Summary Minutes – 3rd Meeting (approved May 20, 2014)

US Access Board

Rail Vehicles Access Advisory Committee

April 10 and 11, 2014

Washington, DC

Thursday, April 10, 2014

With a quorum present, Mr. Christopher Hart, Access Board member, opened the third 

meeting of the Rail Vehicles Access Advisory Committee (RVAAC) at 10 a.m. in the 

Access Board’s conference room at 1331 F Street, N.W., room 800, Washington, DC. 

Mr. Hart welcomed committee members, alternates, and members of the public, and 

asked those in attendance to introduce themselves. The attendance record is in the 

Attachment to these minutes. He then turned the meeting over to the Committee Chair, 

Mr. Billy Altom. The committee approved the January 2014 meeting summary minutes

as submitted.1 

The committee welcomed Mr. Francis Mascarenhas who replaced Mr. Justin Vonashek 

as the committee Metra representative, and Mr. Larry Scott who replaced Mr. Ross 

Capon as the committee representative for the National Association of Railroad 

Passengers. For Amtrak, it was reported that Mr. Gary Talbot is the new alternate 

representative and Ms. June Kailes is the new alternate for the Disabilities Rights 

Educational Defense Fund. During the meeting, Mr. Michael Wetherell informed the 

committee that he could no longer serve on the committee and that Mr. Frank Maldari is 

now the representative from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of 

New York and Mr. Gricelda Cespedes would be his alternate.

Mr. Altom provided a brief report on a recommendation by Access Board staff to

rename and expand the scope of the existing two subcommittees (Signage and Interior 

Vertical Circulation) and add two new subcommittees.

2

 This recommendation was 

approved by the committee with only one dissenting vote. 

The new subcommittees are:

 Boarding and Alighting

 Communications (formerly Signage)

 On-board Circulation and Seating (formerly Interior Vertical Circulation)

 Rooms and Spaces

Ms. Terry Pacheco, who had been chair of the Signage subcommittee will chair the 

Communications subcommittee. Mr. Blair Slaughter was elected chair of the On-board 

 

1

The draft minutes were circulated to the committee in an email dated February 12, 2014. 

2

The recommendation was made in an email to the committee dated February 27, 2014.
Rail Vehicles Access Advisory Committee Summary Meeting Minutes, Contd.

April 2014 Page 2 of 5

Circulation and Seating Subcommittee. Election of chair for the Boarding and Alighting 

Subcommittee was scheduled for the first subcommittee meeting to be held on April 11, 

2014. The committee agreed to postpone election of the chair of the Rooms and 

Spaces subcommittee which was not scheduled to meet during the two-day full 

committee meeting.

Access Board staff recommended the committee establish two additional meeting dates

between October 2014 and June 2015. The committee agreed to add meetings and 

directed staff to handle the date selection following the meeting and to poll the 

committee members regarding their availabilty. 

The committee agreed to schedule conference calls for the four subcommittees

between the April and September 2014 full committee meetings. Times for 

subcommittee meetings will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (eastern time zone). The dates 

will, to the extent possible, be on Thursdays. The committee authorized the Access 

Board staff to modify the day when necessary to accommodate logistical and 

administrative needs. The call dates were to be sent to the committee as soon as 

possible. 

The following five educational presentations were made to the committee. A discussion

time followed each presentation.

 Federal Railroad Administration (Mr. Harold Weisinger) – Rail 101 

 American Public Transportation Association Streetcar Subcommittee (Mr. 

Paul Grether) – Maximizing Accessibility for Modern Streetcar Systems

 Ricon Corporation (Mr. Stanton Saucier) – An Overview of Vehicle Access 

Systems

 Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (Dr. Edward 

Steinfeld) – Research: Anthropometry of Wheeled Mobility for 

Transportation Applications

 Amtrak (Mr. Gary Talbot and Mr. Christopher Kattola) – Gap

Mitigation/Elimination Program (included two video clips).

During the presentations, members observed that the American Public Transportation 

Association would be holding a Rail Conference in Montreal, Canada, June 18/19, and 

also during this conference a workshop, titled " Improving Rail Transit Safety at 

Platform/Train and Platform/Guideway Interfaces” would take place. Mr. Uwe 

Rutenberg reported that the workshop was sponsored by the Transit Cooperative 

Research Program of the Transportation Research Board. 

A lunch break occurred between the second and third presentations. After the last 

presentation, the floor was opened for public comment. With no one desiring to 

comment, the committee adjorned around 3:40 p.m after which subcommittee meetings

took place for the balance of the meeting through April 11. 

The Communications subcommittee meeting #3 took place between 4 and 5 p.m. 
Rail Vehicles Access Advisory Committee Summary Meeting Minutes, Contd.

April 2014 Page 3 of 5

Friday, April 11, 2014

The On-board Circulation and Seating subcommittee meeting #4 took place from 9:30 

a.m. until 12:30 p.m. 

After a short lunch, the Boarding and Alighting Subcommittee meeting #1 was convened 

from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Among its activities, Ms. Marilyn Golden was elected as 

subcommittee chair.

Note 1: All material (including PowerPoints) presented during committee meetings or 

subcommittee meetings have been archived in the RVAAC electronic docket referenced 

below.

Note 2: A Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) system was used in 

the committee meeting (and subcommittee meetings) to provide an accommodation to 

persons with hearing loss and persons who are deaf. The CART output was streamed 

in real-time and available to the public on the internet. The unedited text of the CART 

output is available in the RVAAC electronic docket at 

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=ATBCB-2013-0006 in the section titled 

“Supporting Documents” (may have to click “view all” and sort by title) for the document 

titled “3rd Meeting - Unedited CART Text - 2014 Apr 10“. This document provides the 

details of the committee meeting. CART text from the three subcommittee meetings is 

filed separately in “Supporting Documents” by subcommittee name, meeting number, 

and date. 

Note 3: During the Boarding and Alighting Subcommittee meeting on April 11, the 

subcommittee added “Visual signal for entry doors” to the RVAAC issues list under the 

heading “other communication issues”. No other change was made to the issues list as 

contained in Attachment B of the approved January 2014 Summary Meeting Minutes

located in the RVAAC electronic docket referenced above and on the RVAAC website 

(www.access-board.gov/rvaac). The list is not reproduced in these summary minutes. 
RVAAC Summary Meeting Minutes, Contd. Attachment

April 2014 Page 4 of 5

Attachment

U.S. Access Board

Rail Vehicles Access Advisory Committee - Meeting Attendance 

April 10, 2014

Washington, DC

Members Present: 27

1. Alstom Transportation - Jon Holbrook

2. American Council of the Blind - Terry Pacheco

3. (Amtrak) National Railroad Passenger Corporation - Joseph Slaughter & Gary Talbot

4. Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living - Billy Altom (Committee 

Chair)

5. Bombardier Transportation - André Gagné

6. California Department of Transportation, Division of Rail – Thomas Peacock

7. Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access - Edward Steinfeld

8. Community Transportation Association of America - Robert Carlson

9. Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund - Marilyn Golden

10.Federal Railroad Administration - Linda Martin & Calvin Gibson

11.Hearing Access Program - Janice Schacter Lintz

12.Hearing Loss Association of America – Lisa Hamlin

13.International Centre for Accessible Transportation - Uwe Rutenberg

14.Maryland Transit Administration – David Hughson

15.Metra & Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation – Francis 

Mascarenhas

16.Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York – Michael Wetherell, 

Frank Maldari, & Gricelda Cespedes

17.National Association of the Deaf – Andrew Phillips

18.National Association of Railroad Passengers – Larry Scott

19.National Council on Independent Living - Cliff Perez

20.National Disability Rights Network - Dennis Cannon & Kenneth Shiotani

21.New Jersey Transit – Ed Hoff

22.Parsons Brinckerhoff – Francis Banko

23.RailPlan International – Terry Soebee & Jonathan Michel

24.Ricon Corporation - Stanton Saucier 

25.South West Transit Association - Crystal Lyons

26.Talgo, Inc. - Joshua Coran

27.United Spinal Association - James Weisman

Members Absent: 0
RVAAC Summary Meeting Minutes, Contd. Attachment

April 2014 Page 5 of 5

Access Board Present: 

Melissa Anderson, Transportation Engineer

Paul Beatty, Accessibility Specialist and Designated Federal Officer to the Advisory 

Committee

David M. Capozzi, Executive Director

Lisa Fairhall, Deputy General Counsel

Christopher S. Hart, Board Member and liaison to the advisory committee

Marsha K. Mazz, Director, Office of Technical and Information Services 

Aromie Noe, Policy Analyst

Jim Pecht, Accessibility Specialist

Others Present: 

Dick Cogswell, Federal Railroad Adminstration

John Day, Federal Transit Administration

Rhonda Drews, Federal Transit Administration

Kyle Giannaula, Amtrak

Sid Goldstein, Transit Access Report

Paul Grether, South West Ohio Regional Transit Authority

Pierre Holloman, City of Alexandria, VA

Kimberly Jackson, University of Kansas

Christopher Kattola, RLE International

Tom Kennedy, RLE International 

Robert Kokx, RLE International

Mike Martino, Association of American Railroads

Glenn Millis, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

David Nelson, Amtrak

Bob Reuter, Access Systems

Melissa Shurland, Federal Railroad Administration

Gurmit Singh, Siemens

Keith Wartzman

Harold Weisinger, Federal Railroad Administration

Louis Woolner, Virginia Railway Express

Note: Attendance of subcommittee meetings was not recorded.