RTAwill have a back-up CompressedNatural Gas (CNG) fuelinglocation, now that the Cityof Riverside has opened anew CNG station. Located at8095 Lincoln Avenue, the stationwill allow the City, the publicand other agencies to fueltheir clean burning CNG vehiclesat the site.TheRTA Board authorized theAgency to enter into a reciprocalagreement with the City,allowing both agencies touse the other's fueling stationsas a back-up location. WhenRTA replaced its entire fleetof diesel buses with CNG busesin 2002, RTA's ten-year-oldfueling station quickly surpassedits capacity. In order toaccommodate the increase inRTA's CNG vehicles, the Agencywill build a new station thatis expected to be completein the next two years.

RTA'snew Board Chairman, JonWinningham, presented DirectorAmeal Moore with a commemorativeplaque in recognition ofhis two years of serviceas RTA's Board Chairman.Since taking the role ofBoard Chairman in January2002, Moore has played avital role in helping theAgency achieve great accomplishments.Some of RTA's most notableadvancements under Moore'sleadership include, receivingthe Clean Air Award fromthe Air Quality ManagementDistrict (October 2002),launching the most expansiveservice change in RTA'shistory (May 2003) and introducingRTA's first commuter busservice, CommuterLink (September2003). Moore will continueto serve on the RTA Board,where he has been a membersince 1999.

AnnePalatino, RTA's Directorof Planning presented theBoard with a summary ofRTA's comments for the SouthernCalifornia Association ofGovernment's (SCAG) 2004Regional TransportationPlan (RTP). SCAG developsand updates the plan everythree years. The plan detailsgoals for a six county regionthat includes Los Angeles,Orange County, Riverside,San Bernardino, Ventura,and Imperial.RTA'scomments to SCAG includean update to the plan'sBus Rapid Transit section.Now that the Board hasapproved the first phasesof BRT, the plan can specificallylist RTA's first two BRTroutes. The Agency alsosuggested greater inclusionof bus and rail optionsin the section titled, "TransportationDemand Management".A draft of SCAG's RTP canbe found on their web sitelocated at: www.scag.ca.gov/rtp/2004draft/.