the bradas have approximately 60 seats, i believe. in this design, the current bench seat, as well as the traverse seats, have about 50 seats. and the single row of seats is closer to about 40 seats. so it is a reduction in seats over the brada, but what we get in exchange is much more efficient passenger flows and the ability to more quickly board the large groups of people that we're seeing day, day in and day out, in the system. i just also wanted to clarify that there is no -- in all scenarios, we are pursuing some forward-facing seats based on the feedback that we've heard, that for some people, depending on their disability or injuries, the bench just doesn't work. so in all designs, whether it is a single traverse seat or a double traverse seat, there will be a forward/backwards-facing seat option. >> chairman: thank you. to our executive director, anything you would like to add based on what you have hear this morning? >> no. there is some numerical analysis of the cost benefit of procuring these vehicles at an accelerated sch

as you know, the bradas are an incredibly vulnerable fleet. we face a lot of risks, particularly on issues related to doors and steps, as well as propulsion. we also know that the vehicles are crowded and that we didn't have enough at the time to really handle the growing city. so all of that informed our initial process. then we reached out to the car manufacturers themselves. and we said, before we put an r.f.p. out on the street, we put a request for information out. and we met with many car builders, and we said, these are the types of problems that we're facing. these are the reliability issues that are challenging us. and we used their feedback to inform and build a request for proposals. from there, the proposals were evaluated in a very rigorous way, both for how they met our performance spec, as well as on items of cost. and seaman's was selected as a result of that process. it has been an, i think, very positive experience. one kind of happy coincidence is the location of seaman's. being in sacramento, it allowed us to work much more

on the brada's, the sensitive edge for the single door is on the car. and on the seaman's, it is on the car body. so they behave a little bit differently. so we were already pursuing, and had tested on seven of our vehicles, i believe, a second sensitive edge. and that was our focus. but in kind of pursuing that, what we identified is that although the vehicles were passing the upta standards, they weren't, in my opinion, meeting the spirit of the standard or the intent of the standard because in some instances, including initially with my own hand, we were able to replicate somebody's hand getting stuck in the door. and when we -- over the weekend, we tested the vehicles, as well as the manufacturer tested the vehicles. and when we reconvened on monday and basically shared this data with each other, we determined that we needed to do something right away. so what we've done to ensure that the vehicles continue to remain safe for our costumers in service, is that we have instructed operators to lock the back door of the train so that they can focus on t

he said that the doors on brada all have sensors on them on all of the doors. on the seaman's train, they're only on the central doors, and not on the front and back doors, and they only have sensors on the frame of the car. he says this could have played a part in the accident that happened with the rear door. he would like to see sensors put back on all doors of the next cars. the second thing he told me about was the cameras. he said there are now cameras for the operators, instead of side-view mirrors, and they're often blinded by lighting inside and outside the subway, and sometimes cannot see alone sidsee-setting sideseealo. he is saying put the side-view mirrors back on the cars. they sas ther says there is are three brakes, the mushroom, and an automatic control, and the third one sa feathering break. he says it is only in the middle section of the cars, and not on the front and the rear. it only works five miles an hour or less. so that's the one that allows the train to be slowed down gradually. and he says in the brada cars, they're on the front, the