>> open session. item 16, the announcement of a closed session. they voted to unanimously settle a case and take no action. the board also discussed labor negotiations and the performance about the mission but took no action. there was no discussion of anticipated litigation. item 17 is a motion to disclose or not to disclose. as the chairman indicated, we're now returning to the executive director. chairman nolan: mr. director? director ford: we have had an

issue concerning our systems, and i have asked a man to briefly give you an overview of the three main causes of these delays. the three main causes of these delays are disturbed blocks in the subway, and damaged or severing of the peace signal cable loop, and failure to receive automatic train controls signals, so what i am going to ask john to do is verbally give you a quick update on those three particular ims,e impact that they have, what causes those failures, and then what s the game pla resolve them, and, in fact, one of the three issues that i have described as lready been solved with software, but at issue are aware, over the last 1.5 munn spam a two months, there has been an inordinate number of these delays. we have been on top of them and are working closely with manufacturers and consultants reduce of the st. john, could you briefly walk me through

these three items? >> ok, just to give the board some context, around those three points, since we have restored the rail service back in september, there is a number of things i think from the positive side that have gone on with the service, number one. we have consistently made a count, which is 114 every day. the operator availability, we continue to put the service out there. this is interrelated. all five lines are tied together, so if you have an issue with one, you have an issue in all of them, and what has taken place, i think, again,

in the context of these types of incidences is that you have a very heavily used infrastructure. you have a system that is -- when i say system, i am talking about the infrastructure, meaning signals and the control system, but also the vehicles themselves that interact on a daily basis. what has taken place in terms of the last several days, first of all, in the types of incidents, the system has -- the first category of incidents -- first, let me start with the automatic train control system, the ats. trains enter at one of three areas. when they go from manual into

automatic and go into the subway, they are supposed to stop, get the signal. and on an average, in the month of september/october, and a couple of months proceeding that, on almost 200 plus times in a month, we did not get that signal. now, the cause of that is either something in the wayside or something on the vehicle, and the impact from a service perspective is when the train is not recognized, the system puts it in manual. there is a restricted set of procedures that must be followed. the safety spacing is increased, so the system is slow down, and, again, in an integrated system, it has a residual effect, so this failure to receive the signal does 7 negative impact on service, especially when you

have that number -- does have a negative impact on service. over the last 18 to 24 months, the signal -- there is an upgrade to the software, the software being on board the train. it recognizes when a train is going from.1 mota into -- going from one mode into another. the fleet was retrofitted and completed in the second week of october, and it has been from the end of that time in october to september -- what that tells us is, number one, the software if it is working, that the trains are accepting and getting automatic train control. in addition to that, what we

need to continue to look at is the maintenance of the wayside equipment and then other causes on the vehicle that could cause a trained not to get the signal system, so in that particular system, we have an average of some 200 plus per month. the principal change has been the software fix that has been developed in concert would signal manufacturers, and those instances are going down. we can trust them. the second type of instance that happens, in in a couple of these, it has been significant. -- and in a couple of these, it has been significant. when you have a splicing or failure of the signal cable, the signal cable sits on the rails.

it is the communications between the train and the train control system that allows the train to go automatic. what happens is if something like a metal object or a piece of a metal object hanging from the car side of the train can splice the train control system. when that happens, as has happened 11 times in the month of october, the system fails, and what that means is it goes to manual, and because of the nature of the way we run, you do not have the type of system that you can find the splice automatically. the system is down, and you continue to move trains, albeit very slowly. it has had a detrimental effect on the service, and then we put people on the ground. we continue in between other

trains to try to locate the supplies and identify and make a repair, -- locate the splice and identify and make a repair, and when we find it, we go back to automatic. there is a device that is attached to the underside of the trucks of the car. its purpose is to hold and then dump sand if there is an emergency brake of situation. since this has been around, there has been a number of issues with them, and this is the fourth. we are working with the vehicle engineering people. they have identified, they believe, a couple of months ago the best retrofit. it is now in all of the 130 or so cars that are here on the property. we have had three incidents in the last nine days.

i would like a little more time to be able to say that we have got the problem -- and that this is the right fix before us, so we will continue to work with vehicle engineering on this. it has been very, very difficult. in the situation i have described, it delays for a long period of time. you have to see it. this has been a principal cause. in addition to that, that will position us to bring in and set up a program to replace the existing cable with a new signal, a new signal cable, or a new train control cable. i am using these terms for the purpose of this discussion

interchangeably, and because others have had a number of splices, we continue to inspect it, and we continue to repair it, but we want to replace it. we have talked to the manufacturer about it. they have a protocol for about, but we have not been able to do it, because the two in our minds are in sequence. first, you fix the one, and then, you fix the cable. we believe if this holds, that will allow us to begin a process to not only upgrade the cable but replace it as well as to take other train control upgrades that we're looking at with the manufacturer, but, again, this has been a problem that has had serious disservice implications because it has gone as long. the residual delays have gone on for as long as six hours in one particular day to try to find this problem, so this is a problem that we are bound and determined to fix. the third category of these

train control issues is something called the disturb block, and the system that we have not, it recognizes the train in a particular area by counting axles, so if there are six in a particular block, the system knows that there is a trained there, so what happens is that on occasion, a block will go disturbed, and what that means is that there is something either a piece of metal, the piece of a track break, or some other metal that could be loose or hanging from the undercarriage of a car that tells me, the intelligence of the system, that you have got another axel in there, so in that particular case, what happens again, it fails to save. you go to manual, and you take the train, in you clear the block, and then after the train goes through a manual, you should coat and resume operation

-- and you clear the block. the last couple of months, this has happened about 50 or so times. what disturbs blocks. october. with them, i think the impact has not been as great in most cases because most of the time, we have the protocol where we reset the train. it can be a minimal delay it with nothing behind it. so the point i am trying to make in getting all of these together is the system well utilized, at the same time we have made some progress in many aspects of the service in the last couple of months, we have had a series of incidents like this, a couple of switch incidents, as well, that have had a significant negative delay on the impact of the system. at the same time, the good news

is that the existing train control system continues to fail safe and continues to do this almost every minute for the system, and we are working. we had a very engaged it, not only internally, but the manufacturer, the system is engaged not only with the fixes of these particular problems, but also, we're going to have them work with us on the maintenance, because we had a brief discussion about a switch incident, and, certainly, some of the other switches, what we want to do is make sure that our maintenance program reflects the usage of the system, that not every switch, we have some very high usage, and they need a lot more attention, not only preventative maintenance but perhaps by having an extra one on hand and doing an automatic replacement -- excuse me, replacement of those comp plan

-- i am sorry to go through this so quickly. it is a complicated subject, but at the same time, i feel that while we have had a difficult days dot because of these incidents, we have been able to identify the causes at the same time working to solve the problems. chairman nolan: thank you very much. mr. heinicke? director heinicke: i have been talking to the other writers -- riders about that, so think you for confirming that that has not been the case. in the past month, we have had an inordinate amount of

disruptions, and this is a problem. why this has happened in the last two months as opposed to others, while it is no doubt in imaging system or that system uses is a part of this, what i am hearing is it is really three issues, all of which i think you have identified a fix for. " director -- director ford: the three things that cause some of the delays, including the disturb the blog and the failure to recognize and receive automatic train control, we do have a good -- i think we have a good grasp of what the issues are. we have made a lot of progress

in solving them. we need to continue that. i am cautioning you about drawing a line. the last two months, it is not your imagination. there have been, in fact, more of these types. some of them have been building, so, for example, the remedy for the sanderholtz and the reprogramming of the software have been in the works for 18 to 24 months, so i think the good news there again is that the core foundation of the automatic system is doing what it is supposed to do. the cause of these things, basically the interaction between the vehicles -- right now, the of the thing i would point out, and some of these is

good news, we have scheduled 114 vehicles. depending on the day of the week, 103 or more, and part of this is giving some overhaul, so because of all this is that we analyze these particular incidents, and this is the kind of rail system that requires day-to-day, constant attention -- director heinicke: i understand that, and i do not want to interrupt you, but the riders i encounter every day, the email me