Steve Reads

It turns out that the MBTA is aware of its failings in at least one part of its system. Adam will be happy to note that the Needham line’s delays are not figments of his imagination.

A couple quick notes:

In an interview, O’Leary presented several color charts that show a variety of reasons – some accepted by the MBTA, others not – for late trains. They include extensive track maintenance performed by CSX on the Worcester-Framingham line, mechanical and engineering problems, and bad weather. The celebration of the Red Sox World Series victory also hurt performance in October because so many fans crowded trains into Boston, he said.

I would like to say to O’Leary: This is your job. You knew what was coming long in advance. The Red Sox playoff schedule is a matter of public knowledge. You should have prepared for the possibility that they’d win the Series. Why didn’t you? If you needed to get extra trains into service, but couldn’t because of capital shortages, say so. But then the problem isn’t the Red Sox victory, but rather the budget.

Then:

But Grabauskas counters that O’Leary and his company knew what they were getting into when they signed the contract. O’Leary ran the MBTA from 1981 to 1989.

Do you smell politics here? I smell politics here.

Whoever notes the commuter rail’s failings will have to point out that the subway is also performing poorly. Ridership, I’m sure, is down, and fares are up. So it’s not just the commuter rail’s problem. I’d like the Globe to explore that, as well.

The Globe story is included below.

Boston.com

The Boston Globe
Commuter rail delays are worst in a year
T, train company, unions swap blame

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | November 21, 2007

Thirty percent of Boston’s suburban commuter rail trains ran more than five minutes late in October, the worst monthly performance in a year of increasingly unreliable service that has begun to spark rider unrest.

The problem was worst on train lines that run in and out of South Station, with the Worcester, Fairmount, and Needham runs posting late arrivals on about half of all trains last month. Systemwide, few of the 72,000 daily riders were spared.

Dan Beagan, 56, a commuter who rides the Providence Line to get to his home in Mansfield, said he missed watching most of a Red Sox playoff game on television last month after a cancellation and a delay kept him at South Station until 10 p.m. He arrived home at 11.

“Once a week now, it’s running about a half-hour late,” said Beagan, who depends on a line that was tardy 28 percent of the time last month. Other riders said the trains made them late for work, for dinner, or to catch rides home from the station.

Over the past year, the number of late trains – officially any train that is at least five minutes late – has increased from fewer than 10 percent in October 2006 to more than 30 percent last month. Half of all the trains counted late were delayed by at least 10 minutes.

“Our customers are upset to irate,” said Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

The increase in delays has triggered a dizzying round of fingerpointing. Grabauskas blames the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., the private consortium that has a five-year contract to run the service, saying it has to hit its contractual performance mark of 95 percent on-time arrivals. The private commuter company blames the T for bad equipment, the CSX Transportation railroad company for disrupting its schedule on the Worcester-Framingham line, and its labor unions for allegedly slowing down trains this summer to protest new work schedules. The labor unions say the problem is the poor condition of the T’s trains.

“The bottom line is the bottom line,” Grabauskas said. “Customers don’t care for the alphabet soup of the MBTA or MBCR. All they know is they’re paying fares. They want to get to work on time. [But] as the owners, we’re not getting what we’re paying for.”

The latest spate of delays comes little more than a year after commuter concerns about late trains and poor service, including faulty air conditioners, prompted the resignation of the commuter rail company’s general manager.

The commuter rail company is required under its five-year, $1.07 billion contract to run trains on time 95 percent of the time, with some exceptions for circumstances beyond the company’s control. The trains have posted a 90 percent to 95 percent record for most of the past four years. But the on-time rate dipped below 90 percent in June and has fallen quickly since then.

The commuter rail company’s five-year contract expires in July; the MBTA board meets next month to decide whether to extend it by up to five years. Grabauskas confirmed that he has been meeting with competing rail companies, but said the current contract will be extended by at least two years because it would take that long to put a new contract out to bid and bring in a new company.

James F. O’Leary, part owner of the commuter rail company, took over as general manager in August 2006. He said his company “should be held accountable for things that are in our control.”

In an interview, O’Leary presented several color charts that show a variety of reasons – some accepted by the MBTA, others not – for late trains. They include extensive track maintenance performed by CSX on the Worcester-Framingham line, mechanical and engineering problems, and bad weather. The celebration of the Red Sox World Series victory also hurt performance in October because so many fans crowded trains into Boston, he said.

O’Leary blames an old fleet of trains for many of the maintenance problems. But Grabauskas counters that O’Leary and his company knew what they were getting into when they signed the contract. O’Leary ran the MBTA from 1981 to 1989.

A spokesman for CSX, Bob Sullivan, said his company has held meetings with all responsible parties for the past month to try to resolve problems on the Worcester-Framingham line.

In recent months, an increasing number of the late arrivals have been the result of conductors and engineers either refusing overtime shifts or using delay tactics that include taking extra time to walk through the train, O’Leary said. He blames a quiet campaign conducted by a few workers to “work to the rules,” a campaign sparked by employees upset over a work schedule first proposed in June that took effect Monday. O’Leary has been meeting with unions representing the engineers and conductors and said that those issues have been resolved within the past week and that performance will improve as a result, he said.

But George J. Newman – chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, Local 57 – disputed O’Leary’s characterization of the unions’ actions.

“I object to blaming engineers or conductors for the trains’ poor service performance,” Newman said. “There’s always labor-management disputes. We try to resolve them.”

Newman said workers are committed, but “we’ve got some aging equipment.”

Outside pressure has been building on the rail system in recent months, especially from riders and legislators along the Worcester-Framingham line, where CSX track work has led to the worst of the delays.

“They’re all bad,” said Representative Alice H. Peisch, a Wellesley Democrat who, along with 15 colleagues, sent a letter to Grabauskas. “It’s really, really quite distressing. Commuters cannot rely on a commuter rail that is not dependable.”

She has been asking the MBTA to, at the very least, amend the Worcester-Framingham schedule so riders will not have false expectations, something Grabauskas said he is considering.

Peisch said her constituents call and e-mail her from the platforms and are growing increasingly frustrated. Some, she said, are even suggesting a fare boycott, a tactic Grabauskas warned would get riders kicked off trains.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com. © Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company