PENINSULA CORRIDOR JOINT POWERS BOARD
Minutes
Thursday, November 4, 2005 at 10:00 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
: José Cisneros, Don Gage, Jim Hartnett (arrived 10:12 a.m.),
Arthur Lloyd, John McLemore, Sophie Maxwell, Michael Nevin,
Ken Yeager (arrived 10:08 a.m.)
MEMBERS ABSENT
: Stuart Sunshine
MTC LIAISON PRESENT
: Sue Lempert
STAFF PRESENT
: George Cameron, Cheryl Cavitt, April Chan, Robert Doty,
Rita Haskin, Gigi Harrington, Chuck Harvey, Jennifer Hardie,
Ian McAvoy, Martha Martinez, David Miller, Michael Scanlon,
Mark Simon
Chair Nevin called the meeting to order at
10:05 a.m. and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Director Gage requested that agenda item 10,
Guiding Principles of the High Speed Rail Coalition, be continued to
the December meeting.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Jeff Carter, Burlingame, said trains were overly crowded the
weekend of October 8-9 due to Fleet Week, the PGA Golf Tour, and the
Stanford Scavenger Hunt. Hopefully Caltrain will be better prepared
in the future.
Jack Ringham, Atherton, presented a list of the top ten reasons
why Caltrain should have a greater fare increase in January. A copy
of the list was included in the Board Reading File.
Doug DeLong, Mountain View, asked that the Board consider
elimination of discounted tickets for seniors, disabled and youth,
and replacing those fare categories with one discount for low-income
riders.
Richard Mlynarik, San Francisco, suggested holding the base
fare constant and increasing the zone fare because the Baby Bullet
is attracting longer trips.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The Board
unanimously approved the following items under the Consent Calendar:
MTC Liaison Report (Sue
LEMPERT)
MTC heard a report
of an in-depth study regarding transit oriented development. The
study examined properties within ½ mile of a train or ferry station
and revealed that
29.4 percent of
people take transit to work and 22.7 percent walked to their
destinations for non-work trips. The study will be further expanded
and delineated between rural and suburban areas.
REPORT OF THE CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE (CAC)
Michael Kiesling, vice-chair of the JPB CAC,
reported on the October 19 meeting:
·
There was a presentation on the State of Development
of Caltrain, which included a tool that shows the right of way from
a conductor’s point of view. There was also an update regarding
electrification.
·
New CAC member, Suvashis Bhattacharya (San Francisco)
was introduced.
·
The December CAC meeting will be held at SBC Park.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Michael Scanlon, Executive Director, reported:
·
Ridership was over what was anticipated the second
weekend of October due to Fleet Week, the PGA tour and Scavenger
Hunt in San Francisco. An extra train was operated but there were
still many delays and trains with standing room only. Next year,
more service will be offered.
·
Union Pacific is doing tie replacement in the Santa
Clara and San Jose areas directly adjacent to Caltrain main track
two, which is causing some delays.
·
The new ticket validators are being installed at key
stations. 25 of the 35 have already been installed. The old
validators will be refurbished and installed at stations.
·
The Hillsdale northbound platform opened November 7.
Station construction continues and 150 additional parking spots will
be available at the beginning of the year.
·
The Caltrain Toys for Tots holiday train will operate,
in cooperation with the Golden Gate Railroad Museum, the Salvation
Army and the Marine Corps, December 3-4. Last year over 6,000 toys
were collected.
·
The Safety and Security report will be brought to the
Board in December with data one month in arrears, as is customary
with other Board reports. Therefore, no report was distributed this
month.
·
Chuck Harvey gave a first quarter update on the
Reinvented Caltrain schedule.
Director McLemore asked how long it will take to complete the
storage yard between Diridon and Tamien stations. He also asked when
more cars could be procured with the federal funding being received
from the sale of Budd cars to Grand Canyon Railway.
Robert Doty, Director of Rail Transportation, said staff is working
aggressively with the storage yard project with an anticipated
completion date in March 2006. He said the federal funding has been
received and staff will take the next steps in procuring the cars
and will get them in revenue service as soon as possible.
Director Lloyd said ACE has offered the use of three of their
consists for Caltrain service.
Mr. Harvey responded that staff has been talking with ACE and
discussions will continue. There are some issues with bike capacity
on the ACE trains. It might make more sense to wait until CEMOF is
constructed when it will be easier to cycle and turn equipment, he
said.
Director Gage asked if it would be worthwhile to operate a reverse
commute to South County in the evenings, which may help alleviate
some congestion at Diridon station.
Mr. Harvey responded that the problem is having the trains ready to
operate in the Northern County the next morning, which would cost
more in crew time because of the extra traveling in the morning.
Director Yeager asked if the lack of capacity issues included track
as well as onboard the cars.
Mr. Harvey said most Baby Bullets are at total seated capacity and
there is not the infrastructure to increase service more or enough
equipment to add cars to consists. Overall, the system is running
very tightly.
Director Yeager asked how electrification will increase capacity
issues.
Mr. Harvey responded that electrification will improve the system
end to end by about seven to eight minutes, which includes stopping
for approximately two minutes of time for boarding at the stations.
Mr. Scanlon said electrification allows the consist to accelerate
and decelerate with more efficiency although it doesn’t operate at
higher speeds.
Ms. Lempert asked what the status was for restoring service to the
stations that were closed.
Mr. Harvey responded that at this time, staff has designed a
timetable that has drawn customers to different access points and
revenue is up despite the suspension of service at some stations. At
this point, there might not be an advantage to reopening the
stations unless others were closed in exchange.
Ms. Lempert asked how the Regional Rail Study will affect the
Caltrain system.
Mr. Scanlon said it is too early to speculate. However, staff will
analyze the study once it is complete and Caltrain will manage its
responsibilities and do what is best for the region.
Jack Ringham, Atherton, complimented staff for improving Caltrain
service during the peak hours. However, he encouraged staff to look
at off-peak hours to gain back riders that were lost because of
infrequent service.
Ed DeLanoy, San Carlos, encouraged the Board to operate shorter
trains for time and fuel efficiencies.
April Chan, Director of Capital
Programs and Support, said Staff Coordinating Council (SCC)
recommends the Board authorize amendments to the Capital Budget to
include;
a)
San Francisco Downtown Extension (DTX) Preliminary
Engineering – JPB Technical Support: add $985,000 to provide JPB
staff support for Transbay Joint Powers Authority’s engineering and
design efforts of the SF DTX project;
b)
Layover and Storage Yard at Tamien: add $1,400,000 to
construct a train layover and storage yard to relieve congestion at
the Diridon Station;
c)
Closure of Stockton Avenue Crossing: add $373,994 to close
Stockton Avenue railroad crossing in San Jose; and
d)
SF Bike Facility at San Francisco Caltrain Station: add
$400,000 to construct a bicycle storage and parking facility at the
San Francisco Caltrain station.
These amendments will be funded by
external grant sources and do not require additional member capital
contributions in FY 2006.
Director Yeager asked what
notification would be given to the neighbors for the construction at
Tamien.
Mark Simon, Special Assistant to the
CEO, said the Communications department will deliver flyers to the
condo residents adjacent to the construction site, which has a
description of the project and a phone number to call if there are
further questions or concerns.
This item was tabled, per Director Gage.
CORRESPONDENCE
Previously distributed.
Proposed transfers
of property to San Mateo County Transit District and the Peninsula
Corridor Joint Powers Board involving (1) Property located at the
northeast corner of El Camino Real and Holly Street in San Carlos
and (2) Property located between El Camino Real and the Caltrain
right of way in San Carlos immediately south of the existing
Caltrain parking lot
David Miller, Legal Counsel, said this item
would be deferred until the December Board meeting.
ADJOURNED
Meeting adjourned at 11:05 a.m.
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