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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRE Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes 11192015 Agenda Item#2 TRINITY RAILWAY EXPRESS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Thursday,November 19,2015 The Trinity Railway Express Advisory Committee convened at 12:00 pm on Thursday, November 19, 2015 at the Intermodal Transportation Center Community Room, 1001 Jones Street, Fort Worth, Texas. The following Committee members were present: Carter Burdette, Mike Cheney, Mark Enoch,Andre McEwing, Ken Newell and Rick Stopfer. Others present were: Gary Thomas, Paul Ballard, Bob Baulsir, Tim McKay, Maureen McCole, Monica Fowler, Joe Costello, Tom Tulley, Nathaniel Morgan, Harlene Kennedy, Detra Whitmore,Shannon Hergenrader and Charles Chambers. 1. Call to Order Mr. Stopfer called the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) Advisory Committee meeting to order at 12:00 pm. 2. Approval of Minutes: August 18, 2015 A motion was made to approve the August 18, 2015 Trinity Railway Express Advisory Committee minutes. The motion was seconded and the minutes were unanimously approved. 3. *Safety Briefing Mr. Tulley, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Mechanical Officer, provided a safety briefing informing the group of where to exit, where to meet, who will contact 911 and who could perform CPR in case of emergency. • Safety 4. *TRE Operations Report Mr. Tulley briefed the committee as follows (presentation on file in the Office of Board Support): • Monthly Ridership—July—October • OTP and Special Events • Special Events Mr. Cheney stated that Mr. Tulley reported that there was an uptick in ridership but the quarterly report that was distributed shows a decline. Mr.Tulley replied that it is an uptick in the sense that over the entire year, ridership was averaging about 7,100 daily, and it is now up to 7,800 to 8,200 coming into the new fiscal year. Fuel prices have leveled out and after the initial drop off when the fuel prices were low, ridership is starting to come back. 1 5. *TRE Quarterly Financial Information for Period Ending June 30,2015 Mr. Costello distributed the THE Quarterly Financial Information Report (on file in the Office of Board Support) and stated that these financials are proforma; they are not audited, although both DART and FWTA's TRE finances are audited. He reviewed the information within the document. He stated that new for the next quarter, the report will compare budget figures to actual figures. Mr. McEwing asked what the farebox recovery ratio is. Mr. Thomas replied that it is in the 26- 27% range. Mr. Cheney asked why purchased transportation was down almost $1 million. Mr. Costello replied that fuel is included in that figure and fuel prices have continued to run lower than the budget. Mr. Enoch asked that in looking at the Summary of TRE Assets page, why is there a decrease from the original cost to book value under "Land". Ms. McCole replied that as part of the DART/T agreement on the Cotton Belt,FWTA signed over their interest in the Madill. 6. *Positive Train Control (PTC)Project Update Ms. McCole briefed the Committee as follows(on file in the Office of Board Support): • PTC Update • PTC Spectrum and Radios Ms. McCole stated that the amount of the annual lease payment is approximately $10,000 a year, if the spectrum is leased through PTC220. We also received the radio spectrum report last week that was commissioned by PTC220 for the Dallas/Fort Worth region, which confirmed that the radio towers on the THE corridor are sufficient to support PTC, so that will reduce the estimate. Also received in the report was confirmation that the two towers planned for the TEX Rail project would be sufficient as well. • PTC Challenges • Status of Congressional Action - Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2015 Mr. Burdette asked if there is anyone from the federal government trying to centralize this project so that all of the various rail operations in the United States can not only get on a compatible system, but on a single system. Ms. McCole replied that it was left it up to the industry. The Class I railroads have taken the lead for the interoperability portion and have done the majority of the design and research across the country. Mr. Burdette asked to what extent is the FRA trying to steer everybody into a single interoperable system? Mr. Burdette added that TRE is spending time and money getting these systems together, and he was concerned that the THE could go down one path and then find out later that everyone else is on a different path. Ms. McCole stated that the agencies are coordinating with BNSF, UP, and Amtrak on PTC, and BNSF and UP have been gracious in sharing lessons learned, so the agencies can hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls. The groups are working together to make 2 sure everything is interoperable. It is also part of our systems integrator contract and is a deliverable as well. Mr. Stopfer asked if the groups are working together because of relationships, or is there a contract/agreement in place with the different entities. Is there any value in UP and DART/TRE entering into an agreement,that it is known that anything owned or operated as a combined group would be interoperable, rather than someone else that could come in with something different that wanted to operate on our corridor. Ms. McCole replied that there would have to be dual systems in place if a railroad wanted to use a different system other than the I-ETMS, which would be cost prohibitative to those entities. It's very unique situation, especially with the Class I's, as although they are competitors, they joined together to ensure that all of the protocols and procedures for interoperability are agreed upon. For example, it makes sure that the operating systems have to be within two software versions, so there are some stringent requirements for this. Mr. Stopfer stated that his concern was that there are agreements in place allowing the agencies to do this. Ms. McCole replied yes, that staff is currently operating under nondisclosure agreements, but are working towards getting full-fledged agreements with them for spectrum and radios. They are also willing to share their safety plans, which have already been vetted with the FRA. In some areas, there will be some cost avoidance since they are sharing their information. Mr. Burdette stated that the PTC system will be one that prohibits people from operating on the corridor if they are not compatible? Mr. McKay replied yes, unless they are in compliance of the upgrade versions and we aren't, then that would get our attention quickly. It would work both ways. Mr. McEwing asked if the configuration management is an additional scope of work, or would that be a training component? Ms. McCole added that the configuration management is part of the system integrator's scope of work and has also been part of a good practice that is instituted under the new operations and maintenance contract. 7. *Reeional Commuter Rail Operations and Maintenance Contract Update Ms.McCole briefed the Committee as follows(on file in the Office of Board Support): • O&M Contract S. *Capital Projects Update Ms. McCole introduced Nathaniel Morgan, AVP Commuter Rail, who briefed the committee as follows: • Valley View Project o Project Status/Next Steps o Accelerated Bridge Construction(ABC) o Bear Creek ABC 3 Mr. McEwing asked about the advertisement of the bids. Mr. Morgan replied that the advertisement will come out through DART procurement. Mr. Enoch asked if CH2M Hill were the buyers of URS. Mr. Morgan replied no, that was AECOM. CH2M Hill and their bridge designers have done a good job thus far in developing the ABC plans. Mr. McEwing asked if there was a contract for the 2nd engineer of the existing contract. Ms. McCole replied that the contract with the first engineer of record had expired, which precipitated bringing a 2nd engineer of record on to review the design. Mr. McEwing asked if in the contract,there was an option for the 2nd engineer. Mr.McKay replied that it was almost five years ago when it was designed the first time, and whenever something is designed and sits on the shelf for that long, then someone needs to be hired to give an independent look. Age of the design, opportunities to combine the two projects since both were funded, and the marketplace were the three factors used. • TRE Bridge Replacement • Stemmons Bridge Ms.McCole briefed the Committee as follows: • C wa Cemetery Road • Ta • n • oiling Stoc • Reimbursable Projects 9. Selection of TRE Advisory Committee Chair Mr. Newell made a motion to nominate Mr. Burdette. Mr. McEwing seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved. 10. Identification of Future Agenda Items Mr. Stopfer requested an update regarding the high speed rail project, since TxDOT is looking at our right-of-way as an option,there should be some input from this organization as well. Mr. Thomas stated that staff will ask TxDOT to brief the Committee, since they are doing the preliminary engineering for the segment between Fort Worth and Dallas. He was on a panel with Mr. Bill Meadows and he believes that Mr. Meadows would be happy to talk about what their Committee is doing, until December 31, which is when that Committee dissolves, unless TxDOT extends it. Mr. Enoch commented that in the minutes from August 8, 2016 that there was a request by someone to find out what increased fares would be gathered if Herzog handled fare enforcement, would that cover the cost of Herzog? Ms. McCole stated that she could guess that the money could be recouped for the cost of Herzog. Mr. Enoch stated 1.23% is a low ratio of fare evaders and they all will not be caught with fare enforcement. He stated that he does not see how having Herzog provide fare enforcement would pay for itself. Mr. McKay added that the other factor to consider would be that if HTSI handles fare enforcement across 4