price when you look at the price that we have compared to any high floor car purchase in the u.s. and in the last three to five years and, we did very well in that regard. so, in terms of the two proposals that we received, one really stood out. and there is a sampling of one of the cars. by the way it was not our intention to confuse you in either of the presentation or the in the slide show, and just to cause our different is not an optical illusion and the front and obviously the colors are different but that is part of what we will talk about in a minute in terms of alternative approaches, that has been offered and so just in case you thought that your eyes were playing tricks with you, they were not. and this is interesting. and here is the final score and evaluation committee and the only point that i would make on

this is generally when you have a very high-tech cal score, and a high quality car and you end up with a high price, and this process for us reversed that. and you had a high, technical score and a comparive price and the other thing to go back to highlight is the alternate approach and what we did in addition to saying that this is the car that we want, and we in this spirit of following the process, where we partnered with the industry, we said, look, we may not have thought of everything. and you build the cars for a living and you may have a better approach on the technical side and you may have a better approach on the business side, tell us what they are. and for example, on the technical side, semans presented 35 or so potential enhancements and one of the things, for example, something

called a mary pia. which was fairly common in railroads but we never tried it and what we will do is basically take and right now we reverse the ends and there is an a and a b end and there is power in each end and what it will do, is you will take the full controller out, of one of the ends the b, end and couple the b, end together and put more seats in there and increase your capacity immediately, but still give you the flexibility to operate in both directions. and so, that is something that that is a kind of creative thinking in responsiveness, that we got in the proposal. and the evaluation committee just a summary, they really and technically and from a price perspective, thought that siemens stood out. and one of the things that we did weatherize a little bit and

say wait a minute and let's go back and check the on procurements across country, this price is very competitive and how do they do it? and so we discussed it with them, and basically, we are confident that we are getting both the high caliber, and a high quality vehicle as well as a competitive price and for those reasons, the manufacturing plant, they save a huge amount of shipping, and testing costs that we will have to incur, because they are so close, proven technology, and what does that mean, exactly? 1300 similar rail cars, there is, in the plant right now, they are making cars for edmonton and cal vary and we have a similar car and what we get the benefit of helps us is the proven, technology and design, and this car is a step up of a generation from what we had before. and for example, we will get a finally we will get a black box.

and one of the issues that we have in trying to and uncover what happens in the incidents or accidents is having to pull information from the three or four sources. now, with these vehicles, we will have a black box which will provide us state of the art information as well as customer amenities and some of those kinds of things and so, again, this was says, and it was one of the things that we wanted to check closely on. and there is a shot, that what is might look like if you were to choose, that color or mme. and if you go down and you will not see that by the way. >> purposes, and again, the important point, i just say here, that to wait, and it has been an ongoing issue for us and this car is 78,000 pounds which is difficult, when you put together when you have a san francisco environment, and

why is the weight important? the noise, the vibration, the pounding to the infrastructure. and that is part of that is the weight itself, and part of what enables them to get within our weight limits which we were never able to do before, is to design of the trucks and they have a permanent truck and they have a truck that is being used all across the country, and different kinds of design than what we have much lighter and important, and we think from a quality and a technical standpoint, this car is a major step up. and the door we will talk about more in a minute, and the parts on the door, and i think that the braking system is a major safety upgrade in terms of the brakes engaging much quicker. and in terms of the diagnositics you will see the

tools that we have to diagnose a problem and if there is a service interruption as to where it is and again, the trucks are really important. and in terms of our ability to improve service and reduce our maintenance costs. and the maintenance cost reduction is something that we will focus on a lot and another version of the car. the doors, and we focused a lot in the discussion, and said, look, we on the doors, they are in our current cars are the bane of our existence and we want to see a new door and so when we see, i did try to get one in here, but the security at the plant was very good last week. and i was unable to carry the mechanism, but, it really is, much simpler and it is a series of motors and it just requires greasing one a week as opposed to some of the pneumatic stuff

movement and all of the latches and switches that are inside of a braided door and so this is one, and the other thing that i will point out on this is that it really has got an enhanced safety feature, and it is considered not as sensitive, and if we would like them to be and so, this kind, and this is both the step off, and the reliability and the performance, and the reduction and maintenance costs as well as an upgrade in safety. and part of what seems good, and i mentioned this 35 technical alternates that they provided, one of the things that they did was provide a couple of options for the interior of the car. and obviously, sensitive to the environment of the stake holders that we have here in san francisco. and that one is really radically different from what we have now to provide a more traditional longitudinal side by side seating one as well. but, that has all of the

enhanced ada features. and really reconfigures the car in which as you all know is very hot, topic, and we are committed to a very open, and processed to hit the ground listening to as what works for everyone in terms of the interior. and the way to look at the interior. >> and the operator's cab i know how important it is to you as a board, on pedestrians and visions zero, and this is this is exceptional, and all the way around and it is completely transparent and i showed it to a couple of operators today who were here and just to get their reaction to it, and because there is a lot of even from a maintenance perspective we have

a difficult time replacing the windows because of the frames and this is transparent all the way around and it will provide the enhanced visibility and therefore, the safety for everyone. and this is another alternative that they provided in the operator's cab and what is interesting about this one is that you slide the doors as opposed to open it into the passengers when you are crowded and especially in the emergency, and this will be very helpful. and from a summary standpoint, in the technical side, we exceeded all of our. it requires the reliability standards as far above the systems and what we asked for and as we talked about competitive price, and as we, are going to in a moment, and because of the strength of the

parent company, and the procurement and they are a shot of the three trains. and the subway and the initial expansion along the mission bay and the 151 replacement of the existing fleet and that is programmed, and so that leaves us with 85 cars, which we need. and we need it right now, and for crowding, expansion more service. and i think that sometimes it is, and in an odd sort of a way it is very flattering, to have everybody complain but at the same time say that what we need is more. and we need more. we need more service, we need more cars. >> and so, i think i don't know

that we need to go into the need, but what the situation is right now, is that as i mentioned 175 will have the first 24 cars be here, by 2018, and the last one will be delivered in 2018 and then, because of 2 things, our funding and our funding stream, and then, the fta, requirement, that on the vehicles, or the vehicles being serviced for 25 years, if they are supported by the federal money leaves us a gap between 2018 and 2021, and what they have done is come forward with a financial proposal, backed by the guarantee of the parent company, to provide basically a bridge loan, for us, to and for them to build the cars. and for them, it means an ininterrupted flow of production and they don't have to demobilize and remobilize

which is substantial cost and for us, it also means that we get the cars here faster, and we will get the competitive price and in fact we get a break on the price if we continue uninterrupted through there and we do begin to turn the system around, and so, this is something that we have been working with to take a look at all aspects of this and this is exciting and under this arrangement we have a year to get a supplemental financing in place, and the seimens has really offered, their assistance in that regard. and again, just to plug on the alternatives, we talked about, and i think that the main thing to say about this at this point, is that to the credit of this particular of this vendor, they heard, us over a 13-month

period, loud and clear, and they heard, that we need the cars as soon as possible and we need an aggressive schedule and they heard that we needed cars that helped us from an operations and maintainbility standpoint. and they offered to do it locally, and they offered to work with us on all of the features and finally to the parent company stepped up and said that we will help you finance it and so i think, that they, it is clear that to us, and certainly to the evaluation committee that this is a firm that paid attention, and that wanted which bid and was prepared to put the resources in there to put the best foot forward. and that is simply, that what i just mentioned in terms of the issues on the financial side of it and of bridging the gap. and so, what we are asking for you today is to move the contract forward. and execute for up to 260 and of course, recommend to the board of supervisors who gets

the next crack at this, to move forward. and they are talk about that, and we also, will continue to look at, the best way to finance this, for the series of operations to come back to you with that. and again, the reason that we are asking you to move on this today, is the aggressive delivery schedule. and the need for the cars is acute, and we want to move forward as fast as we can. and so, finally, from our standpoint, this is the culmination of several months process, and we feel that we have come out in the right place, and we have got and hit all of our key objective and looked forward to moving this forward. >> very exciting indeed and look forward to it, and members of the board, questions and comments? >> i had a question for you and i know that the amount that you are talking about includes

escalation for costs and for years and this loan, and this loan, and the million dollar loan for $5 million if that, included in this over all cost? >> and in the financing for that? >> well, yeah, it would be, and there is part of that is structuring the specific details or the elements of the deal. and i think that some of the cost that you have like for example, we have saved some money from the fact that we and they did not have to buy the performance bonds at the corporate guarantee that is a pass through that they give to us and in terms of how much that you save later they have made it clear that if we have the uninterrupted production schedule, that the prices of the car will be offset the additional cost of the loan site and until we went through the details of who is financing what and how much and we will not be able to say, yes, and it is in there.

but, and i think that a billion and one, and along the elements that we described covers the deal. they will be lighter. and in terms of the delivery rate of the cars, i know that director riskin mentioned the general obligation bond money that will not be spent, and if we do get the vlf passed in 2016 and is there a possibility to step up the delivery or are we kind of limited in delivery based on what the company can turn out or limited in the delivery based on how much we can afford at any given time? >> i think that the main goal would be for us to be able to exercise that option for those first 40 which will fill the gap in the pro-ducks line.

and which enables them to keep producing at a regular pace, and it will get us more vehicles, sooner in line with our fleet plan. and it will enable us to keep the costs down. and so i don't know, you know, if there were more funds than we could accelerate the delivery more than that and we could possibly exercise more than the 40 option and we are seeking authorization, for the option up to 85 additional, but the near term goal, to meet the current fleet plan, will be to figure out a means by which we can exercise the first option of the vehicle license fee and revenues or a sales. and but the mayor's transportation task force also recommended either or both of those, could enable us and could support the cost. at least some of the costs that the additional options will create. >> and i am sorry. >> and yeah, i think that the answer to your question, is

both. that will explain it i think from the production standpoint, and the proposal has a certain numbers of cost per month. and however, siemens has indicated flexibility and because they have the very large plant and they have a lot of land. and they may have i hate to rat them out, but, i saw the workers going home at 3:00, last week. and so, we could bring some other ones to come in at 3:00, and stay later, and so they have indicated that they would be flexible in that regard and so i think that if, as ed described the financing and the money and the fleet plan but certainly we could take a look with siemens at the production rate as well. >> i have no questions, but one observation that those cars look gorgeous and i am sure that the riding public rides on one they are going to want to

see the entire fleet replaced which will take time and they are gorgeous that we might not let sanali put the advertisements on those. >> and i will agree. >> and yeah. >> that is all. >> okay. director? >> just, we support this, and we understand the need that we have out there. and the concern that i have is will your maintenance facility be able to handle the two types of vehicles for maintenance and we will have to refit something or will that cause us delays? >> yeah, and so that is actually something that we thought about because there will be a transition period. and we would like to make the transition as fast as possible, that on the interest that when you talked a lot about, part of the deal is training.

for the mechanics and frankly the approach and the demands on the mechanics will be less and when we talk about the systems and the car there is a lot more modular systems and so it is not having to pull the wires and twist knobs it is simpler set of functions and i believe that the mechanics are cap able but there will be part of what we will have to figure out is an acceptance plan and the other thing worth mentioning we are looking at the numbers right now, and we have somewhere as many as 50 cars, for example, that are, we have put a lot of money in whose performances are coming up and, what we are doing, is analyzing to see what the cost, or what it will cost us to keep those

cars in service between now and the time that they are eligible for the retirement and we may, want to sit down with the feds and show them what the numbers look like from an operating cost, but, i think that just like, we spent a lot of money training mechanics on the new buses because there is a lot more sense soars and electrons, and this requires, a retooling to some degree of our workforce, but it will be one that will be embraced and enthusiastickly and the amount of maintenance time to actually do the work for the core functions like the inspeptions will drop dramatically. >> okay. >> and hypothetically let's say that you get the first 20, do you pull those out of service or do you leave the 20 here in addition to the fleet. >> well, you, probably you will, we will have, a mixed fleet, hypothetically, and i think that what you have is

these cars, are. and they are able to couple, and so if there were was say it was broken down in front of them and they will be able to attach and push it or pull it out thereof and they will not be able to couple electronically so that all of the systems, you know such as the lights in the doors will go on. and so, we would look at, the other thing again, is the coupling is the size, and you know, this will give us the ability to run up to four car trains, subject to some infrastructure limitations and so we want to look at that and i would think that we will have clearly the period of time when we will have the mixed fleets, but i try to do everything that we can to separate them. >> the central subway project

is that we increase the fleet, by 24 vehicles, and by the subway open and so the first 24 will be an ad dish that will bring the fleet to 1, to 175 and then, we will be able to run the two fleets together and we will be able to for some period of time and although we will like to minimize that, but, we would, and we will continue to run the cars, and until they, and until we retire them and we replace them with the additional cars if we are able to exercise, those 40 and the option and we will have more of the cars soon and her it will be two fleets running for a period of time and the idea is to expand the fleet and not just replace it and so we will by 20, by the end of 2018 be immediately up to 175 and so it will be a larger fleet and

be able to provide more light rail service. >> could i have just two comments that don't require an answer. and the one thing that i will, and that i will be concerned about is the train and make sure that we have the adequate number of drivers and the second thing that i am concerned about is throughout that and these pictures look great and you see so much glass on that. >> and yeah, yeah, and actually, this is just, >> it is a comment, right? >> yeah. >> it is something that we talked about and one of the things that is interesting, on the glass, and you will see it all around is that, for a lack of a better term, and it is, and it is the etching and the scratching that occurs on the current lrvs it is painful because it is hard to get, you have to take the glasses in with a metal frame and the frames have proven to be difficult to keep in stock and so there have been days when we have held the cars in because we didn't have the metal frames to put the glass in and what the approach with this design

is that it is more say like a automobile approach to glass, where you just where you put it in similar to the body work and because the body work and this is what i am talking about the maintenance and the body work is very difficult, but here you have, the structure where you basically snap as maybe two simple and you snap on and off, and a component and the glass here, and absolutely stands out and it will be something that we need to watch. but, in terms of repairing it and it is a more of an efficient operation. but, doctor? >> i hear you. >> thank you. >> thank you for that. director lee. >> and so, i am really could not be more excited about the fact that it is made in sacramento and these are made state side and that seems to me that it is going to expedite the maintenance and everything,

along the way. and i commend you for getting that. and one of the things that caught my attention on here was the bicycle on the lrv. and are we still, are we going to be able to shape the interior design or even the exterior design, i mean, how much of this input are we going to be able to give in the future? i know that bart just had a really long and inclusive and interesting conversation about the design and though sapeds of people came out and looked at it, are we going to have the opportunity to do anything like that? >> yeah, absolutely. it is part of what, we were particularly pleased and it is up to why, back to the beginning when we came up with the idea of having alternate approach and they provided it as i mentioned two interior designs and they can be

reshaped, or and we want to move forward and it will be over the next and it will be plenty of time to get... and because obviously, you know that you heard the comments, today on time down seats on the buses and we had a very open process on the interior design of the new buses and we will do the same thing here. because obviously, while we or while the width and the length of the car are not increased, the design of the interior is very different, it may, i mean that i don't know if you remember from the picture, there was even a spot for a stroller. it was put in there. and so, i mean that is some, and there was a lot of flexibility at this point. >> and in fact, we have, and in our conversations internally, we have referring to that design as the clean sheet of paper design. >> and i was around when they had the boeing and i remember when we shifted to the breta and that was a big deal and i don't remember as much public

engage in in that decision and looking forward to more conversation as we move forward with this, and the same thing is that i am interested in and make is sure that we address, and making sure that you are sitting on one of these cars and it feels like it is training inside because the air-conditioning is acting up and i hope that we have an improvement to the air-conditioning system and i imagine that technology is advanced over the years. and but, just want to make sure that we do address that. and especially if we are going to have as much glass as we are going to have and they are going to become important >> we have double good news for you. >> first, it is not your imagination. >> okay. >> that is the hvac system and the vendor has been problematic and it has been difficult to get parts and it is one that was a happen and a design systems that we mentioned is in

fact, climate control, system, and it will be improved and much improved but in particular, the ability to get the parts so that, you know, we don't, we don't have the cars out of service or we don't send the cars into service, where you you know, your hair gel may be washed away. >> and not my hair gel. >> no. >> and so, the answer is yes, we have the problems, now, and b, your favorable action on this today will lessen the likelihood of future problems. >> thank you so much. >> directors anything else? >> directors? >> rubke? >> and yeah, so he alluded to this but defendant naturally i don't think that we can start early and often enough with the out reach with the disability community in particular as far as the interior of the cars go and i mean what you just considered and you just said and ininclusive process of if you said that to someone in the disability community they might

strangle you, they have a very negative look at a viewpoint as to what happened with bart. and i think that the lesson in my mind there is that we could start tomorrow doing the out reach every day which is impractical and it shil would not be enough, and so anything that we can do to just meet with not just our own, wonderful advisory committees like max, but key other community organizations like light house for the blind, and ilrc and all of these other places and i would be happy to help. >> okay. >> and i think that it is usually important and i think that the layout of the cars that is really disability centric in where that post is going to be and where, the buy sick until there, and you know, you are going to stumble on all of those things, the out reach is better. >> okay. >> director? >> i was just going to say the same is true and i know that the one thing that they