Environment Direction
The July 7 and July 9 meetings support accurate track geometry, training-critical stations and points of interest, and generic/reusable scenery elsewhere. Mary's BOE uses “training fidelity only.” Strong support
Internal Working Brief / 14 July 2026
Metropolitan Council Proposal
Dave's Estimate, Distilled
Dave recommends a reusable corridor-environment approach with unique landmarks and stations, conditional hardware pricing, focused field capture, a defined hardware-warranty boundary, and a compact Baby Bear route.
7,200Core art/modeling hours
12Unique landmark allowance
3Hardware effort branches
$24KThree-person field visit
Executive Takeaway
Dave's preferred path is the right basis for the next pricing pass: use repeatable general buildings and streets, spend unique art effort where operators gain training value, and keep hardware effort conditional on what Metro supplies. Before these numbers enter the proposal, reconcile the mileage arithmetic, station count, Baby Bear stop count, and three-year support requirement.
Dave's Working Estimate
The figures below preserve Dave's meaning and wording. No estimate has been silently corrected.
| Area | Dave's position | Working figure |
|---|---|---|
| Recommended environment | Repetitive general buildings and streets along the rail, with up to 12 unique landmark-style buildings. His opening line also says 14 miles of general buildings. | 3,000 art hours |
| Actual-building alternative | Replicate actual buildings rather than use a reusable general-building system. | 1,300 hours/mile; “24 miles” = 29,900 hours; 55,000 including 29 extension miles |
| Stations | Model the station set as a separate art package. | 3,100 hours / 38 stations |
| Track and signaling | General modular track pieces plus signaling. | 600 hours |
| Train cab | Model the train cab. | 500 hours |
| Cab controls | Choose effort by actual interface condition. | 80 hours with usable CAN; 900 hours for analog + PCB-to-CAN-to-USB; add 500 hours + $20,000 supplies if ForgeFX fabricates controls |
| Travel | Three people for three days; two ride the Blue Line and walk selected Green Line areas to capture important landmarks. | $24,000 |
| Hardware service | One-year warranty on all hardware; onsite technician performs replacements; parts and labor afterward. | Commercial terms, not an hour estimate |
| Baby Bear | About one mile of track with one station, covering key operator techniques: starting point, middle stop, end stop. | Minimal route concept |
Internal Cross-Check
Fireflies, the live SharePoint workbook, Salesforce, Mary's BOE, client requirements, and existing channel context were checked against Dave's note.
Art-Scale Convergence
3,000 + 3,100 + 600 + 500 = 7,200 hours. At $200/hour, that is $1.44M—close to River's unfinished ~$1.4M art estimate. It excludes PM, QA, overhead, software, hardware, travel, support, and contingency. Useful, not final
Hardware Assumptions
Dave's conditional branches are clearer than the earlier workshop baseline. The 80-hour case only applies if Metro supplies controls with usable CAN signals; display, audio, keypad, calibration, and fabrication boundaries still need confirmation. Condition required
Warranty and Support
Dave's one-year hardware warranty is a concrete hardware boundary. The RFP separately requires at least three years of technical support, updates, replacement parts, warranty details, and service agreements. Partial answer
Clarifications Before Pricing
Mileage Math
- 24 × 1,300 = 31,200 hours, not 29,900.
- 29,900 hours corresponds to 23 miles, close to the exact 23.2 existing miles.
- Adding 29 extension miles at 1,300 hours/mile yields 67,600 total hours, not 55,000.
- The exact client-source network is 50.75 miles; at 1,300 hours/mile that would be 65,975 hours.
Scope Counts
- Client/internal sources yield 37 unique existing stations: 19 Blue + 23 Green − 5 shared. Dave wrote 38.
- Dave wrote one station for Baby Bear but also described a start, middle stop, and endpoint.
- The July 9 workshop defined Baby Bear as a Blue Line segment with three stations/stops.
- Confirm whether the stated 14 miles of general buildings is a deliberate urban/visible subset.
Meaning-preservation rule: keep Dave's original values visible until Dave, Adam, River, and Brandon reconcile them. Flag inconsistencies; do not rewrite his estimate as though he supplied corrected numbers.
Recommended Decision Sequence
- Adopt the repeatable-buildings path as the preferred environment basis, with unique effort reserved for landmarks, stations, and operator-relevant geometry.
- Reconcile the written counts: mileage totals, 38-station basis, 14-mile general-building basis, and Baby Bear station/stop count.
- Select the hardware branch from evidence: Metro-furnished controls, usable CAN signals, analog-interface needs, and ForgeFX fabrication responsibility.
- Separate warranty from support: keep the one-year hardware warranty inside a broader three-year technical-support response.
- Move reconciled hours into the live workbook while leaving PM, QA, overhead, software, hardware, travel, supplies, support, and contingency visible.
Source Coverage
Internal
July 7 pricing discussion · July 9 pricing workshop
Live SharePoint proposal folder · Salesforce opportunity
Also checked: Mary's canonical BOE, consolidated RFP/Addendum requirements, and current channel context.
External
Not searched. Adam requested internal research based on Dave's notes. Public discovery would not improve attribution of Dave's estimates and could blur client requirements with internal working assumptions.