MBTA officials describe their new arrangement with Commuter Rail operator Keolis as a “carrot and stick” deal: paying the company more, but also upping the penalties for failure.
In an alteration of the existing contract between the T and Keolis, the transit agency has agreed to give the French company $11 million more a year for the next six years of their contract to do more maintenance on the T’s fleet of trains. In exchange, Keolis will be required to raise the minimum number of functioning locomotives they have on hand every weekday from 81 to 90.
“We think that the best way to get the system to the level that we wanted is to double down on our relationship with Keolis,” Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack told reporters before the meeting.
On top of that, the T will pay another $4.3 million this year to improve maintenance operations. The new money will go towards changing the Keolis-operated maintenance facilities from a Monday-through-Friday schedule to a seven-day operation. Currently, Keolis pays maintenance workers overtime for weekend shifts the T says sometimes don’t get filled before busy Monday morning commutes.
More trains in service should mean fewer cancelled or delayed trips. And by adding another 12 coaches per day to the contract, 1,200 additional seats will be available for weary commuters.
Existing problems with the aging locomotive fleet are the root of most of the Commuter Rail’s on-time problems, according to the T. A report on on-time performance blames mechanical issues for 61 percent of cancelled Commuter Rail trips. The same mechanical issues cause 30 percent of delays, according to MBTA data.
If Keolis fails to maintain the mandated level of readiness and number of functioning trains, $1.8 million dollars in new annual penalties will go into effect. The T board also voted on a provision to create a “transition plan in the event MBTA exercises termination rights” to the contract—giving the T a viable out if Keolis performance turns so bad that state officials need to pull the plug entirely.
The MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board also moved to alter some of the new Commuter Rail schedule that went into effect this Spring. It’s adding a few minutes of padding to certain lines to improve performance. Though 91 percent of scheduled trips are meeting their on-time goals since the new schedule started in May, 9 percent “need further revision to achieve desired performance.” That means altering the schedule of several lines to add between one and ten minutes to the total length of the trip, making it a longer, but more reliable schedule.
Keolis has struggled with on-time performance and lost tens of millions of dollars since taking over the Commuter Rail contract in 2014.
According to data from the T and Keolis, on-time performance has been largely flat, with a 12-month average of 90 percent trips arriving on time. But the T points to improvements this made this past winter and says their current improvement plan is working as planned. Likewise, rider satisfaction is creeping up. A survey of 5,500 riders shows satisfaction has risen from an average rating of four out of seven last Spring to 4.93 in Spring 2016.
