DATE: April 6, 2004 TIME: 6:00 P.M. LOCATION: Capital Metro Transit Store 323 Congress Ave, 1st Floor Members: Rene' Barrera, Mike Waddles, Thomas Gunther, Thomas Butler, Verona Thornton, BJ Taylor, David Patterson, and Carl Tepper Associates: Jerry Balaka Staff: Carl Woodby, Dina Vaquera, and Sandra Maggitt Visitors: Jennifer Bennett
- Meeting called to order at 6:10 PM.
- March Minutes were motioned to approve upon corrections below. Minutes were second by the committee.
- Introduction of VP Vehicle Maintenance - Carl Woodby
- Rapid Transit Subcommittee - Carl Tepper - Carl stated that there is nothing to report. He stated that he spoke with a friend that was going to the LBJ school administration which had a complete seminar from Fred Gilliam. Carl stated that he is a little annoyed that they seem to be more informed about what is going on with the Rapid Transit issues than the committee. Rene' stated that thought he had received a notification regarding the meeting. Thomas Gunther stated that he believed Rene' was talking about the amenities workshop that took place on Saturday at the Thompson Conference Center. Carl stated that this meeting had a preview of what the Rapid Transit system would look like as far as Commuter Rail and the stand alone Light Rail. This was two separate systems that would work together theoretically and he would like to know more about this.
- Amenities Subcommittee - David Patterson - Westgate signs are partially done. Most of the stops service three lines. There is one line that is scheduled, this one ends at Westgate which is the one least needed because it is the end of the route. Unfortunately the two routes that do not end do not have directional signs on them. The #16 South 5th route starting at Brodie and 290 has a stop at Westgate for 20 to 25 minutes before continuing into downtown. David stated that he would like to know why the bus is stopping for this length of time inbound to town. He stated that it would seem that the bus would layover at the end of its route rather than goes up to 10% of its route and stops for 20 minutes, have the passengers hang out on the bus and just sits there before the bus continues. Rene' asked David to put this information into the report that he prepares monthly.
- Technology Subcommittee - Richard Greenwalt - No Report
- Fixed Routes Subcommittee - Jerry Balaka- No Report
- By-law changes - Tepper/Barrera - No Report
- Others -CSAC Membership - Rene' stated that after meeting with Dianne Mendoza and Barbara Chavis, they (Carl and Rene') asked them to utilize those opportunities as ways to recruit new members. There were rooms that had advocates of transits, and hope they followed up on all requests. Thomas stated that he requested brochures from Barbara and would like an update on this.
- Bus Stop Database Project update - Renee Brill
- Transit Oriented Development Guidelines - Sam Archer
Correction to Executive Summary page 5, Correction to the statement "Multi is not the word that he was looking for and that he didn't stated", to "Interdisciplinary is the word that he was looking for and that he didn't state".
Correction to Minutes page 2 should read, "Capital Metro will take care of the abuse at that time because it will be theft to service if the customer is requesting assistance and does not need it". This sentence replaces the following, "Capital Metro will take care of the abuse at that time because it will be theft to service if the customer are requesting assistance and does not".
Rene' stated that there are additional corrections which he will send to Sandra via e-mail. Corrections are from the Summary, page 3, fourth paragraph. page 4, second paragraph, and page 5.
Carl introduced himself to the CSAC Committee. He informed the committee that he is the Director of Vehicle Maintenance, has been with Capital Metro for two months and came from NFTA in Buffalo, New York where he was responsible for vehicle maintenance. Before this he was in Dallas, where he managed the Contractor Transit Service for DARTS and the Fixed Routes Para transit Service. Carl stated that Capital Metro has been regarded as a great place to work, so for him, this has been a good move.
Rene' asked, "In regards to DART, were you involved with the latest improvement with Light Rail and the fleet itself for the last ten years?" Carl stated that he had and when DART was going through the purchasing of L&D vehicles, they put in their own C & G stations. He stated that they did not have a lot of alternative fuel like DART, what they had was alternative fuel, and Para Transit vans. Theirs were primarily C&G fuel using their stations and public stations. The amenities such as stop announcements that DART was doing, they also did in New York.
Rene' asked Carl if he was familiar with the AVL. Carl stated that he is familiar with what Dallas was doing with the AVL and they had the responsibility of maintaining the system for their fleet which was about 300 vehicles. In Buffalo, they have an AVL system for approximately 300 vehicles in Para Transit.
Rene' asked Carl if there was anything he would like to bring to the committee as far as the program; his strategic vision or where he sees Capital Metro will be with a five-year plan. Carl stated that Capital Metro is currently putting together a five-year plan. What they are doing is looking for some long-term issues with vehicles, with Clean-Air there are programs that they are trying to institute under the TURF Program with the state. Steve Herrera has been working with the state on this and good things have come of this.
Per Rene', "What is the latest analysis of the Hybrid Buses that are being used?" Carl stated that there are two buses which are coming along really good. They are closely watching the fuel miles per gallon and the maintenance of these buses. So far they have not encountered anything that will be a show stopper, there's nothing that's going cause it not to work, the drivers love it, it's a good performer and it saves on fuel. The only negative thing about the Hybrid buses is the initial cost.
Carl Tepper asked to know the life span of the regular buses and the life span for the Hybrid buses. Carl Woodby stated that the life span for the regular buses is 12 years which FTA requires you to keep the bus. Hybrid buses are also 12 years, but with the power, they really don't know how long this will last. Typically, the average transit diesel engine will go up to about 250,000 - 300,000 miles before it needs to be rebuilt. This particular engine, the way it's behaving, could easily last the life of the bus. Rene' asked if the fuel cost was diesel. Carl stated that it is and that the advances have a locomotive type engine where a diesel engine powers a generator. The duty cycle of the engine stays constant as opposed to the normal bus engine which is constantly in a load or either on or off. The Hybrid evens out the power load of the engine which makes it last a lot longer.
Carl Tepper asked to know how many Hybrid buses CMTA had. Carl Woodby stated that they currently have two buses but there are plans to purchase more within each year. Carl asked if these would replace the other buses and would Capital Metro buy more of the other buses. Carl Woodby stated that they are still going to buy buses with diesel engines that has clean diesel. There is a lot of technology with diesel engines that makes a much cleaner burning diesel. The couple of things that they have to watch carefully is the cost differential of the Hybrid buses. These buses are about $200,000 more than the regular buses, so they have to be physically responsible. The other thing is that they are new and Capital Metro wants to make sure the technology is true. For the five-year plan, there are 30 buses that are due to be replaced next year. It will be another 4 years or so before Capital Metro start replacing the fleet on a large scale. This will allow time to let these buses work in the system to make sure they have purchased the right products because there are several different types of Hybrid buses on the market. Capital Metro thinks they have the best one, but they would like to make sure before they send the dollars through the loop hole.
Per the 250,000 - 300,000 miles before the buses have to be retired, Carl explained to BJ that the buses are not retired, but that the engine has to be overhauled approximately every 5 years. The buses averages approximately 40,000 - 50,000 miles per year and the average age of the buses are 4 years.
Thomas Gunther asked, "How does CMTA compare with other similar transit authorities in terms of their percentage of Hybrid buses?" Carl stated that on the average, they are ahead of the others. There are a couple of properties that are getting into the Hybrid, but most properties are afraid to get into the Hybrid because of overhead that may be required. Another reason is that there are two different technologies out there, and people are waiting to see which one is the product of choice. The two types are Allison, which CMTA uses, and BAE Systems.
Rene' asked to know what type of bus would be compliable to the BRT service on a maintenance perspective. Carl stated that there are two BRTs that acts like a rail, so you would have to look at the trip length. If the trip length is designed to be 35 to 45 minutes, you would want to look at a bus that is similar to the MCIs to accommodate the long trips.
Rene's requested to know if Carl had any experiences with articulated buses. Carl stated that he had. Rene' stated that he heard when visiting Houston's Metro a couple of years ago that they had continuous problems with the maintenance. Rene' asked if this technology problem been approved upon within the last four years. Carl stated that he's not sure but with any bus you would have to figure out what it need and make sure your maintenance program would take care of this need. Carl stated that the maintenance for an articulated bus is almost one and a half times as much as a 30 to 40 foot bus. Carl stated that Capital Metro is making plans to handle articulated buses at the new North Ops facility. Rene' stated that there will be a presentation within the next few months on articulated buses.
Rene' stated that the committee is very interested in the ongoing maintenance and new technology and that it always good to get a report. He stated to Carl that he hope he enjoys Austin as well as Capital Metro. Carl stated that he would be more than happy to provide information regarding any questions that the committee may have. Rene' welcomed Carl aboard and invited him to come back anytime to give updates or fresh information. Rene' stated that they are a committee dedicated to providing quality and providing customers with expertise on customer satisfaction. Carl stated that this is important in terms of the department and he appreciates the opportunity and if it's okay he would like to come back.
Subcommittee Reports -Rene' stated that he would investigate this matter and see what the call for the invitation was about. Thomas stated that the meeting on Saturday consisted of an overview of the bus stops and all amenities and what issues are connected to them. The amenities were broken down into groups by region and there was a chance to get input on specific stops as well as more general information. Rene' asked if it was documented as far as video tapes. Thomas stated that it was not, but there was a lot of note taking and writing on comment cards. Thomas stated that he would get with Planning to get the notes. Rene' stated that he would get the information for the committee by next month's meeting.
Thomas Gunther asked David if he knew what justifies which schedule information would be posted at a stop that has 3 different buses making that stop. Rene' stated that it would help if there were some guidelines to steer them in that direction and to do some type of assessment based on the situation. Carl recommended that they would like to have this on the Executive Summary because wanted to feel like they are doing something other than just sitting there talking to one another. He stated also that they have been talking about these signs for approximately a year and would like to know what he hold was up. David stated that there are regulations about how wide the sign could be, but he thinks a lot of the signs have unneeded verbiage and could be condensed. Thomas Gunther recommended to have laminated sheets where you can flip up each sheet. He stated that he does not know if this would be a vandalism issue. BJ stated that this could be a problem for the people who might not be able to flip. She stated that there was once the rotating schedules, and what happened to those.
David stated that at the Burton and Oltorf stop, to transfer buses you would have to walk a quarter of a mile to transfer. At the last stop before the transfer point is about 2 to 3 blocks apart and then you would have to hike over another block to get to your transfer point. Rene's asked David to put this on a list so that he could look into this.
Jerry stated that it might help if you had some type of system where you could call in if you had a cell phone, because there were a couple of people who came up and couldn't get in so they just gave up and left.
Rene's stated that he would talk to Barbara about facilitating how people could get in to the meeting once it has already started. Dina informed the committee that she was at the front door until 6:25 PM. Carl stated that we need a buzzer.
Rene' stated that he suggested meeting in the room up front, but there were plans for this area. This was not feasible but it would be a good way to see the public walking by and that this group is engaged in something positive things to influence Capital Metro. This could also be a way to go about it so that you would not have to worry about not been seen.
New/Other Business: Other Business:Rene' stated that it's been several years since the committee talked about Transit Oriented Development and he is interested in finding out where the City is and where Capital Metro is a far as the planning strategy in working together because the City has ordinance capabilities and Capital Metro doesn't. The City however will need Capital Metro because they have the mechanisms to provide the pedestrian friendly multimodality as far as bus service, rail and whatever they decide on technology. It is really important that they start working early on the meshing of these entities. This would include also the community and clean neighborhoods. There is a lot of apprehension about gentrification and he would like to be able to work it out and have a dialogue early. Rene' stated that he would like to find out where they are so that everyone will be on the same page as these things come forward.
Rene' stated that the City Manager sent out a public information announcement about commercial development guidelines and that there is a survey where you can get on-line and fill out. The survey has pictures of different developments with design guidelines and is due by April 15th. Rene' stated that he will send this to all the members by tomorrow morning.
Carl Tepper stated that he has been heavily involved with some of this and advised the committee to be careful when filling out the survey because it is very leanly.
Rene' stated that he e-mailed the committee in respect to the Subcommittee Reports. He stated that it is a positive thing if they had information to report and that he also wanted to be fair with the time that members spend on these committees as well as the time that is being spent on them. Rene' stated that what he meant by this is that the committee should have subcommittees that have people on them rather than just one or two people. He stated that he would prefer two to three so that there would be a really good creativity, and information that would be enervated when presenting to the Board.
New Business: Action Items:Communicate with Barbara regarding timelines on Westgate signage and information on Burton and Oltorf cross areas.
Communicate with Barbara regarding special events meeting. (Action Team)
Communicate with Travis Hausmann, John Hodges and Barbara Chavis regarding the Adopt-A-Stop program for a shelter at 34th /Jefferson.
Future Agenda Items:
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority
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