Board of Directors Meeting   10/26/2020

My name is Jennifer Mitchell, Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

Very pleased to have all of you here today for the first inaugural meeting of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority Board.

This is a very exciting moment and a real turning point for passenger rail here in Virginia.

Really looking forward to working with all of you.

We have a very big agenda for passenger rail in Virginia, and it's a really exciting time to be part of establishing a new authority.

So before we do get started, I am going to ask, we have a few housekeeping items to go over first.

First of all, when you're not speaking, I do ask that everybody please mute your microphone so we can reduce any background noise.

There is a chat function available here in WebEx, but we do ask that you not use it for conducting any public business.

When we are making votes, please identify yourself if you're making a motion or seconding a motion.

And later on in the agenda, we will have public comment.

This is an opportunity for us to hear from members of the public, but not necessarily to provide responses.

We'll be going into that session after lunch.

You can hear me OK?

Yeah.

I will move that the board convene, let's see, in light of the continuing state of emergency declared by Governor Northam, where it is impractical

or unsafe to assemble a quorum in a single location.

I move that we adopt this agenda to take action to discuss or transact the business statutorily required or necessary to continue operation of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

Great.

Thank you.

Will the board members present please respond here when your name is called?

Ms. Bulova?

Aye.

Ms. Butler Painter?

Here.

Mr. Cardwell?

Mr. Cardwell?

Ms. Doersch?

Here.

Is it I or here?

I or here, that's fine.

Ms. Moses-Nedd?

Ms. Moses-Nedd.

Aye.

Madam Chair, that concludes our report.

And I think I spoke with him earlier, so I do believe he will be joining us.

I know he had another commitment earlier this morning.

So I would like to go ahead then and call our meeting adjourned or in order.

Good morning.

Good morning, Madam Chair.

How are you, Director Mitchell?

I know we have with us our Chief of Rail, Mike McLaughlin, Jeremy Latimer, who is our Director of Rail Transportation Programs, and we are also joined by Lisa Wright and Julie Whitlock from the Attorney General's Office.

For those of you who have been willing to say yes,

to serve on the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, I can only say thank you.

I just left the governor's cabinet meeting this morning and I told him and the rest of my colleagues what an outstanding board this is.

I'm late for a governor appointed board meeting, I'm supposed to be off.

And welcome to you.

And for those I have yet to meet, I so look forward to doing that.

I will say that if I were not in my position, I would want to be on this board.

I love rail, and those of you who know me know how true it is, and I truly believe that I actually am in this position today because of rail.

In 2009, I had the privilege of leading a bipartisan legislative effort to make the case for a rail service that was anchored in Lynchburg, Virginia.

In doing an update to the statewide rail plan,

Amtrak had identified this section between Lynchburg and Washington D.C. as the most underserved rail corridor in Virginia.

Leading that effort and making that case was very important, and it actually resulted in Virginia making an investment in intercity passenger rail service for the first time in its history.

That put in motion so many things.

There was a real concern on whether or not we were going to be able to make our numbers.

We had to make a commitment to 51,000 riders a year.

I will tell you that that service actually exceeded those expectations by 250% that first year.

The result of this effort was a $17.5 million three-year pilot.

that had the surface from Lynchburg up through Washington D.C. to the Northeast Quarter.

The date of the first train was October 1, 2009.

We had a whistle-stop tour.

One of your board members, Wick Moorman, was CEO of Norfolk Southern at the time.

Wick, I don't know if you remember being on that tour and being on the platform in Kepper Street Station in Lynchburg, Virginia, but it certainly was a really a very big milestone in Virginia's history as far as passenger rail.

I still have a stake from

Norfolk Southern, that Preece Wingo had given to me that day.

And for those of you on this call, I will say that just this month on October 1st, the Virginia passenger rail, the Virginia sponsored passenger rail in Virginia celebrated its 11th year.

We have certainly come a long way in 11 years.

We've gone from a $17.5 million pilot to a projected $3.5 billion budget for DRPT and the VPRA in the upcoming six-year improvement plan.

We've expanded to four routes, six round-trip trains, and ridership up in that first year of $125,000

to 2019 having 971,000 riders with December of 2019 being the best month in our history and with January of 2020 having results 31% over January of 2019.

I have to pause because we all believe there was that trajectory coming

and we all know what happened beginning in early February of 2020.

And we are all certainly living through unprecedented times.

In those early days, I will tell you that the focus of all of transportation was on the health and safety of our customers, our employees, our partners.

There was a commitment to moving essential personnel, transporting critical goods.

There was

Great collaboration and logistics from the Port of Virginia, rail, trucking, transit, with that commitment of connecting people to essential work, medicine, food, PPE, and being the platform for Virginia's economic recovery.

Today, I will say that health and safety remain our top priority.

And as we do, we're also dealing with the consequences

of COVID on our transportation system and our transportation revenues.

Some of you on this call may remember that back in August, Governor Northam and Secretary Lane, our Secretary of Finance, addressed the money committees of the General Assembly to lay out a forecast of what it looked like in Virginia through FY22.

The state seeing a reduction of revenues of about $2.7 billion

We in transportation looking at about $870 million reduction through, again, FY22.

For those of you on the call who are familiar with transportation and know our SmartScale program, which is our new capacity prioritization program for choosing transportation projects.

In the most recent round, round three, for the entire state,

We had $850 million.

So looking at an $870 million reduction over the upcoming two years is a very significant reduction in Virginia.

and looking at what other states are doing, many of them having to cut projects, delay projects, lay off workers.

We in Virginia were really focused on how could we not do that?

How could we maintain our current pipeline of projects, our workforce, and again remain the platform for recovery?

And working with so many within our team,

Deputy Secretary Nick Donohue, which I'm sure many of you knew, Deputy Secretary John Lawson, who was at one time CFO at VDOT.

We're very fortunate he came over to the Secretary's office.

Jennifer Mitchell, Director Mitchell, CFO Steve Pittard, who will be addressing you later, CFO Laura Farmer from VDOT, and all of our agencies looking at what we can do.

And what we identified was a

Cash Management Solution.

We looked at restructuring our allocation and through a budget amendment that Governor Northam introduced and working with the General Assembly, this budget amendment gives the Commonwealth Transportation Board the flexibility just over the next two years, just for the biennium, to be able to manage this allocation so that those

We are able to put those dollars to work today.

And as a result, all the projects are remaining in our six-year improvement program on time and on schedule.

And I will say to those of you on this call that recognizing that we are living through great uncertainty, not knowing exactly what is going to unfold.

With the knowledge that we have today, we believe this is the smartest path forward for Virginia.

And with the knowledge we have today, that is the program that we are planning to present.

A large part of this in maintaining these commitments to our priorities, our workforce, and economic recovery.

A large part of that, of course, are our rail initiatives, which you will be learning about and reviewing as the day goes forward from the team over at DRPT.

As COVID has affected our revenues and certainly the demand for public transportation, our focus in the Transportation Secretariat is on the long-term solutions that we are presenting.

We believe that the rail initiatives we are putting forward are addressing transportation issues for decades.

These are generational solutions

and that is the strategy that we are actually bringing forward through DRPT for commuter rail, passenger rail, and as a result freight rail.

We are looking for win-wins across our transportation network and within our Department of Rail and public transportation.

Most notable of those rail initiatives, and I'm sure many of you have read about, is the agreement that we have with CSX and with our partners, Amtrak and VRE.

And I do want to thank Rich Dalton and Mr. Maestri for being our expecia members and being with us.

We are currently negotiating the $3.7 billion agreement, which includes the construction of Long Bridge and its program of projects, the acquisition of half of the RFNP from Washington down to Main Street Station and the entire abandoned S-Line down to Ridgeway, North Carolina, critical capacity improvements, including the Franconia-Springfield Bypass,

which will result, we believe, in doubling in the number of Virginia Amtrak trains, providing nearly hourly service between Richmond and Washington DC, increasing VRE along the 95 corridor, including adding weekend service,

Increasing Amtrak service to Newport News and allowing for improved schedule of the third Amtrak train to Norfolk, preserving the freight corridor between Doswell and Clifton Forge for future passenger service, and laying the foundation for Southeast high-speed rail along the Southeast Quarter.

Most importantly to me, with the construction of Long Bridge,

which has been at 98% capacity during peak periods for a long time.

We opened the possibility of enhanced rail service to all quarters in Virginia.

Long Bridge is the single most critical piece of infrastructure required to deliver a vision, deliver our vision for a true rail network in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

And that opens up so many possibilities around Virginia and why each and every person who serves on the sport is just so important.

Right now, we are in the final stages of negotiations with CSX, Amtrak, and VRE.

The deliberations are deliberate.

They're sequential and they are ongoing.

We look forward to you in the coming weeks and months to come back to you with updates on those negotiations and keeping you informed as all of those agreements and our future rail propositions all start to come together.

There are many moving parts.

and I simply want to welcome you all to thank you for your willingness to serve on this board.

I cannot tell you how important it is and you are certainly in good hands with Director Mitchell as your chair.

But I do want you to know that my door is always open to you.

I very much want to work with you as we move these initiatives forward.

And I just thank you all so much for being at this inaugural meeting.

Great.

Thank you so much, Secretary Valentine, for being with us today.

and for having an opportunity to kick off this group with articulating how important it is and the purpose that we're working towards right now.

So, thanks.

So, Jeremy, if you wouldn't mind just flipping back to the agenda real quick, or Jen, our IT person.

So, just a little bit about the rest of the meeting today.

Next, I do want to give you all an opportunity to introduce yourselves.

Although we aren't able to be here in person and we're sitting with each other in person today, I am hoping that it'll give at least all of you an opportunity to tell the other board members a little bit about yourselves and your background.

In addition to that, we'll also spend some more time going over an overview of passenger rail in Virginia, a little bit more about our early operations plan for transitioning with the Passenger Rail Authority,

Lisa Wright from our AG's office will also talk with you about board member responsibilities.

And then Steve Pittard, our CFO, will talk about our funding plan.

So today's workshop is really intended to be an opportunity to introduce you all a little bit more to passenger rail in Virginia.

Please do not hesitate to interrupt us at any time.

There is a hand raising function.

within WebEx.

If you go to your picture and then you'll see a, you should see a hand that if you're in the participants box that you can open, but also please feel free to speak up or wave at any time if you'd like to ask a question.

We will be breaking for closed session before lunch and then we will come back to our funding presentation and then public comment as well.

We have a moderator, they'll be handling public comments for anybody, members of the public that are listening in right now.

There was call-in information distributed with the meeting materials and it's posted on our

website as well, the DRPT website of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority page.

So there will be a function to call in after lunch as well.

We have a few action items after that too, and then we'll be wrapping up and concluding the meeting.

But again, thank you all for being here today.

Very excited about this opportunity.

So now, I guess, Jen, who's driving the presentation,

So what I'd like to do now is give all of you an opportunity to introduce yourselves a little bit.

Next page, Jim.

As you all know, we have our board of directors is a 15 member board total, 12 of which are voting members.

We have a one ex officio member,

from Amtrak and another ex officio member from VRE.

I serve as director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation as the chair of the authority.

Seven members do constitute a quorum and we are set up to have a minimum of quarterly meetings.

I know that we expect to have more frequent meetings through 2021 occurring monthly or near monthly.

due to the amount of work that we'll be working on in the first year to set up the authority.

We'll have more information at our next meeting about a meeting scheduled for 2021.

We will still be getting back to you to look at scheduling that next meeting in late November or early December.

So with that, next page, please.

So again, I'll start off with the introductions and then we're just going to go through this alphabetically.

But again, I'm Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

I have been here now for a little bit over six years.

I've worked in transportation in my entire career, but most of it has been focused on public transportation and rail, major capital projects.

both in the public sector and private sector.

I joined DRPT when I was appointed by Governor McAuliffe in 2014 and was very pleased to be reappointed by Governor Northam in 2018 as well.

So we've undergone a lot of changes at DRPT since I've been here.

Our passenger rail program has grown significantly through the commitment of our governors and secretaries, but also hard work from our General Assembly members as well.

So I'm very pleased to be here today.

Unmuting.

So I'll be very brief, set the tone.

So I have recently retired after serving on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for, I guess it was 31 years.

and so I was the Braddock District Supervisor first and then for the last 10 years of my service, I was Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

I cut my teeth on local government through the VRE and way back in 1984, I was actually an aid to my predecessor, Audrey Moore,

and NVTC had just received a report on the viability of putting passenger commuter trains on the freight railroad lines and that was the CSX and the Norfolk Southern and back then it was considered a long shot to

that we would be able to actually pull that off.

Indemnification issues, funding issues, trying to get all of the jurisdictions to agree.

Anyway, it was a pretty heady time and it was successful.

And so I just have to say, zooming up to the present, wow.

Look at how passenger rail and commuter rail is able now to take its rightful place as part of the mosaic that we need for transportation in the region and in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

So I'm super excited to be serving on this board.

Great.

Thank you, Sharon.

Yes, and I will also be brief.

I'm Deb Butler Painter, and I spent 37 years, a wonderful career with Norfolk Southern and its predecessor railroads.

And I spent the last eight of those as Executive Vice President Planning and Chief Information Officer reporting directly to WIC.

And in that capacity, I also had responsibility for the passenger rail negotiations.

So Secretary Mitchell and others, I remember

Whitewell, the inaugural trip to Lynchburg, as well as our work to establish the trip to Norfolk.

And after my retirement in 2015, I even went so far as to advise Wick and the Board of Amtrak for a period of almost a year on technology issues.

One of the things that I will say that I learned from Wick in

in the course of my career with Norfolk Southern is with respect to passenger rail, he was always looking for a way to say yes, a way to get to yes.

It wasn't always easy, and sometimes it was quite painful, but we were looking for ways to get to yes.

So I hope to bring that same perspective to this board.

I'm very much looking forward to it.

Thank you.

And I see Victor Cardwell, you've joined us.

I'd be happy to.

I will redefine brief if you can hear me okay.

I'm Victor Cardwell, an attorney of Whiz Rogers.

I'm a partner here.

I've been here coming up on 30 years, if COVID doesn't interrupt that, in November of 2021.

And I am a labor and employment attorney management side, which means I'm

and all sorts of business and work with railroads.

And it was interesting as I have spoken to Jennifer before about my association with passenger transportation.

I've probably been the one taking the rail, what's the meaning else.

And when I heard Kippur Street Station mentioned in Lynchburg, I had fond memories of us opening an office right there in some of that space.

And when I heard Braddock Road mentioned that being a person who lived in North Virginia for a period of time, I said, okay, yeah, I've got an affiliation association.

I'm happy to be here.

Look forward to being part of the team.

As a labor and employment attorney, my work is a little different than all the background of some of the folks here, but I hope that I can add something useful and beneficial.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm happy to.

And Victor set the bar high for short, but I think I can, I think I can.

I'm the partner at Squire, Pat & Bob's, practicing exclusively in transportation to that Transit Trade Association and now

My practice is car patent bogs.

I've been here now for six years.

Practice alongside Bill Schuster and Rodney Slater.

So we have a very strong transportation practice at the firm.

So I represent transit agencies, manufacturers, bus and rail car makers, et cetera.

I also have

A strong automotive compliance practice, helping automakers meet regulatory requirements.

But on the transit side, it's mostly focused on getting dollars for ambitious capital programs.

Thanks, Patty.

Thanks, Jennifer.

Hello, everyone.

I look forward to working with you.

Jay Fisette, I served 20 years on the Arlington County Board, left about three years ago.

So I did a lot of work with Sharon Bulova over the years.

We are a transit and transportation rich community.

So over the years learned a lot about that.

And for me, the

As a strong advocate of these transportation choices and rail, I also really am interested in and an advocate for the integration of rail and environment and housing and land use, all those, the integration of smarter growth and enhanced quality of life, which rail brings.

So I served on the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, the authority, the Transportation Planning Board at the state level, served on the Virginia Housing Development Authority for eight years.

So I have that past experience as well.

And currently in the last couple of years started a small consulting firm, DMV Strategic Advisors.

So most of my work is really more in the environment and climate stuff, but some transportation and housing as well.

So I am very excited, look forward to it.

Jennifer is going to be a great leader of this group and I really look forward to working with everyone.

Great.

Thanks, Jay.

I am.

Super.

Good morning, everyone.

Rod Hall of Woodbridge, Virginia.

Thoroughly excited about this forward leaning opportunity and look forward to working with all of you.

Government Affairs Advisor at K&O Gates in downtown Washington, where my practice focuses mostly on aviation matters.

Formerly head of Legislative Affairs for the Federal Aviation Administration during the Obama years.

And probably that was Deputy Chief of Staff to a senior member of the House of Representatives who served on the House T&I Committee.

and also a member, senior member of the rail subcommittee.

So intimately familiar with a lot of the class one rail issues and during that time also became friends with Doug Allen, the former CEO of Virginia Railway Express.

So really excited about this opportunity.

On the state level, chair of the Virginia Aviation Board.

And so I have shared with the distinguished chairwoman that in the event we have to meet in person,

We have a pretty big hangar outside of Richmond Airport, so it's open to the rail gang at any time.

Thanks.

We may take you up on that, Rod.

Well, I want to thank everyone for being brief because it gives me a lot of time to talk about myself.

My story is simple.

I was a kid who loved trains.

I went to work for Southern Railway in the operating department as an engineering co-op student in 1970.

And in 2004, to everyone's amazement and bewilderment, I became chief executive officer of NS.

Had a wonderful career, retired from NS in 2015.

And then to my wife's everlasting dismay and chagrin in 2016, I went up to work at Amtrak for about 15 months.

One of the things I learned early on was the only way for me to look good was to have people who were better than I was around me, and Deb and Bruno certainly qualify in that regard.

Bruno may be a little less so, but at Amtrak,

As Deb mentioned, I asked her and I asked a number of other NS people to come help me up there.

And we had a great time and I think did some positive things up there and started to change things in a positive direction.

I want to give one little perspective from that standpoint.

While I was at Amtrak, and in fact, as Deb mentioned, even when we were at NS, we did try to encourage commuter rail, passenger rail, to the extent that we could, working through what were always and will always continue to be difficult issues.

But I have always, in talking to anyone, held out Virginia as the example of how to do it right from a state standpoint.

And I think all credit goes to Jennifer and everyone on the team in Virginia for doing that and

and people like Sharon for getting it started a long time ago.

Thanks.

Thank you, Wick.

It's good to hear that we're doing it well in Virginia, so that's great.

Cynthia Moses-Nedd.

Hi, good morning to everyone and I am really excited to be here.

I'm probably one of the few people that's brand new to probably everyone here on the board while I've been the best way to get, I guess, nominated for committees, boards, and

Putting forth ideas is to have those ideas yourself.

So for a number of years from the time that VRE came into being to serving on my HOA, I've always had some questions and ideas about how we might do it better, and I've continued with that.

I've served for the past year as Chief of Staff with the U.S. Department of Interior, Wildland Fire Division, but probably my biggest strength that I bring to this group

is my background as liaison to state and local government and that's involved building relationships across the West primarily but with entities that had common interests but not necessarily common goals in how to get there.

So that's been a big part.

of my background.

I currently serve on the Prince William County Planning Commissioner as co-chair and also am just interested in how we can build and do it better I think as so many people have said in terms of train as a commuter as well as travel transportation across Virginia and up and down the Northeast

the Eastern Corridor.

Thank you.

Paul Nichols, next.

Yeah, can you hear?

Now?

Yeah.

All right.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Paul Nichols.

I'm a lawyer in Prince William County, but I practice for the state of Northern Virginia.

I practiced for 42 years.

I have a firm with 10 lawyers, approximately 30 some employees, offices in Stafford, Woodbridge, and actually we're about to open up an office in Arlington.

In my past, I've also

I've been a businessman in other businesses.

I've owned as many as five gas stations over the years from Stafford and Fredericksburg up to Alexandria.

I've also done some land development and I have other business interests as well.

There was a time when I was a state legislator.

As a matter of fact, I served with Secretary Valentine for a period of time.

I was on the transportation committee.

And when I was on the Transportation Committee, I said on numerous occasions, having experienced the road conditions and the traffic in Northern Virginia, especially a lawyer traveling all over the place in businesses and everything else, I always said, we can't pave our way out of this problem.

And that draws my interest to the rail.

I think that is a big part of the solution, especially for Northern Virginia.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

I am delighted.

By the way, it's great to be your neighbor, Jennifer, and my membership on this board really has no connection to being Jennifer's neighbor.

But I'm really delighted to be serving alongside of this really distinguished group of citizens and community leaders, business leaders,

I'm currently the CFO at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Foundation.

I've had four decades plus of financial management, debt management, down management, higher education institutions, and not-for-profits museums.

and I think what I bring to this group is my knowledge and work with debt management and sizable institutions.

I currently serve on the Debt Capacity Advisory Board of the Commonwealth of Virginia, working with a group of wonderful folks there.

I also serve on several community

engagement boards and community development included in that group of board membership.

I've been a member of Virginians for high-speed rail for the past two years, and I've had the opportunity to learn so much about the impact that passenger and commuter rail can have and the economy

Development and Growth of the Commonwealth and in supporting really the critical infrastructure needed for anything we do in the State of the Commonwealth.

So thank you for the opportunity to be part of this board.

I'm delighted to do my part to add to the great functioning of the board and our very capable Chair,

and Director Mitchell, who's really doing a wonderful job of, you know, shepherding this process through.

Thank you.

Yeah, good morning, everybody.

My name is Jim Spore.

I'm the current president and CEO of Reinvent Hampton Roads, which probably none of you have ever heard of.

It's a 501c3 here in Hampton Roads, and we're dedicated to creating higher-paying jobs and getting this economy to work a little bit better than it has in the past.

Prior to that, for 24 years, I was the city manager in Virginia Beach.

and really my whole career has been in local government, both in terms of planning and city management, my academic backgrounds in city planning and interest in terms of public transit has been pretty strong over the last 50 years.

So I've been involved in heavy rail projects in the Chicago area, been involved in

Light rail projects in Colorado, in the Denver area, in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Dart, and Dallas, and they've all been successful.

The only rail project I've ever been involved in

that didn't succeed was the HRT effort here in Hampton Roads for extending light rail from Norfolk.

Great, thank you, Jim.

Hi everyone.

I'm really excited to be part of this incredible group.

I am located in Richmond, Virginia and have lived in Richmond or in Northern Virginia for all of the last 20 plus years.

Earlier in my career, I worked in the federal government, both on Capitol Hill and at the US Department of Transportation and at HUD.

always with a focus on transportation issues and how transportation intersects with economic development and community development.

So that has included a lot of work around the country on transit oriented development and also really anchoring and restoring historic train stations and commuter rail stations as part of

Kind of economic engines and catalysts for local communities, whether they are urban or rural.

So I'm very excited to bring that lens to thinking about expanding passenger transit and transportation across the Commonwealth.

I am a frequent rider of the Amtrak line from Richmond up to DC and further north.

and I'm always excited not only a lot of commuter travel but also families and elderly residents who are riding the rails and so really thinking about how we also make the system something that's safe and reliable and gets people across all different incomes and age groups where they need to be.

So I'm really excited to be with you here today.

I should also mention

I'm on the board for the National Organization Shared Use Mobility Center, which is looking at how we also think about kind of broader mobility connections.

So thinking about rail, transit, shared use and other opportunities.

So I'm just excited by all the potential that we have here with this authority and what's happening across the state.

And Rich Dalton.

Hey, good morning, everybody.

Can you hear me OK there?

Again, good morning everybody.

I'm Rich Dalton.

I was just recently appointed the Chief Executive Officer for VRE.

I've worked at VRE for the past 11 years.

Prior to being appointed the Chief Executive Officer, I was in an acting role for almost a year.

And then prior to that, I served as the Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer.

Prior to joining VRE in 2009, I worked in private industry, working for a global provider of rail operations and technology solutions.

Just want to say we have a great staff.

We have a great partnership, not only with DRPT, but our current host railroad, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Amtrak.

And I too am very excited to be working with this very, very distinguished group here.

Thanks.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Good to be with you.

I'm delighted to be part of this group.

It looks like just a great collection of very diverse individuals across the Commonwealth.

I live in Clifton, Virginia.

I lived there for about 30 years.

I spent the first 20 years of my career in the environmental business and then joined Norfolk Southern and worked there for 24 years and had the privilege of working with both Debbie and Wick.

Wick was a pretty good CEO and retired from there in 2018.

And like Wick, decided to come over to Amtrak to see what I could do over with this group and help advance the cause of passenger rail.

And I can tell you that the company is delighted to be working with Virginia on this project.

We also agree with others that Virginia is really doing it right.

It's been doing it right for many years.

And we're looking to use what's happening in Virginia as a way to advance intercity passenger travel across the country, using Virginia as sort of a model of how to do it right.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

No, may I say how much I thoroughly enjoyed all of this, seeing

old friends and meeting new ones.

And I just I was mesmerized by everybody.

And, you know, when some of you had mentioned that Virginia is doing it right, I will say a great deal of the credit goes to those of you on this board and a part of this entire DRPT effort.

I will just mention that during Governor Northam's administration, there have been major

Legislative Initiatives each year.

The first year was the committed of dedicated funding for capital needs at Metro.

In the second year, there was the funding for I-81 and the Interstates in Virginia, which really served as a template for how we look at major quarters in Virginia, including I-64, I-95.

I can't wait till you all get to

Some information from the I-95 Quarter Improvement Plan, I believe later today.

And then in this past year, we passed the omnibus transportation package.

And in that, we looked at sustainable funding and transportation.

We looked at establishing this rail initiative and this rail authority.

and safety programs.

But something happened in the omnibus bill that often gets overlooked, which I think is one of the most transformative decisions that has been made.

And that was the creation of a Commonwealth Transportation Trust Fund.

Prior to that, various forms of and modes of transportation were funded from different revenue sources.

Some were more stable, some were extremely fragile, could be dependent on what happens in Congress or

Bonds that expire.

What this Commonwealth Transportation Trust Fund did was make a financial commitment to funding a multimodal transportation system in Virginia.

I think it is one of the most important decisions that we've made.

I just wanted to leave that with you, that looking and establishing and integrating this multimodal transportation network is a tremendous priority of ours.

And so I thank you for your commitment to this, all of your comments, and I personally look forward to working with you.

Great.

Thank you so much for being here.

And I really can't second enough the level of commitment that the secretary and the secretary's office has shown in addition to the governor's office in prioritizing rail in Virginia and making it such a big part of our transportation agenda across the state.

We have had some very, very significant years legislatively in terms of improving the way transportation is funded in Virginia.

but very much also providing additional funds for rail and improving the way that rail is funded too.

So this is, what you're seeing is a huge commitment from this administration towards rail, which is now culminating in the Passenger Rail Authority and all of you being here today.

So very exciting time and I know I've really enjoyed working with Secretary Valentine on all of these initiatives as well.

So thank you.

Okay, so with that, we're now going to transition into a couple of our background presentations.

I'm first going to ask Mike McLaughlin, who's our Chief of Rail, to go over some background about the passenger rail authority and a little bit more about some of the

Transportation needs that we've been looking at that have brought us here to where we are today.

So Mike, please feel free to take it over.

Okay.

Thank you, Jennifer.

And I will say that Secretary Valentine covered, already covered a lot of what I'm going to say, and she did this so eloquently.

But I'm going to try to fill in some more details and spend

Great experience working with Secretary and Jennifer on this ride, this train ride we've had the past few years here at DRPT and in the Commonwealth.

So next slide, please.

So how did we get here?

We got here, we've been working with CSX for a few years to increase capacity in the 95 corridor.

As we have been trying to increase capacity all throughout the state, Secretary Valentine earlier mentioned, the first state supported train was along the I-29 corridor to Lynchburg.

And then we, since then, we extended that along the I-81 corridor to Roanoke.

So we're always looking to expand rail capacity, especially passenger rail capacity throughout the Commonwealth.

But what led us to here today was

Again, this work we've been doing with CSX to increase capacity along the I-95 full quarter, because as you all know, the I-95 quarter is very congested.

I think most everyone on this call has probably driven an I-95 multiple times and been stuck in traffic and has been very frustrated.

So that leads a lot of folks to want to take the rails, and we've been very successful with that.

We have good ridership, as you can see from the graphic here on the right, both on VRE and Amtrak on a daily basis.

And as you can also see, there's a lot of freight traffic that goes over that I-95 corridor, the RFMP as we all call it in Virginia.

And as we've been working with CSX over the years, there's been some issues and some problem points we've come across that we know we need to address.

Next slide, please.

And one of those is Long Bridge.

As the Secretary mentioned earlier, Long Bridge, all passenger trains in Virginia go over the Long Bridge, whether they come from Roanoke and Lynchburg or Hampton Roads and Newport News and Norfolk, or up from North Carolina or Richmond, they travel over the Long Bridge.

And as she mentioned, Long Bridge is at 98% capacity during peak hours, and the bridge is over 100 years old.

So we've been working with DC Department of Transportation since 2016 on environmental clearance, and we actually just received that last month in September.

But we needed agreement with CSX not only on Long Bridge corridor, but on other choke points in Virginia to move the infrastructure projects forward that would then trigger increases to passenger rail.

Next slide, please.

So during the time we were working with CSX on, sorry, with DCDOT on moving the environmental process forward, we'd also been working with CSX to come to agreement on a new paradigm, if you will.

Rather than just try to expand one train by working with the freight railroads, we wanted to plan for the future, and we were able to do that.

As we all know, back in December of last year, the Secretary of Valentine, Governor Northam,

CEO of CSX and also Steven Gardner from VRE and also Rich Dalton, sorry, Steven Gardner from Amtrak and Rich Dalton from VRE were there along with Katie Crystal, the chair of VRE, to announce the Transforming Rail in Virginia program.

A $3.7 billion program that'll allow Virginia to purchase 350 miles of rail right away and 225 miles of track.

and we'll be funding that with more than two-thirds of state and local revenues.

And our CFO, Steve Pittard, will discuss more of that later today.

So moving on to the next slide.

And if people have any questions, feel free to stop me and I'll pause at the end as well as we're moving along.

I'm gonna try to move this forward in an efficient manner, but again, if there are any questions, don't hesitate to stop me.

So the Transforming Rail in Virginia program led to the creation of the VPRA and why we are here today.

We realized that with this new paradigm that the Commonwealth need an ability, a new organization to oversee the construction and to oversee the operations of the new passenger rail in Virginia.

We've had some briefings with some members before and we've talked about the increase in passenger rail, six new Amtrak trains, five new VRE trains, and that's just in phase one and phase two.

We will be looking to expand even further with more passenger trains in phases three and four.

As you can see from this map, and I believe a lot of you have this map in a larger fashion in some of your papers, this is the map of the program of projects, and it's coded by phases.

And each phase will then trigger a certain amount of passenger rail increases.

So Long Bridge, it starts from Long Bridge at the top, goes over to Fortrack,

and Arlington Alexandria down to Third Track and Franconia and Springfield area, and also six sidings along the way, all the way from Richmond to just north of Ashland.

And this will be done in over about 10 years or so, and the first phase of projects should be done in roughly 2026 with the second phase of projects being done roughly in 2030.

Next slide, please.

Oh, actually, can we go back one slide, Jen?

Sorry about that.

There's something else I want to mention.

Not only are we purchasing right-of-way, half of the corridor from D.C. to Richmond, we'll be purchasing the east half south of Franconia and the west half north of Franconia.

We're also purchasing right-of-way and track on the I-64 corridor.

The Buckingham Branch mayor's I-64 corridor, and we'll be purchasing all of that track from

to Clifton Forge, and we're also purchasing abandoned S-Line track along the I-85 corridor from Petersburg down to Ridgeway, North Carolina.

So we did that for purposes of rail preservation.

We do want to continue seeing freight moved along the Buckingham Branch by the Buckingham Branch Railroad, but we also wanted to allow the opportunity to control their own future.

And that was really a theme for all of this.

It's not just about the next 10 years.

It's about the next 100 years, if you will, about the next century, the ability to grow

passenger and freight service in Virginia.

Because it's not only about passenger service, but freight service is also a good benefit because as we're building more capacity along the way, that will benefit the CSXs of the world so they can move more freight capacity to and from the port, which as a lot of people know is a big economic development hub for Virginia.

So next slide, please.

Thanks, John.

So as I just mentioned, as far as economic development, we're doing this again for the future.

Virginia is a rapidly growing state, and we need to increase our rail capacity in Virginia.

And that's one of the reasons why the VPRA was established.

This will allow us to grow Virginia by adding more passenger trains.

Not only are we adding more passenger trains during the peak, we'll be adding late train service as well coming south out of DC in the evening.

As a lot of you know who do take the train to DC, the last train leaves roughly about 7 o'clock.

So that doesn't leave much room for folks to be able to, whether it be work late or get dinner with work colleagues or friends after work.

So we'll be adding some trains in coming years.

They'll allow people to leave at 8.30, 9.30, 10 o'clock at night to travel to points south.

VPRA will also be

Owning the rail right-of-way in infrastructure and also building infrastructure.

This is quite a switch for Virginia where we've leaned on others.

We've given out grants to others, but in this case, we'll be overseeing with our partners such as Amtrak and VRE and others to build right-of-ways, to build out track in our right-of-way.

We are not going to be operating passenger rail.

And that is why Bruno and Rich are on our board because Amtrak and VRE will be operating passenger rail.

They're doing a good job.

We want to see them continue to do a good job.

We want to give them the tools to be able to do that as we build out capacity.

Also, the VPRA will be operating independently of some of the requirements so we can have that flexibility to build out these projects for the betterment of the commonwealth.

And with that, I'll pause here and see if people have any questions.

This is the end of my part of the presentation.

Okay.

Let's see.

And I don't see any hands raised either in the participants box.

So, okay.

Well, thanks, Mike.

Good morning.

Can you hear me okay?

Okay.

Jeremy Latimer, Director of Rail Programs.

So I've been with DRPT about 11 years, and

Really on the funding side, the grant programming side, both freight and passenger, learned a lot from working with Norfolk Southern CSX and our short line railroads over the years.

But lately I've been working on setting up the first parts of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

And so we actually have been working with WSP on analyzing best practices, looking at legal practices, looking at best practices for procurement,

And to that end, they helped us with reaching out to other agencies around the country.

And I know we talked to some of you individually and went over some of the specifics about that.

I just offer up the agencies that we interviewed.

They included the Virginia Port Authority, California High Speed Rail Authorities, Maryland Stadium Authority, the Gateway

Program Development Corporation, Capital Corridor Joint Powers Authority in California, and Massachusetts Port Authority also looked at the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority for procurement practices.

So a good number of agencies around the country.

If you have any questions while I'm going through these slides, feel free to stop me.

These are the types of slides I feel like all this executive experience we have on the board, there may be some input.

And if there are more authorities being set up around the country in the future, because Virginia is the model,

Hopefully these slides will be something we can refer back to.

So next slide.

So looking across the board at all the things we were saying the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority needs to stand up and become independent, we're going to start with four things today.

And first is going to be establishing board bylaws.

So that is something that you received in your board packets.

And there is a resolution at the end of the meeting and Lisa Wright will go over some of that with you.

We also will be electing board officers and that is an important step because it sets up a lot of things as far as finances and the ability to hire staff.

And then we'll discuss in closed session the executive director search and there is a resolution that you'll take action on after a closed session.

And then we have a memorandum of agreement between DRPT and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority that will cover a number of services the DRPT staff will continue to do and temporarily as well as set up some of the financial systems for the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

Very important to standing up an independent organization.

And I mentioned human resources here because we are drafting a personnel policy right now.

I looked at a number of agencies around Virginia for that.

We also, like I mentioned earlier, looked around the country at procurement practices.

The VPRA is independent of the Virginia Public Procurement Act.

And so we'll probably talk more about that in a future meeting as well.

Next slide.

So, boiling it down to a few things, we're going to talk about priority hire.

As you all have probably seen in the legislation, it is under the purview of the board to employ an executive director of the authority, and that is a logical first step towards getting the vision in motion and hiring more staff.

But then there really isn't a final org chart, and that's something we'll be talking with you all.

We do have some ideas out there that will need further input, but there are other positions that will be necessary to stand up the organization.

and that includes the Chief Financial Officer getting the finances independent for the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, having a human resources director so we can start to hire staff and make offers, and procurement officer because there are certain advantages for the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority and we want to utilize those as we advance design and construction of various corridor projects.

Next slide.

I wanted to mention, too, that there's a lot already underway.

I think a lot of you understand that from our one-on-ones.

And so DRPT staff are continuing to act on behalf of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority while it's being mobilized.

And I want to list here some of the things that we're doing, advancing procurements, ensuring that environmental permitting and planning is going forward and getting completed.

There's been a lot of headway on that front.

Advancing design efforts.

Negotiating agreements with various stakeholders because that's going to be a big part of this.

There's multiple stakeholders in this corridor, depending where you are.

and advancing agreements for funding as well and conducting project oversight.

There's gonna be different roles and different pieces and Virginia Passenger Rail Authority will negotiate that as time goes on.

We need to manage schedules because not only do we have a lot of projects in the corridor, VRE has projects in the corridor and CSX has projects in the corridor, not the least of which includes maintenance.

And there are things like maintaining two tracks active at all times that have to be coordinated when we're doing these projects.

Of course, I mentioned coordinating with stakeholders, which include Amtrak and CSX, but it's also going to include the localities along the way.

It's going to include the Federal Railroad Administration and a number of others.

We'll set up temporary systems for the VPRA because we know that as we stand up the VPRA, they're going to want to refine some things and maybe go in different directions, but our goal is to give them a strong start.

And then we'll be reviewing and approving invoices, but a number of financial items need to be independent, so the MOA is critical to that.

And then, of course, as today, setting up this meeting, we're providing board support.

and DRPT staff will also continue to manage statewide rail planning.

I'll talk a little bit more about that later.

And then they also have purview over the freight programs.

Next slide.

So I guess I'll stop here.

Now, thank you very much for the background, Jeremy.

We do have a preliminary org chart that we've been working through that we'll share with you at a future meeting.

We'll go into that in more detail.

Yes, I'm kind of old fashioned.

Is it possible for somebody to email me the

Sure, no problem.

Hey Bridget, would you mind while you're on the other, I see you there, would you mind re-sending the link with the materials to Mr. Nichols?

Sure, will do.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

So we will have some more discussion at future meetings about the proposed org chart.

As Jeremy mentioned, we have been working with some consultants for establishing, I would say, a roadmap for hiring for the organization.

We recognize that this is not going to be a final org chart, as this is something that the board and the new executive director will likely want to have some imprint on.

We do still need to get started with some early hires to start building out the administrative infrastructure of the organization.

So I do expect that at our next meeting, we'll spend some more time talking about what we expect for the early organization as well.

Happy to take any questions about that too.

Okay, I don't think I see anybody else with their hand up.

Sure, and of course.

Probably doesn't need to be said with every presentation, but interrupt a few of the questions.

I do enjoy hearing that so many of you have had a piece, have been involved in this history of passenger rail in Virginia for some time.

I'm not gonna go back to the very beginning of DRPT, but I'm gonna go back about 10 years.

It's actually about 10, 11 years about the time when I came in was right when things were getting kicked off.

And so I will talk a little bit about how we got here.

So as you all know, rail and passenger rail has made a lot of progress over the years in Virginia.

So next slide.

I wanted to start with an overview of the rail network.

So looking at this map, something that I believe you have in your binders,

You'll note the CSX network in red, and the Norfolk Southern network in blue, and a number of our short lines which play a vital role for the Port of Virginia, very different roles across the state, but you'll notice them in yellow.

And so we've had programs that support investment in freight, as well as now passenger, and these have been the major partners on that front in the past.

And so next slide.

And so once Virginia executes its agreements with CSX, what really changes on this map is the parts in blue in half the quarter in the RFMP north of Richmond become Virginia owned.

And so that's a significant change to this map and a lot of significant changes on the landscape for the Commonwealth as regarding passenger rail.

But I also wanted to point out on this map, if you're looking south of Richmond, actually south of Petersburg, the abandoned S line is part of the CSX agreement.

And then also you'll notice the Buckingham branch, the line that goes east-west, just north of Richmond, one of the short line railroads, which is owned by CSX currently, and leased by the Buckingham branch.

It's also a great partner with Virginia.

Next slide.

Virginia has really advanced its investments in rail under the banner of the public benefits it provides to Virginia's economy.

And so we worked with the Commonwealth Transportation Board, specifically the Commonwealth Transportation Board Rail and Transit Subcommittee, when we did our rail plan in 2017.

And they really directed us in this kind of one-pager, we need to sell what it means to Virginia to invest in rail.

And so that's what this graphic is about.

You'll see that it kind of falls under the headings of it grows the economy, it benefits the environment, we breathe easier, it's a safer mode of travel, and it saves money, and that's savings in state dollars.

And so looking at this, you see that we have $2.2 billion in annual benefits from freight rail in Virginia, and $190 million in annual benefits from the passenger rail operations.

And so that drives 6% of Virginia's total economy, and more than 6,000 jobs are created directly by the rail network.

And looking at the environmental side of things, it's 3 million tons of CO2 emissions avoided per year.

6.4% of the total CO2 emitted in Virginia every year.

So significant benefits to the environment, as well as avoiding 3,000 crashes each year and 18 lives saved.

And that's by, if you were to extrapolate the additional congestion on the roads and the number of

And then as we utilize a privately owned network, the freight network, it avoids pavement maintenance costs.

And so we're shifting a lot of heavy loads onto that network that has a public benefit to Virginia, specifically VDOT as it maintains our highways.

Next slide.

So I'm gonna go through kind of a progression.

This is a subway-style map that one of our staff created.

It's a very useful tool for us in communicating what our services are.

So going back to 2009, which is actually when I started with Virginia, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, I started October of 2009, and that was about when we kicked off a Lynchburg service.

So in 2009, Virginia ventured into its first state-supported service line down to Lynchburg, Virginia.

It was a very exciting time to come in

and work at Virginia, and I've seen this grow.

And so next slide.

Continuing that momentum, we were dealing really bilaterally with Amtrak on these state-supported services, but there were changes coming on the federal landscape.

But we started an additional service to Richmond and built a pocket track there at Staples Mill.

And both of those services really did well, exceeded expectations on ridership and actually performed very well on the revenue side as well, covering their expenses.

Because we at the time did not have dedicated sources of funding for operations.

Next slide.

Now I'd be curious to hear from some of the Norfolk Southern folks, previous Norfolk Southern folks, that in 2012 we took the train to Norfolk.

And that was really an opportunity that I remember as I started out at DRPT.

We were at a public meeting in Norfolk when Norfolk Southern, and I can't remember exactly because I was so new, it may have been Wick Moorman, but they at the public meeting discussed

A potential deal with Virginia to bring the train to Norfolk.

And I remember that ride back to Richmond, a lot of calls were being made.

So a very exciting time.

And we took that train to Norfolk within two years.

And there was a lot of support in Hampton Roads for that.

So next slide.

In 2013, I kind of hinted at this change in the federal landscape on passenger rail.

In 2008, a lot was passed that really was gonna put

The financial responsibility of passenger rail on the states for any routes less than 750 miles, which for Virginia meant Lynchburg, Richmond, extended to Norfolk, as well as the existing two Newport News trains and the two Richmond trains had to be taken over by Virginia or they would cease to operate.

And that kind of came at a time when we were already discussing a need for dedicated operating resources.

And so out of the 2013 General Assembly session, we had a new fund created that was for operating and capital expenses.

And so we were able to support all these services.

So from 2009 to 2013, you can see how our network of state support services really grew.

Next slide.

In 2017, we took the Lynchburg service to Roanoke, and that was another partnership with Norfolk Southern, and that's one that I really cut my teeth on.

It was an exciting project, and actually, I bought this jacket for that inaugural ride.

I usually wear it for exciting days at DRPT.

And it was really a successful service, a continuation of the successful service from Lynchburg and now out of Roanoke.

Next slide.

And so with that agreement with Norfolk Southern in 2012, we also had secured two additional slots to go to Norfolk.

And so in 2019, we were able to turn on that second Norfolk frequency after we worked with CSX on a bottleneck in the Richmond area at the yard, which I'll show you a picture of in just a minute and discuss that.

So by 2019, our service, having started 10 years previously with just one service in Lynchburg, everything in navy blue was now state supported service by Virginia.

with operating support.

Next slide.

So we had our 10th year anniversary at Main Street Station in Richmond following a Commonwealth Transportation Board meeting.

I was actually at the podium and we had to stop in the middle of my presentation and run over to the Main Street Station to do this event and then come back and pick up where we left off.

This is a fun day, exciting day, great day to see a lot of people who've been part of this for about 10 years to see its success.

Next slide.

I want to talk a little bit about, as we were working on all these projects to get service extended across Virginia, what did those projects look like?

So there's going to be a number of projects in the corridor that we're constructing, and sometimes you have to ask yourself, what does a passenger rail project look like?

Well, under the paradigm where we were coexisting with freight,

A lot of those projects looked like freight projects, and this here is a double-step tunnel clearance that we invested in the Norfolk Southern Network in order to create redundancy and have the ability to shift freight traffic off of the line we wanted to run passenger service to Roanoke.

So I think this is just a powerful picture to show you that we were investing in projects that increasingly, because of the nature of passenger rail and freight existing on the same lines, that there really wasn't one project that looked exclusively passenger rail.

We were building out the capacity to add passenger service and make sure that freight service was not negatively impacted.

I guess you could say, really, next slide, the only

The ones that really show you that passenger service was coming were when we built the platforms and the servicing facilities exclusively before the Amtrak trains.

And so this is a picture in Roanoke of the first level boarding platform that we constructed in Virginia.

And this is downtown Roanoke.

And we were really grateful working with Norfolk Southern because there were so many difficulties fitting this into an urban location.

I mean, it was some of the plans we were drawing up, we were down to like inches making it work.

and it really became a great new gateway for the community and that's really where rail has been opening up new gateways to communities across the Commonwealth.

Next slide.

I wanted to touch on some of the capital projects that we've done.

This one is the ACCA yard in Richmond.

You can't really see it in this picture, but at the north end of that yard is Staples Mill Station, the busiest station in Virginia, also the southeast.

and all the trains had to go, all the passenger trains were having to go through the middle of this yard, crawling speed.

We used to joke you could ride your bike faster from Main Street Station to the Staples Mill.

So the Commonwealth invested with CSX in building a bypass track that actually takes you in close to the station.

So the Accoyard Bypass was an initiative that wrapped up in 2019 and gave us the capacity to take

The two additional trains to Norfolk, which we'd already worked with Norfolk Southern to have the two additional as part of the agreement in 2012.

We built those capacity improvements.

So next slide.

So we've had a lot of past successes and this is where I want to say that a lot of our past successes have been incremental and we've built improvements to the network, we've added service incrementally, we've seen that it's been successful, we've seen that it's been well received across the state, bipartisan, more areas of the Commonwealth want it, the more they see it expanding.

Commonwealth Transportation Board remained very supportive of it.

And so we've had these past successes where we've been able to bring people together to realize those benefits to the Commonwealth are very exciting days.

And so next slide.

It's really set us up this momentum that we've gained from these incremental improvements, a lot of future success ahead and a paradigm shift.

And so I wanted to just touch base on that, that this paradigm shift, and you can go to the next slide.

is really about maximum separation of freight and passenger rails, especially in the RFMP corridor.

But it continues the vision that Virginia has.

And some of the buzzwords that you hear that have transcended administrations include that we're moving people and goods, not cars and trucks, through corridors.

And we have worked with the Commonwealth Transportation Board on our rail plan.

on the executive summary that touted the public benefits to the Virginia economy, and it's been an important piece of working within the V-Trans vision for their policy setting for all modes.

And so, DRPT sets strategic plans for the Commonwealth and works with the Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment

who oversees the V transplant.

And so that is a critical link that the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority will want to work with DRPT on in the future.

Next slide.

All right.

Thank you, Jeremy.

Does anyone have any questions?

I also want to acknowledge, I know a couple of people, many of the people that are here on the phone, such as Deb, Wick, Bruno and others have been a big part of this history too.

So if there's anything that you all be interested in adding as context, just let us know.

Okay, great.

Yes, sorry.

Yes, thank you for that.

I just had one quick sort of question of definition.

When you guys reference state-sponsored or supported routes, what exactly does that mean?

Is that a statutory definition?

Is that operating outlays only?

I'd be happy to, and Bruno with Amtrak may also want to chime in.

However, there are three service, well, there's service lines within Amtrak, not just three, but for our purposes, I'll discuss, there's long distance service, which means the service is longer than 750 miles.

Then there's state supported service, which the states have to pay a certain share of, and there's a methodology that was worked out among states in Amtrak.

That's where our state supported services falls in that category.

We work with 17 other states

Services under the state supported service line.

Thank you.

And Jeremy is exactly right.

The genesis of the state supported route was defined in the Passenger Rail Investment Act at PREA in 2009 by federal legislation.

And I do also want to distinguish that too from commuter rail.

We typically refer to VRE service.

as Commuter Rail, which has more of a shorter distance commuter oriented market in the morning, out in the afternoons as well.

So that's another category that we haven't been talking about as much here.

Jennifer, you know, one thing I can add is that under the rules set up by Congress on state-supported trains, the states bear a large share of the operating costs but not the complete share.

They're still, to some extent,

have some Amtrak, some federal subsidies, but I know it was the case a couple or three years ago.

I haven't looked recently, but in terms of just paying for what I describe as the operating costs of the state-supported trains, the costs above the top of the rail, if you will,

The Virginia trains were the only trains that fully covered the operating costs just from out of the fare box.

Jennifer, can I ask you a question?

It's Jay.

Just, you know, being a bit of a novice to the passenger rail side of things and here having the slide up on the vision, now may not be the best time, but at some point be very helpful to understand if there are

expectations or standards around speed.

You know, we all hear about high-speed rail.

We know what goes on in Europe.

We know what we have in the U.S. And I believe for a lot of people the time is a major element in terms of whether people choose to take rail.

So at some point,

It would be useful to me to understand what metrics, what expectations we have when designing and building new rail.

That's a great question and we get asked that a lot actually.

Jeremy, do you want to talk a little bit about the speeds, the average speeds we have today and our

I'll say, you know, when it comes to the competitive service, we want car competitive travel between Richmond and DC, and there are really three legs of that stool that I usually talk about, and one would be reliability, one is frequency, and one is speed.

And reliability and frequency are areas where we're constantly, like all three of them require upgrades within the network, but CSX currently maintains the network between Richmond and DC at a maximum of 70 miles an hour.

It's designed for freight speeds.

So I think there's a future discussion about where that goes in the future.

But if we have reliable on time service with frequent departures, that's really where we've seen the benefit for car competitive travel on rail.

So a lot of the there was a federal program several years ago that was, you know, the

really labeled as a high-speed rail investment program.

And so some of the projects that we've been working on, including our environmental study for DC to RBA, was labeled as a future high-speed rail study.

Similarly, there's work that was done for the Southeast high-speed rail corridor.

But what I can say is that's not high-speed rail as we

Many people think about it that we have in like 200 mile per hour bullet trains in Japan.

What we're really talking about is increasing speeds incrementally.

In corridors where we are in mixed traffic with freight, which is really all of our corridors right now, we are limited to max speeds of about 79 miles per hour, as Jeremy said.

We can design up to 90 in a corridor that is separated, such as the S line corridor would be in the future.

if that was developed, we could design for speeds up to 110 miles per hour.

So in the Southeast, at least, those are the types of speeds we're talking about.

But as Jeremy mentioned, for us, it really is about reliability, predictability, and additional frequencies.

And as opposed to some of those higher speeds today.

So I see Deb and Wick both nodding their heads a little bit.

No, I think the subject has been well presented and I am in agreement.

Right.

And I think maybe I'll just add, you know, as we discuss this in the future, because it is a big topic, probably want some of our rail engineers as part of that conversation.

But one of the interesting things to remember is, you know, when you have frequent stops, you have to accelerate to those top speeds, maintain them.

and then slow down again.

It's really that maintaining that speed is really where you see the benefit.

So in corridors with a lot of stops that can affect the top speeds as well as a lot of times railroads follow the path of least resistance in corridors which happen to be along waterways.

There are some projects now going on around the country that are more greenfield projects that truly are looking at high-speed rail types of speeds in Texas and California.

In our corridor in Virginia, the environmental studies we've done have looked at the potential for greenfield alignments, which is basically a brand new alignment.

as opposed to utilizing an existing environment.

With the studies that we've done, it's been determined that the impacts of trying to build greenfield alignments in Virginia, especially where we have very highly urbanized environments, were just too great.

And that really it made more sense, not just the impacts, but the cost as well.

And so really it made more sense to continue to improve the rail we have in existing corridors.

and so that's why we're really looking at trying to advance projects in our existing corridors.

That's also why trying to separate freight and passenger in corridors like the RF&P between Richmond and DC is so important too.

Hi Jennifer, this is Mariia.

I had a comment or observation slash question.

First off, that really is an incredible amount of progress in a relatively small period of time, and in the world of transportation, projects often move really slowly, so that makes it even more astounding.

And as a frequent staple mills rider, I didn't know we were the busiest station in the Southeast, so that's kind of awesome, but I believe it.

But a question I have, Jeremy, you talked a lot about

Sort of the past growth over the last decade, there's been a lot of incremental projects.

And as we look at the Transforming Virginia with Rail Initiative and the role of this authority, it sounds like we're going to be doing a mix of things that are incremental, but also larger scale things like Long Bridge, which seems

that there's going to be even greater need to think about how the authority and its staff interact with local communities and kind of community liaison positions and things.

I know we talked about this a little bit in our one-on-one, but I'm just thinking about the staffing for the organization as we have those conversations going forward.

and how I think it will be important for us to place emphasis on building that capacity for the authority, just as it's really important that we get our financial capacity and our engineering, you know, all those hard skills that we also think early on about some of those softer skills that we also need to have.

But I'm curious through the work that has already happened, if there are further kind of

Well, I think it's going to be an ongoing conversation.

I think part of that paradigm shift is that owning railroad right of way and some of the stations that come with it mean that any time a community has an infrastructure project that intersects ours or if there's utilities or if a developer wants to build along our rail line or just any number of possibilities once you own basically a river through all the communities in Virginia that we're going to have

Hey, this is Mike McLaughlin, if you don't mind me jumping in to help answer Mariia's question as well.

I agree with everything Jeremy said.

Since we knew that projects were coming down the pike, we actually did start hiring in Northern Virginia.

We hired the first two rail folks just about a year ago.

And one had experience from CSX, an engineer.

Another one had experience with local communities.

She worked for Arlington and Prince William County and for the District of Columbia.

So we had already started to think along the same lines.

Yeah.

Sharon, I see your hand raised.

Yeah.

I'm looking at the chart under agency roles.

And I wonder if you could say just a few words to clarify what our responsibility is when it comes to planning.

So it looks like statewide planning is under the purview of DRPT, but corridor planning, does that shift to us?

I'll get started with that.

So as we were developing the legislation for the passenger rail authority and really thinking about governance, we wanted to make it clear that statewide planning responsibilities would still be retained by DRPT and also by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

because for a few different reasons.

We wanted to make sure that the CTB and the state is still directing its statewide priorities.

And rail is very much a part of the statewide's bigger multimodal plan.

So as they're looking at corridors, the state should be looking at things like, how do we expand highway capacity along an interstate corridor compared to a passenger rail?

And so,

We wanted to make sure that the Passenger Rail Authority will continue to be implementing projects in accordance with the state's broader plans.

However, we do also recognize that the two organizations are going to have to work very closely together on that.

It'll definitely be a partnership going forward from a practical standpoint.

With that said, then there's also planning that gets into more

detailed planning, what we've referred to, I think in that chart that was in your background materials as corridor planning, but that could be, for example, looking at a specific corridor between, let's say, Spotsylvania in DC or Manassas in DC and looking at operations and how we would sort of time different trains,

to minimize the impacts on freight trains and passenger trains.

So that gets into much more specific type of project planning.

And that's work that we would see being carried out by the Rail Authority, because it does really get into the sort of more implementation side of that planning and project development.

There's a lot of other gray areas and some other types of planning in between.

We do expect that we'll have a very coordinated role between DRPT and the Passenger Rail Authority.

Okay.

Any other comments or questions?

Okay, I think we're doing a pretty good job of staying on track right now from a scheduled standpoint.

Thank you, Jeremy.

I am now going to turn it over to Lisa Wright.

Oh wait, I'm sorry, was there another question?

Nope, okay.

All right.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Lisa Wright and I work at the Office of the Attorney General and I support DRPT and

Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

And I am excited to be in that role and excited to meet all of you and excited for this meeting to be happening.

So just really great to meet you all.

So this is going to be a very brief overview.

Just quickly, you have a lot of materials and you've received a lot of information.

So thanks for the slide.

This is just a breakdown of what the

Rail Authority's powers are administratively, operationally, and financially.

So it's just a good overview of a division of the legislation, those three various buckets of what you're empowered to do.

Next slide.

So, with respect to administrative responsibilities, you're required to, according to the enabling legislation, elect vice chair, secretary, and treasurer, subordinate officers as needed.

They can be non-board members.

You must meet at least once quarterly.

You have to employ an executive director and you have to develop and adopt personnel rules, policies and procedures, and procurement policies.

Next slide.

So these are your board financial responsibilities pursuant to the enabling legislation, act as trustees for funds received by the authority,

You have to submit a detailed operating plan and annual budget to the Commonwealth Transportation Board by February 1st of each year.

You must submit for approval by the Commonwealth Transportation Board any proposed capital expenditures and projects for the following year by February 1st.

You must keep records in accordance with government gap, and those records must be audited yearly by a CPA firm chosen by the auditor of public accounts.

That's in coordination with you, but it is chosen by the auditor of public accounts.

Every year you must submit an annual report to the Governor and the General Assembly on or before November 1st, and that report will contain the audit that's conducted.

Next slide.

So you guys got a copy of the Freedom of Information Act in an email that I sent to you all.

I'm not certain if it was in your board books.

But for me, the one thing I wanted to point out for you, instead of going over that document in its totality or an inordinate amount of slides,

reiterating that what I wanted to just in this meeting specifically remind you of is that a meeting occurs when there are three or more members of the board assembled to transact business and so with respect to a meeting of three or more that can be electronically so when someone sends out an email please refrain from hitting reply all because as soon as you do your transacting public business in a non-public forum.

Also, this was brought to my attention, all of you know Jennifer, so sometimes you might forget that as the chairman of the board, she, conducting business with her and one other would be three or more board members assembled.

So just really keep that in mind.

Next slide.

So with respect to the Conflicts of Interest Act, all of you know, probably, or many of you know, that we had a little bit of trouble logging in and taking that training.

So we're still working with the Department of Legislative Services to have the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority added as a drop-down box.

One thing that I've learned in dealing with them to get that to happen is that this training is accessible to anybody.

You can pretty much fill the box in with anything and obtain it.

Members of the public, anyone can obtain this training.

But the training for a state officer or employee is the same training that a board member would receive.

So if you need to take the training, if you just register as a board member and a state officer or employee as the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, you can access the training appropriate for you and take it.

If you are a member of another board, another state board, and you have taken this training, you do not need to take it twice.

The requirement is that you take it every two years.

Next slide.

And I'm gonna kind of explain, we're gonna go into a closed session, closed session protocol and what's appropriate for closed sessions.

Next slide.

So, according to the Virginia Code 2.2-3711, there are various reasons to go into closed session if you're discussing personnel issues, acquisition of real property, the prospects of expanding business, investment of public funds in which competition is involved.

If you want to consult with legal counsel, you can read the various reasons, but these are specifically

delineated by code as a rationale to close the session and not conduct it in a public forum.

Next slide.

So in order

The purpose is to restrict matter specifically identified in a motion, so the motion has to specifically

delineate the purpose and defined by code for the closed session.

After you come out of closed session, you have to immediately have a roll call in which each member of the board specifically says yea or nay to two items.

One, nothing was discussed in the meeting that

is excluded from public discussion pursuant to code, and secondarily, nothing was discussed outside of what was delineated in the motion called for the closed session.

If anybody believes that there was a departure for this, they should say this ahead of time, and that will be before the vote, and that statement will be recorded in the meeting minutes.

Next slide.

and that is the extent of my presentation.

If anybody has any questions, I'm happy to answer them and thank you again.

Okay.

Lisa, I know that, or I'm sorry, Julie Whitlock, I know you're on the phone too.

Sure, thank you.

I just wanted to introduce myself again.

I'm Julie Whitlock.

I'm chief of our transportation section.

So the attorneys in the transportation section represent all of the transportation agencies.

We're delighted that Lisa Wright, who is our primary attorney for the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, is also able to be the primary attorney for the passenger rail authority right now.

And she has done a nice job of reminding you all of some of the highlights of FOIA and closed sessions this morning.

You know, she's here for any of your legal questions.

As an authority, the board of an authority, you're in a slightly different situation than the board of an agency.

So there are gonna be a few tweaks there as you saw in the description of the, what am I trying to say?

The authority of the authority, the responsibilities of the authority.

But that's the kind of thing that Lisa is here to help you with and to answer questions with and she'll work closely with Director Mitchell and the other board administrators to help keep you all on track with regard to FOIA and any other issues that may arise.

So thank you very much for letting me pop in here and look forward to working with all of you in the future.

So are there any questions, comments from any of the board members regarding the materials we just went through?

Okay.

So I am now going to ask Sharon Bulova to make a motion for us to go into closed session.

We would need somebody then to second that and

and then we can go in.

I can say that all of you should have received a new WebEx link around 10 a.m. from Bridget Davis.

So what we'll do after the motion is made and we'll go ahead and adjourn the open session.

We will then go into closed session.

We'll probably need about a five minute break for our website administrators to get the new WebEx up and running.

And so after that, we will then close the session, close the closed session and take a break for a moment.

So, Sharon, would you mind making that motion?

I would be happy to do so.

Madam Chairman, I move that the Board convene in a closed session pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A1 and 6 of the Code of Virginia for the purpose of discussing a personnel issue of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, which will result

and the expenditure of public funds where bargaining is involved and where the financial interest of the Commonwealth would be adversely affected if the discussion were made public at this time and pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A8 for the purpose of consulting with legal counsel regarding provision in the agreement requiring legal advice.

Additionally, I move that staff and attorneys attend the closed session because their presence is deemed necessary and will aid the board in its consideration of this matter.

So moved.

Second.

Great.

Thank you.

Ms. Bulova?

Aye.

Ms. Butler Painter?

Aye.

Okay.

He may have stepped away.

Okay.

Ms. Zimmerman?

Aye.

OK, great.

Thank you.

So as I mentioned before, you'll go ahead and get off of this WebEx link and look for the new WebEx link.

We should all be able to get in there in a couple of minutes and then we will rejoin again for members of the public.

We'll plan to rejoin at 1.30 to come to begin the open session of the remainder of the workshop.

Thank you.

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and Paul Edwards

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convening the workshop session of our meeting in open session.

Yes, Madam Chairman, I move that to the best of my knowledge, during the closed meeting, the only matters heard, discussed, or considered were those matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and only those public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened.

Great.

Ms. Bulova?

Aye.

Ms. Butler Painter?

Aye.

Mr. Cardwell?

Mr. Cardwell?

I don't see him back on the line yet.

Okay.

Ms. Doersch?

Aye.

Mr. Fisette?

Mr. Hall?

Mr. Moorman?

Aye.

Ms. Moses-Nedd?

Aye.

Mr. Sadid?

Aye.

Ms. Zimmerman.

Aye.

Great, thank you.

Thanks, Jennifer, members of the board.

I'm going to take a few moments to give a real high-level overview of the funding

with the Rail Authority, and then I'm going to lead into discussing the memorandum of agreement between DRPT and the Rail Authority that we'll be asking you to take action on later today.

So at a real high level, the Rail Authority

took two programs that were in existence at DRPT before the most recent General Assembly session, not the special session, but back in the spring when the Rail Authority was created.

So the Intercity Passenger Rail and Operating and Capital Fund and the Rail Enhancement Fund, both of those funds existed prior to the Rail Authority.

and they actually had their revenues, were very specific revenue sources.

With the Rail Enhancement Fund, it was motor vehicle sales.

Zari Motor Vehicle Rental Taxes, and then for the Intercity Passenger Rail and Operating Capital Fund, we had retail sales and use tax dedicated to them.

And in the General Assembly session, what happened within transportation was all of the various sources, and I'm on slide two, yeah, all the various sources, and we've just listed

mostly the larger sources here.

All of those sources were put into one Commonwealth Transportation Fund.

And then from there, the various modes were provided their allocation of those funds.

And what this has done is, you know, we had good years under the old approach where vehicle rentals were expanding and where retail sales tax work was expanding.

But then we had bad years like

Well, I wouldn't say under COVID that vehicle rentals is necessarily doing bad, but has declined.

So that takes that uncertainty out of the equation, and now we get to benefit from, if recordation taxes off our housing market is

Moving well, we get to benefit.

If retail sales is going well, we benefit.

And then likewise, we also have the downside.

But by having so many different sources, it takes that variability out.

So that being said, what this General Assembly session did in the omnibus bill, it did dedicate seven and a half percent of

the Transportation Trust Fund revenue to the Commonwealth Rail Fund.

And then further, it dictated that of that 7.5%, 93% will be then sent directly to the Passenger Rail Authority, and the remaining 7% will stay with DRPT for its freight and planning programs.

Next slide, please.

So this gives the current projection and I do want to caution everyone that's listening and board members that the out years have not been adjusted yet.

We've yet to get a new official forecast from taxation for the years 23 through 26 so we still hope that we're in that

Range of 150 million when we get to fiscal year 26, but I do want to caution everyone when they're looking at this.

The FY21 data is the number for the year we're in, and this represents that 93 percent coming to the Passenger Rail Authority.

And I guess we will by mid-December at the latest, I hope it'll be sooner, we'll have updated revenue data, which in turn

We're taking that data and we're updating the financial plan for the Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative.

And as I mentioned earlier, these funds are deposited directly each month.

Next slide.

So I just wanted to take a moment and I know when we had our individual discussions, I talked about that there was a lot of activity

from the prior two programs, and there had to be a methodology for ending those programs and then transferring that activity either to DRPT or to the Rail Authority.

And what this slide does is it puts some numbers to that thought, those thoughts of exactly how much cash had accumulated in the two programs.

and then there's some receivables for project commitments that we essentially would bill to VDOT and then they pay us.

But then also it shows the commitments on those existing projects.

And this further takes those commitments and it breaks it down between what the passenger rail authority will be responsible to manage and what DRPT will continue to manage.

And the primary delineation, my team worked closely with Mike McLaughlin's rail team to make the split between the project commitments between DRPT and the Rail Authority.

But primarily it was based on if it had a passenger rail purpose in the project, if it was a mixed freight and passenger, it moved to the Rail Authority.

So if it had

It had to be a strictly freight project to stay with the DRPT program.

So with that being said, you can see there's a large cash balance and then there's a significant amount of commitments that are coming over.

And then there are also some projects that we have receivables, i.e.

there's smart scale funds on some projects and some priority transportation funds.

that as those funds are expended, the arrangement with VDOT is we would then bill them and be reimbursed.

The net here, the $99.99, the $100 million essentially net available is funding that in our financial planning, we've been anticipating using for the Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative.

and I guess along those lines, we'll come back.

I think earlier, Lisa Wright may have mentioned that we have to take our budgets to the CTB on February 1st.

So in the near future, I don't know if it'd be the next meeting, but probably the meeting after that, we will be bringing an operating and capital budget for y'all's review before those are taken to the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

And I guess one last point, if this doesn't include that revenue from the prior page, this is strictly a June 30th cutoff of all activity to that point.

So next slide.

And this slide is here just for informational purposes.

It's language from the budget bill or the appropriation act that supplemented the code language for the rail authority.

And it essentially addressed or

To a degree addressed, how do we handle those programs that have been in existence and the balances that were in existence and the commitments that were there?

And I'm not going to read this to you, but in essence, what it says is we're going to transfer the entirety of the cash balance to the rail authority.

and the purpose of that is to provide funding flexibility, some liquidity, some cash flow for the large project.

With that being said, I just showed you a slide where there was $45 million of commitments on June 30th that DRPT is going to continue to manage and pay expenditures on and so

What was stipulated in this language that the two parties have to have a memorandum of agreement between each other so that when we transfer the cash to the rail authority, there's a signed agreement that when DRPT needs funds sent back to cover that $45 million of expenditures, that the rail authority will do that in a timely manner.

So next slide.

And then the other, I guess the other purpose of the memorandum of agreement is DRPT, and I have to give a little bit of background information, DRPT pays for its administrative costs using, the General Assembly allows us to use up to 5% of the state revenues that were appropriated.

And we're now with the Rail Authority getting

93% of those rail funds directly, that doesn't leave a lot of 5% left to cover our 10 to 12 rail team members plus part of my salary, my team salary, computer cost, rent, etc.

So with no way to recover those costs, we also want to put in the memorandum of agreement

We're basically doing an allocation plan using total hours of everyone here at DRPT is the base for that allocation plan.

But we want to document that we are going to, on a quarterly basis, bill the passenger rail authority for this interim period of work being performed by employees at DRPT.

And that's pretty much what I had.

And once again, I don't know if it'll be the next meeting or the meeting after that, but before we get to February 1st, we will be coming back with a more detailed operating budget, which includes all the different Amtrak services that the Rail Authority is responsible for, as well as a capital budget, which

As you can see, there's already a lot of existing projects in a capital plan.

And then on top of that, we've talked a lot about the Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative.

Any questions for Steve?

Sharon, I see you have yourself off mute.

So no, not me.

Anyone else?

Any questions?

As Steve mentioned, we are required to bring a capital and operating budget to the Commonwealth Transportation Board by February 1st.

So what I anticipate is that we would bring a draft budget to you at our next meeting in December and review that with you all and ask for action on that in January so that then we could

be able to provide that to the CTB by February 1st.

So we will be also giving you a more detailed presentation at some point about the funding sources that are included in the Transforming Rail for Virginia initiative, which goes beyond just the years identified here.

And we'll go into more detail about some of the outside funding sources expected as part of that package as well.

That itself will be a pretty long, detailed presentation.

Okay, any questions at this point?

Okay, great.

Thank you, Steve, very much.

So now we're going to move into the action part of our agenda in which we have a number of action items.

We are going to start with public comment and then get into the four action items identified here on this list.

And first of all, I'd like to ask our website administrator.

Good afternoon.

This is the public, Colin Bridge speaking.

All right.

So,

Okay, so with that, we're now going to move into the action items.

And we have provided, as part of your meeting, packets, decision briefs, and resolutions.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the board.

I have one item for you to consider for action, adoption of the proposed VPRA bylaws.

These bylaws were contained, they were provided in advance and contained in your board packets.

They are part of the critical steps to standing up the VPRA and they will enable the board to elect officers and do other items that are necessary on behalf of the VPRA.

They're the framework under which the board will operate.

The bylaws can be amended at a later date upon further review of the board as necessary and as needed.

I'll second the motion.

Great, thank you.

A question?

Yes.

So a quorum is seven individuals present.

I'm happy to answer that question.

So yes, quorum is seven members.

It does include ex officio and for any action items taken with seven members, it would be a majority of the voting members.

So arguably if you had all three ex officios attending and four voting members.

Okay.

I do not think there's no... Go ahead.

Sorry.

Appreciate your cat's desire to vote, though.

And just to add on to something that Lisa said, we have put these together as interim bylaws.

I do expect that I'm going to ask for some volunteers for an ad hoc governance committee to look at over the next six months or so to look at potential changes to the bylaws.

to reflect our ways of doing business.

I know, for example, we may want to establish some standing committees of the board.

The one committee that is called out in the bylaws is a finance and audit committee, and we will be looking for volunteers for that as well.

But at this point in time, we have no other standing committees identified.

But that is something that I would expect, as many of you have also served on boards,

Typically, there are some standing committees that oversees different parts of the business, but I know that's something that we'd like to have some more input from the board members on.

So at this point, we are asking that we go ahead and approve these so that we can continue to take some actions and continue to look at these in the future.

Any questions or any other questions or comments?

Okay, I believe we have a motion and a second on the table.

Ms. Bulova?

Aye.

Ms. Butler Painter?

Aye.

Mr. Cardwell?

Aye.

Ms. Doersch?

Aye.

Ms. Moses-Nedd.

Aye.

And Ms. Zimmerman.

Aye.

The ayes have it.

Our next item is for the election of VPRA Board Officers.

We have three positions, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer.

Madame Chair, I would move the following nominations for officers of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority for Vice Chair, Sharon Bulova, for Treasurer, Hossein Sadid, and for Secretary, Jim Spore.

Thank you.

Any other nominations at this point?

Okay, I'd like to ask for a motion and a second on that slate of nominations.

Okay, great, thank you.

Bridget, would you like to go ahead and call the roll?

Ms. Butler Painter?

Aye.

Mr. Cardwell?

Aye.

Ms. Doerf, Mr. Fisette, Mr. Hall, Mr. Moorman, Ms. Moses-Nedd, Mr. Nichols, Mr. Sadid, Mr. Spore, and Ms. Zimmerman.

Well, thank you all very much for those of you that have volunteered to serve and congratulations and look forward to working with you over the next year.

So the next item we have is authorization of the DRPT and VRPA Memorandum of Agreement.

I know that Steve Pittard spoke about this

in our previous session.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board.

One item for y'all's consideration today.

It's the memorandum of agreement between the Department of Rail and Public Transportation and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

which documents certain financial relationships between the two entities during this interim period as the rail authority gets stood up.

Second.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Any discussion or questions?

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Miss Bulova?

Aye.

Miss Butler Painter?

Aye.

Mr. Cardwell?

Aye.

Miss Doersch?

Aye.

Mr. Hall?

Aye.

Mr. Moorman?

Aye.

Ms. Moses-Nedd.

Aye.

Ms. Zimmerman.

Aye.

The ayes have it.

Great.

Thank you so much.

And then our last action item of the day is to authorize the beginning of the Executive Director search.

and you have a resolution in your packet in front of you to allow us to go ahead and begin that search.

And as I mentioned before, we will be asking for members of a committee as well to help us oversee the search itself.

Second.

Great, thank you very much.

Ms. Bulova?

Aye.

Ms. Butler Painter?

Aye.

Mr. Cardwell?

Aye.

Ms. Doersch?

Aye.

Mr. Fisette?

Aye.

Mr. Moorman?

Aye.

Ms. Moses-Nedd?

Aye.

Mr. Nichols?

Aye.

Ms. Zimmerman?

Aye.

The ayes have it, most is passed.

So that breaches the end of our action agenda.

Just a few other matters as well.

I do just want to let you know we are planning to schedule another meeting for early December, given the holiday schedule

I know the end of November falls into the Thanksgiving time zone, but I'm going to ask Bridget to reach out to all of you to find out what works for you within the first two weeks of December.

I would like to establish a regular monthly meeting date for the calendar year 2021.

So when Bridget is reaching out to you, I'll ask her to ask you,

if you have any sort of standing commitments or dates that definitely do not work for you so that we can establish a regular meeting date starting in the beginning of the year.

I do expect that we would be meeting monthly, monthly or near monthly, given the number of things that we have to accomplish over the next 12 months.

And hopefully we can find a meeting date that will accomplish everything, or be able to meet all of your schedules.

Some other items that we expect to bring forward

in the next meeting would be a draft budget, committee assignments, also a draft personnel policy as Jeremy Latimer referred to before.

And there may be some other business items as well, but plus we will be providing more detailed briefing on our financial plan and continuing to familiarize you with the agreements that we'll be moving forward with too.

Of course, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to me or any of the staff at any time.

I think that's all we have right now.

Does anybody else on the board have any questions or new business that they would like to bring forward?

Okay.

I do hope that we can meet in person soon when we have a safe opportunity to do so.

We'll certainly, I appreciate Rod Hall's offer for the airplane hangar as well.

So, but I do look forward to seeing you all in person soon.

And again, please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Thank you again for your volunteering to serve on this board, but also for your participation today.

Thank you.