the car is too heavy and the doors have two many moving parts they too difficult to fix and diagnose par what could you do differently with the vrnd there's things in the system we can't change we have to have a short car because of the curves and even with all that what is the it you can over. so we've had several months of dialog with a number of manufacturesers that led us to go to a more performance factor. we want something down to specific dimensions. we need a door that's going to

be kijd a minimum of 7 thousand times a week. we need it to be used on both high and low platform. a give us your best design. we had a discussion a really good dialog with car manufacturesers. we cannot is let's look at the car in sookt or london and say there's one we need that bring it here. we can't change the train control system. we have to have a car that operates in high and allow floor depending upon on the dimension. so that's the approach we're taking. thank you >> as you pointed out mr. chairman.

this is the numbers of the current fleet we have 1 hundred and vicars and 1 hundred and fourteen that are scheduled on a daily basis. this represents a longer-term rec we've been working on or they're off the property and that's the rehab program we've undertaken. so there's 15 cars in there. we're very focused on a day by day basis. so on a typical day we have 14 l r vs getting inspections or running repairs. i have a renovate above our service of only 8 cars. a that's a pretty narrow margin. that would be for example, a

giants game there's 8 cars there's where your additional cars are for special events. so when you made the point ear letter we're careful in this process going forward that we set the system up for the next generation not just to replace it. so in the number i mentioned going forward it's our gallows not only to replace the existing fleet but to make sure we begin to meet the needs of the central subway and meet the demand we all know is coming. i thought it was worthwhile to take a look at the car numbers. we're trying to work not only from the mechanical side but

with the service and operational side to make improvements where we're trying to improve the service. 3 car subway shuttle, you know, this is something we've been testing. the tests have gone extremely well. the purpose is to relieve the crowding in the inner part of the subway. one of the issues with the 3 car testing is the cup letters. getting the cup letters able to have the communication system all through the cup letters. so we want to attach the 3 cars together and we won't have to be

cup listing and uncup listing. but both the number and the design of the current cup letter we have to pay attention to the trainline. so it requires us to an something like that on the 3 car trains to be cautious to get to that point >> i think the prospect of having 3 car trains during rush hour is exciting i think i speak for a lot of riders. so i understand what you're saying is right now because of the exchanges of cup listing and uncup listing 3 car trains would have to run exclusively from the west to embarcadero

>> yeah. when we have a system, you know, that's looking to - loot at ways to improve service we want to make sure what we introduce is successful. so we're making sure - there's other ways to do this but after three or four tests the biggest southerners was the trainlineing between car one and 3 so we had some issues as we tried to test with that. we made a decision to marry the 3 cars and keep them that way and, you know, weeping we'll run them into service >> and that would be within the subway itself? >> yeah. >> and in terms of the exchanges of the kidnap listing and uncup listing that's a

design issue. >> yeah. some of it not exclusively there's other factors like location but one of the things therapists perhaps long-range and overcoming so we can get to the point of start the the 3 car trains is solving the problem. the problem in all testing was keeping the trains communicating together in a 3 car train through the trainline and cup letters. >> and so by october you think we'll have at least for lack of a better term the 3 car in the subway. >> yeah. we've got one more test scheduled on wednesday night and if all goes well, we'll be coming forward to start

them in service. >> i hope we don't get the public's hopes up it's not like during rush hour we're going to have 3 car trains because they can't go above ground. >> no. we're going to start with one and check the success. from our standpoint the other advantage is it helps you with capability have less trains it can move less people >> do you think we'll be in a better position to have more 2 car trains. >> yes. we probably would be g but again we've got a car count issue. at some point we've need to look at the whole system and donates why the procurement going forward on the schedule is so

important because there's other - you know, we need to look at after the subway whether or not we could use different strategies. i think, you know, we're trying to be as creative as we know within the constraints and you want to agree wholeheartedly. we have those needs that prevent us from doing some smart things i know muni wants to like running 3 car vehicles it's an important process. >> can you and i want to know you don't have to commit we're going to have a hearing on the

programs and the transportation authority relating to the possibility of reconvene figuretion but additional standing room i look forward to that. >> in terms of other improvements i'd like to mention. the third or fourth down we're trying to manage the service. one of the things we need to be better at is recovering from displays in the subway. the faster you can recovery and the complexity of the vehicles if you will, and findings what the problem is and getting everybody the pro bono proper tools. so this is something else in the destine of a car we'll look at

the cab. i would point out there are a number of things that will improve the system in the near term. fourth and king area getting an adjustment made to the signal we've completed over labor today weekend will reduce the wasting time along embarcadero will benefit the t line and the t line will be able to make the turn down third street. i think, you know, we've made a number of component adjustments and component rebuilds. we're working on a rehab program. it's not the scope was not optimized so we're rescoping and working to get more of the key systems we've tubed in there. so, you know, our plan as it stands right now is to continue

with the improvements. i think we need, you know, we've made a big investment in the last couple of years and our maintenance staff is doing is good job. we're looking at other things but again, we're on the verge of going to 0 significant procurement for the whole region, you know, in numbers you've got both - we might not be buying as many cars as bart but we carry a lot more people and the importance can't be overstated. we're commented to applying the best lessons learned to working with the experts who manufacture and make real cars all over the world and to an open and

competitive process that will give us the best quality vehicle in the timeframe we need in a good price >> hazmat mat had challenges getting replacement parts for the light rail vehicles. >> i'm sorry. >> have there been challenges in the agency with getting replacement parts for the l r vs. >> well, yes. i mean part of it there's not - the reasons are complex. part of it you don't go to the manufacturer store and say i need this system. their designed especially for this car so, you know, that's been a challenge as well. we're working through the mirror i can't do of regulations and

city processes that we have to do to buy parts but clearly parts have long been an issue. we have an are experimental program going on right now to try to work with an outside vendor to work with us in the city to help. it's part and then - part you need parts and you need to turn the parts into components because whether it's compressors or other parts of car so it's been a chain of thing we need to get the parts and put together and when you get them on the vehicle. it's been a challenge for is a variety of reasons >> so right now muni has a total number of 1 hundred and 51 l r vs and 1 hundred and

fourteen of them are scheduled and only half the time do we have half of them in service and a well, in the last 60 days we've made pretty much consistently we're over the 1 fourteen or at it. that's because for example, as we looked at the portal entries either at church or west portal where the train enters we during this trial drill down and look for repeat vehicles and repeat operators and look to see why it was failing was it mechanical >> back in april the majority were on the vehicle. we're in the process of replacing antennas and it's made

a difference. i think we're going to continue to do that kind of thing to deal what the reliability issues and the procurement is up to two hundred and 15 light rails and that would really address a lot of the exchanges in terms of not having enough of light lights rail vehicles. in terms of the expansion in central subway and the growth on market street we're going to need more light rail vehicles. i also understand that muni will be replacing it's antiquated train system >> both but we've tried to set up the procurement process to take care of any car needs for the next generation. you know, with multiple optioned

so as we refine our needs subject to funding and a anything else else but clearly our goal was to meet the need for the central subway and the question is not if but a question of the right number and to start the process to make the existing cars more reliable in service by begin the process of replacing them over a long period of time. those cars are about 15 years old and we need to get another 10 years out of them so we need to make sure we're set up to do that so the investment we realize in the car >> thank you.

anything else? >> no, thank you. >> thank you very much. >> colleagues if there's no questions or comments. we'll open it up to the public on item number 3. any comments? come on up >> good afternoon. ron austin vice president for the transport union. just to piggy back on some of the things. frail we're very much behind mr. hail i didn't to improve the spa service. we gone along with mr. hale i didn't to do the night time testing. what we've seen is it's going to

be a huge success to increase our subway capacity. when you initialing mentioned the boeing cars the one thing about the car was you could cup he will and decup he will. we lost that ability with the brady car but we're going to get our capacitate back up in the plan. we also have a software plan that allows us to stop 2 trains simultaneously and continue the movement through the subway. those are other steps we're going to try to increase capacity. and with the explosion of growth

in the mission bay corridor we have a shortage of light rail vehicles in that we are looking at other ways of possibly expanding service. we know in the valley corridor complaints of noise of the vehicles. we're proposing the plan we have a number of historical vehicles and the possibility of supplementing the service on the l - and we've increased that service on the j line and supplements other areas we can have to push our way to maximizing our resources that we have currently >> great thank you very much. >> thank you. any additional comment.

seeing none, public comment is closed. mr. hale i didn't i want to thank you for your presentation and i want to thank t w u or on our very shared goal of improving other reliability on our system. we know what needs to happen with muni to make it more reliable. it's just a matter of having the political will to make that happen. i won't repeat many of the comments my colleagues have heard them to make sure we're adequately funding muni needs. but this is die we've heard this is indicative of what we need to do. we need more light rail vehicles

to rehabilitate them and get more useful life out of the ones we have. we need to make sure as we go through the procurement process we're getting light rails that meets the need of the san franciscans. whether that means they don't breakdown because of doors that fail or easier cup listing or dekidnap listing so we can once again have 3 car service. those are very, very important aspects of making sure we get the right kinds of l r vs. i'm very excited we're going through this processing process. i hope we see the light at the end of the tunnel and we have better designed vehicles

>> so colleagues if there are no more comments can we have a motion to continue this 80 to the call of the chair. >> that is adopted. >> madam clerk any additional business before the committee. >> no, that includes our business before the committee. >> ladies and gentlemen, we're

>> hi, in san francisco we're doing a special series called stay safe, about staying in your home after an earthquake. and today we're going to be talking about the neighborhood support center to help people find new resources when they stay in their home. ♪ ♪ >> we're here at the urban center in san francisco with sarah karlewski, deputy director of spur. we're talking about the

shelter, a safe place to stay, exhibition at their center. and part of being able to shelter in place in your home is to be able to find a place nearby where you can get the services that you might not have in your home. and that's what this little neighborhood support center is for. >> that's right. >> what are some of the services that might be provided in a neighborhood center like this? >> yeah. so, we think of the neighborhood support centers as really being homes away from home. so, after a major earthquake there is going to be a lot of confusion. people are going to need to try to meet up with other people. they're going to need a lot of information. so, a lot of what the neighborhood support center is going to provide is that information. basically we're going to be like a hub where people can come to get services, help, information, et cetera. what you see here on this table are a whole variety of did you ever rent things from tools, some walki-talkies.

this helps people know what is going on in their neighborhood. over here you have a whole variety of water and canned goods. we're really hoping that people will stock up for themselves at least for the first 72 hours if not more. i know that i have a ton of canned food and other sorts of things such as water within my own home. and everybody should, but there's going to come a time where people are going to end up running out and needing more. so, that's what we've got right here. >> so, this neighborhood support center, this doesn't look to be a major city sponsored fully stocked space. it can be a small commercial space, even somebody's garage as long as they have the information, a guide of information, who to call for what, communications equipment, some power, have a generator. >> that's right. >> thinking of lights and charge your cell phones and so on.

and probably be operated by volunteers. >> volunteers, maybe members of nert could help out, people who live in the neighborhood that have some building skill could be helpful. so, if there is a structural engineer living nearby or even an architect, they could really help people kind of understand what has happened to their homes and what sort of repairs might be needed. >> here we are with some of the things that you might find in a neighborhood support center. one thing we learned from hurricane katrina, people really rely on their portable electronics and their phone. we say here's a charging station tied up to the generation. the essential coffeepot. >> yes. >> maybe a computer, you can check your e-mail with. >> yes. we have our charging station here. and then over here you can see we've got a whole variety of things, including the all-important different tags. so, lawrence, do you want to talk a little about the tags?

>> sure. people want to know what do these tags mean. is my building safe or unsafe. these are the city owe initial tags. staying in your home doesn't require that you get a tag. it just means that you use common sense and maybe get help from people who might be around who can help you evaluate whether it's a safe place to stay. >> you might want to know because regular city services are disrupted, you might want to know when trash pick up is, if you need to get clean water, et cetera. also in the neighborhood support center, that kind of information would be available and we've got a little of that up here. >> trash pick up resumes regular schedule on wednesday. >> that's right. >> please mark your human waste. >> that's right. >> so, this is kind of an information center, communication center, also a center that hopefully will show people how to relate to their neighboring communities, what else is happening city-wide. and, of course, this is sort of the ubiquitous form of communication.

my cat is missing, call me. >> exactly, because a lot of times, even if you do have a cell phone, and people do if you're really trying to save some of your precious energy minutes, et cetera, or it's not working as well as it normally does, it is helpful to have a message board that you can get information to other people. and, so, that's what we're showing here. you can see people are going to be looking for their pets. they're going to be looking for rides. people are going to need to be sharing resources a much as they possibly can. another thing that you can see here is they're going to need to be fair tools and some of the things that people are going to need in order to be able to stay safer within their homes. so, we're just showing sort of a gesture to that with all these different tools here. but then also tarps, people are going to need to cover their windows if their windows are cracked, if their roofs are broken. so, ideally, the city would be able to know where all these

neighborhood centers are and help deliver some of these supplies. >> they could come from a neighbor, maybe not. thank you so much for allowing us to come in and share this wonderful exhibit. and thank you for > president torres. >> here. >> commissioner moran. >> we have a minimum qualm and approval the