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

>> here we are at the embarcadero. we are standing at one of locations for the street artists. can you tell me about this particular location, the program? >> this location is very significant. this was the very first and only location granted by the board of supervisors for the street artist when the program began in 1972. how does a person become a street artist? there are two major tenants.

you must make the work yourself and you must sell the work yourself. a street artist, the license, then submitting the work to a committee of artists. this committee actually watches them make the work in front of them so that we can verify that it is all their own work. >> what happened during the holiday to make this an exciting location? >> this would be a magic time of year. you would probably see this place is jammed with street artists. as the no, there is a lottery held at 6 in the morning. that is how sought after the spaces are. you might get as many as 150 street artists to show up for 50 spaces. >> what other areas can a licensed street artist go to? >> they can go to the

fisherman's wharf area. they can go in and around union square. we have space is now up in the castro, in fact. >> how many are there? >> we have about 420. >> are they here all year round? >> out of the 420, i know 150 to sell all year round. i mean like five-seven days a week. >> are they making their living of of this? >> this is their sole source of income for many. >> how long have you been with this program. how much has it changed? >> i have been with the program since it began 37 and a half years ago but i have seen changes in the trend. fashion comes and goes. >> i think that you can still find plenty of titis perhaps. >> this is because the 60's is

retro for a lot of people. i have seen that come back, yes. >> people still think of this city as the birth of that movement. great, thank you for talking about the background of the program. i'm excited to go shopping. >> i would like you to meet two street artists. this is linda and jeremy. >> night said to me to print them -- nice to meet you. >> can you talk to me about a variety of products that use cell? >> we have these lovely constructed platters.

we make these wonderful powder bowls. they can have a lot of color. >> york also using your license. -- you are also using your license. >> this means that i can register with the city. this makes sure that our family participated in making all of these. >> this comes by licensed artists. the person selling it is the person that made it. there is nothing better than the people that made it. >> i would like you to meet michael johnson. he has been in the program for over 8 years. >> nice to me you. what inspired your photography? >> i am inspired everything that

i see. the greatest thing about being a photographer is being able to show other people what i see. i have mostly worked in cuba and work that i shot here in san francisco. >> what is it about being a street artist that you particularly like? >> i liked it to the first day that i did it. i like talking to mentum people. talking about art or anything that comes to our minds. there is more visibility than i would see in any store front. this would cost us relatively very little. >> i am so happy to meet you. i wish you all of the best. >> you are the wonderful artist that makes these color coding.

>> nice to me to. >> i have been a street artist since 1976. >> how did you decide to be a street artist? >> i was working on union square. on lunch hours, i would be there visiting the artist. it was interesting, exciting, and i have a creative streak in me. it ranges from t-shirts, jackets, hats. what is the day of the life of a street artist? >> they have their 2536 in the morning. by the end of the day, the last people to pack the vehicle probably get on their own at 7:30 at night. >> nice to me to condemn the -- nice to meet you.

>> it was a pleasure to share this with you. i hope that the bay area will descend upon the plaza and go through these arts and crafts and by some holiday gifts. >> that would be amazing. thank you so much for the hard work that you do.