MEETING REPORT and COMMENTARY

LOSSAN Corridor TAC Meeting

June 16, 2005

Reported by Paul Dyson, RailPAC director

I attended the first half of the TAC meeting, unfortunately I had to leave for a SCAG regional planning meeting the same afternoon.

Key points:

Pat Merrill, Caltrans Rail Group reported a flurry of activity from the news that the Gov. was not going to divert Prop 42 funds to the general fund. As a result Caltrans wanted to move quickly to set in motion some projects that could be started in a short time frame. The Rail Group selected the Triple Tracking and Grade Separation project between City of Commerce and Fullerton because:

It is a heavily used freight line and there is a lot of emphasis on freight congestion relief in Southern California.
ALL of the design work has been done and so the project is ready to go.
The project includes 4 critical grade separations, (streets crossing at difficult angles, heavy rail and street traffic).

BNSF has apparently contributed about $30 million in preliminary engineering etc. I think they should be paying part of the Capital cost as they will be a major beneficiary. The total project is about $350 million and I think Caltrans is asking for &86 million this go around.

This is a critical project for the LOSSAN corridor and I think RailPAC should support this with a letter to the Governor.

Mike Powers (Santa Barbara Assoc. of Govts.) gave an extensive report on 101 in motion, the study to review alternatives to deal with congestion on 101 in the south county. Commuter Rail is included in three of the 4 alternatives and has strong local support.

The LOSSAN North business plan project, being handled by consultants IBI, continues to plod ahead. The draft is available on LOSSAN.org. I am drafting comments. The cynic in me says that this whole exercise is window dressing to fill in a year when no funds are available. The infrastructure projects have been identified many times. Judging by the delays I encountered Thursday on a round trip from Burbank to Santa Barbara (and the number of dead UP freight trains in sidings) there is desperate need for additional sidings in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties before any service can be added. Ridership on the Surfliners took a serious hit north of L.A. as a result of the floods and has not yet recovered, although the corridor as a whole does well.

I'm also concerned about the punctuality statistics. My two trains yesterday were both about 25 minutes late at my destination stations. I wonder though, with schedule padding, that they may have been "on time" at final destination. Is 85% on time a good number. According to Mr. Skoropowski I believe they count up to 10 minutes late as on time. (My apologies if I am misquoting). 25 minutes late in a two hour journey is a serious delay and made me late for my first appointment, and I missed my bus connection coming back. We have to do better and that will require a lot of money. (Editor's note: Capitols use 10 minutes Oakland-Sacramento, 15 minutes Oakland- San Jose.)

I recommend you all spend some a little time reading at least the executive summary of the LOSSAN north document to get some idea of the needs. It seems like a lot of money but compared to highway expenditure it's not a lot.


RailPAC Contacts Publications Issues Meeting Reports 2005 Reports 2005-11-16 Capitol 2005-11-10 San Joaquin 2005-11 Announcement 2005-10-24 Bay Area 2005-09-21 Capitol 2005-09-14 LOSSAN 2005-09 Coast and TAMC 2005-09-08 San Joaquin 2005-07-14 San Joaquin 2005-07-11 TAMC 2005-06-25 CASHRA 2005-06-16 LOSSAN 2005-06-15 Capitol 2005-05-30 TAMC 2005-05-12 San Joaquin 2005-04-27 Coast Rail 2005-04-19 LOS-SAN 2005-03-11 San Joaquin 2005-02-16 Capitol 2005 Annual 2005-01 San Joaquin 2005-01 Monterey Membership Links	MEETING REPORT and COMMENTARY LOSSAN Corridor TAC Meeting June 16, 2005 Reported by Paul Dyson, RailPAC director I attended the first half of the TAC meeting, unfortunately I had to leave for a SCAG regional planning meeting the same afternoon. Key points: Pat Merrill, Caltrans Rail Group reported a flurry of activity from the news that the Gov. was not going to divert Prop 42 funds to the general fund. As a result Caltrans wanted to move quickly to set in motion some projects that could be started in a short time frame. The Rail Group selected the Triple Tracking and Grade Separation project between City of Commerce and Fullerton because: It is a heavily used freight line and there is a lot of emphasis on freight congestion relief in Southern California. ALL of the design work has been done and so the project is ready to go. The project includes 4 critical grade separations, (streets crossing at difficult angles, heavy rail and street traffic). BNSF has apparently contributed about $30 million in preliminary engineering etc. I think they should be paying part of the Capital cost as they will be a major beneficiary. The total project is about $350 million and I think Caltrans is asking for &86 million this go around. This is a critical project for the LOSSAN corridor and I think RailPAC should support this with a letter to the Governor. Mike Powers (Santa Barbara Assoc. of Govts.) gave an extensive report on 101 in motion, the study to review alternatives to deal with congestion on 101 in the south county. Commuter Rail is included in three of the 4 alternatives and has strong local support. The LOSSAN North business plan project, being handled by consultants IBI, continues to plod ahead. The draft is available on LOSSAN.org. I am drafting comments. The cynic in me says that this whole exercise is window dressing to fill in a year when no funds are available. The infrastructure projects have been identified many times. Judging by the delays I encountered Thursday on a round trip from Burbank to Santa Barbara (and the number of dead UP freight trains in sidings) there is desperate need for additional sidings in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties before any service can be added. Ridership on the Surfliners took a serious hit north of L.A. as a result of the floods and has not yet recovered, although the corridor as a whole does well. I'm also concerned about the punctuality statistics. My two trains yesterday were both about 25 minutes late at my destination stations. I wonder though, with schedule padding, that they may have been "on time" at final destination. Is 85% on time a good number. According to Mr. Skoropowski I believe they count up to 10 minutes late as on time. (My apologies if I am misquoting). 25 minutes late in a two hour journey is a serious delay and made me late for my first appointment, and I missed my bus connection coming back. We have to do better and that will require a lot of money. (Editor's note: Capitols use 10 minutes Oakland-Sacramento, 15 minutes Oakland- San Jose.) I recommend you all spend some a little time reading at least the executive summary of the LOSSAN north document to get some idea of the needs. It seems like a lot of money but compared to highway expenditure it's not a lot.
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