Street, Suite 800 ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS San Diego, CA 92101 Amtrak fax: (619) 595-5305 Burlington Northern Santa Fe California Public Utilities Commission Southern California Regional Rail Authority Note: This agenda is sent to the LOSSAN Board of Directors for informational purposes. Union Pacific LOSSAN TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Tuesday, September 9, 2003 ITEM # ACTION 1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS +2. LOSSAN BOARD WORKSHOP (All Members): REVIEW AND TIME CERTAIN: 11:45 a.m. COMMENT The agenda and core items for the September 13, 2003 Board of Directors workshop at MTA have been developed based upon comments from the TAC and distributed. Staff will present the slide show for the workshop and any remaining logistical items for the TAC’s review at the meeting. The facilitator for the workshop will also be available. +3. UPDATE ON TEA-21 REAUTHORIZATION AND OTHER LEGISLATIVE DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES (Caroline Reis, NCTD) An update on the current reauthorization efforts and developments related to FY 2004 federal appropriations will be provided at the meeting. The TAC also will discuss recent efforts on the part of member agencies to update the LOSSAN corridor definition in the reauthorization bill. 4. TAC MEMBER UPDATES INFORMATION +4A. Pacific Surfliner Ridership And Revenue Report 4B. Caltrans Intercity Rail Competitive Bidding and Service Options Study Update 4C. Other members 5. NEXT MEETING INFORMATION The next TAC meetings are proposed for Tuesday, October 14, 2003 and Tuesday, November 18, 2003 at MTA beginning at 11:30 a.m. 6. AMTRAK PASSENGER RECOGNITION ACTIVITIES (Sarah Swain, DISCUSSION Amtrak): TIME CERTAIN: 1:30 P.M. Amtrak, Caltrans, and LOSSAN Staff are planning events at the end of the month to recognize Amtrak’s two-millionth passenger for the year, an all- time high record ridership. Events are planned at the San Diego Santa Fe Depot and Los Angeles Union Station, as well as onboard a Pacific Surfliner train. Amtrak staff will update the TAC on specifics at the meeting. 7. PUBLIC COMMENT/COMMUNICATIONS Attachment: LOSSAN TAC Meeting Summary Notes, August 5, 2003 + next to an agenda item indicates an attachment. 2 Attachment 1 September 9, 2003 TO: LOSSAN Technical Advisory Committee FROM: Linda Culp, SANDAG SUBJECT: August 5, 2003 Meeting Minutes The LOSSAN Technical Advisory Committee met on August 5, 2003. In attendance were: Liz O’Donoghue, Amtrak Via Telephone: Deadra Knox, SCRRA Linda Culp, SANDAG Bill Bronte, Caltrans Leslie Blanda, NCTD Jay Fuhrman, MTA Shohreh Dupuis, OCTA Betty Laurs, for OCTA Ellen Roundtree, NCTD Pete Rodgers, SLOCOG The major items discussed during the meeting are summarized as follows: LOSSAN BOARD WORKSHOP Staff reported that a quorum of the Board is expected for the September 13, 2003 Board of Directors workshop. The Chair and Vice Chair also would like to encourage TAC members and managers from member agencies to participate in the discussion. In order to encourage member agency participation, Board Member Proo recently spoke at the bimonthly meeting of the Metrolink chief executives and encouraged them to attend. Staff also asked that TAC members follow-up with their executive. Staff summarized the draft agenda and core items for the workshop and the TAC had the following comments. In terms of the agenda: Move the Corridor Conditions report to earlier in the workshop and review what has happened in the corridor since LOSSAN’s inception in 1989. Add a description of the corridor to the Corridor Conditions section. Move the Milestones and Funding items to Corridor Conditions section. Drop the Agency Issues section. Move the Visioning for the Agency exercise to after the background information has been discussed. Drop the Agency Strategies and TimeLine as a separate section and integrate it with the Visioning section. Also in the Visioning section, include time for a discussion of where the agency is headed in terms of a range of opportunities and options for the board to consider. 3 In terms of the core items: Rework the What is LOSSAN? Section in reflect the reasons why the agency was formed, the legislation that created the agency and what the agency originally accomplished. Also in the section, include a discussion of the advent of commuter rail operations, the Southern California Intercity Rail Group (SCIRG) during which time LOSSAN was inactive, and the recent resurgence of LOSSAN. In the Corridor Conditions Section, discuss the operating support that Caltrans contributes to the corridor and how this is a unique relationship with Amtrak in the corridor. Staff will make these revisions and distribute via email to the TAC during the week of August 25, 2003. The agenda is scheduled to be mailed on September 4, 2003. UPDATE ON TEA-21 REAUTHORIZATION ACTIVITIES AND OTHER LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES Staff reported that letters were sent to the corridor delegation urging their opposition to the House Subcommittee on Appropriations recent proposal of $580 million for Amtrak in FY 2004, well below the requested $1.8 billion. Federal transit fund levels were also reduced, while highway funding was increased under the proposal. The House Appropriations Committee reviewed the Subcommittee’s markup and restored Amtrak and transit funding, although not to the levels requested by Amtrak or the transit community. Amtrak funding is proposed by the full committee at $900 million. TAC members also discussed the need to correctly define the LOSSAN corridor in SAFETEA. NCTD staff reported that this subject was recently approached with Senator Barbara Boxer’s staff and there did not seem to be a problem in getting this language inserted. NCTD staff will follow-up with the Senator’s office, to be followed by a letter from LOSSAN. PASSENGER RAIL INVESTMENT REFORM ACT OF 2003 Liz O’Donoghue was welcome by TAC members as the new representative from Amtrak. During the last week, the Bush Administration released the reform bill for Amtrak. Overall the bill would break Amtrak up into 3 separate companies: (1) an intercity rail operator that would be open to competition for state or multi-state sponsored service; (2) a Northeast Corridor infrastructure company, and (3) a public agency that would retain Amtrak’s access rights and brand. While the responsibility for intercity and long-distance service would shift to the states, no additional revenue sources were identified. Other potentially negative issues from Amtrak’s standpoint are that it assumes that states will take over operations and this would make particularly the long-distance service difficult to maintain and manage. A positive for states is that the bill calls for a 50/50 split for capital projects, a larger federal share than currently. Caltrans and Amtrak are further analyzing the bill and will provide this information to the TAC when it becomes available. Since the Bush Administration released its proposal, Senators Hutchinson, Lott, and Burns have introduced a bill felt by Amtrak to be more national in perspective. This would authorize $12 billion in operating subsidies over a six-year period, and a $48 billion capital infrastructure bond for the same time period. 4 MEMBER UPDATES Pacific Surfliner Ridership and Revenue Report Amtrak reported another record month of ridership on the Pacific Surfliner corridor and the 11th straight month of record levels. Riders taking advantage of the Amtrak-Metrolink-Caltrans Rail-2-Rail program reached an all-time high. Recognition of the Two-Millionth Rider Amtrak staff also updated the TAC on events underway to recognize the two-millionth rider this year on the Pacific Surfliner service. Events are tentatively scheduled for Thursday, September 25, 2003, but this date needs to be finalized with dignitaries. The two-millionth rider will be chosen on a trip from San Diego to Los Angeles and recognized at an event at Union Station. As details are more developed, an update will be provided to TAC members. MTA’s Gold Line MTA staff reported that their newest light rail line, the Gold Line from Union Station to Pasadena, opened over the weekend. Nearly 160,000 passengers took advantage of the free service over the weekend. FY 2004 State Budget Caltrans reported on the newly-signed state budget and potential impacts to the corridor. There will be no change to intercity rail operations over the fiscal year. Funds from the Governor’s Traffic Congestion Relief Program (TCRP) are not expected in the foreseeable future. The Department expects specific funding challenges in November 2003 and April 2004. NEXT MEETING The next TAC meeting is scheduled for September 9, 2003. PUBLIC COMMENT/COMMUNICATIONS None. 5 Agenda Item #2 2003 BOARD WORKSHOP Saturday, September 13, 2003 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Windsor Room, 15th Floor MTA One Gateway Plaza Los Angeles CA AGENDA 10:00 -10:15 a.m. Check-In at 3rd Floor Security Desk, Proceed to 15th Floor 10:15 a.m. Welcome and Introductions Goals for Board Workshop LOSSAN Issues Paper 10:30 a.m. - Shared Corridor: Shared Responsibility ............................... Page 3 11:15 a.m. Description of Corridor LOSSAN Past: Milestones in the Corridor LOSSAN Present: Current State of the Corridor LOSSAN Future: Challenges Ahead in the Corridor 11:15 a.m.