BOSTON — The Amtrak official responsible for running the MBTA’s commuter rail system has been fired because, he says, he refused an order to implement layoffs that would have created safety concerns, reports the Boston Globe.
Kevin E. Lydon, who served for two years as general manager of Amtrak’s commuter rail operations for the MBTA, was fired Friday. He had been on probation for two months.
Lydon, in an interview yesterday, said he was told by Amtrak administrators to lay off 154 people and freeze an additional 34 job hires to help save about $7 million from Amtrak’s MBTA contract.
Lydon, who said he was not given a timetable for the cuts, said he had offered to resign if an independent audit found that the jobs were not necessary to keep the MBTA commuter rail service working safely. Instead, he said, Amtrak placed him on probation.
”All of a sudden they put me in this ridiculous situation,” he said. ”If I could not come up with an aggressive plan in a short period of time, Amtrak was going to sever relations with me.”
The cuts could endanger rail passengers, Lydon argued, because they would include flagmen, who help direct trains around construction sites, and other safety personnel.
Amtrak officials refused to comment on Lydon’s allegations, saying the firing was an internal personnel matter. His interim replacement, Michael DeCataldo, could not be reached for comment.
Amtrak operates the MBTA’s extensive commuter rail operation, which carries 140,000 passengers daily, under a contract scheduled to expire next July.
The MBTA pays Amtrak $200 million annually to run its commuter rail service. It is the railroad agency’s most lucrative commuter rail contract.
But Amtrak CEO David Gunn has said he will not submit a bid to renew the contract because the MBTA’s terms are onerous for the ailing national railroad, placing too much financial liability on the operator.
At the same time, MBTA officials, who will begin accepting bids next month, say they are no longer interested in doing business with Amtrak.
The relationship between the two transit agencies has worsened in recent weeks.
Amtrak outraged T officials earlier this summer when it threatened to shut down much of its operation, including the MBTA’s commuter rail service, unless it received emergency funding from Congress.
That was followed by the death of a commuter rail passenger who had a heart attack aboard a train that continued on its route, making two station stops before reaching emergency medical workers.
MBTA officials said they were given no reason for Lydon’s dismissal.
”Mr. Lydon is highly regarded by MBTA management,” said T spokesman Joe Pesaturo. ”He was always responsive to the T’s requests and needs. Always very professional.”
Lydon’s firing has sparked a firestorm. The national head of the Transport Workers Union of America is seeking a meeting with Gunn as well as an independent audit of Amtrak’s commuter rail operations.
In a letter sent yesterday to members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation, Charles Moneypenny, director of the railroad division for the Transport Workers Union, said Lydon’s dismissal ”has created a crisis in commuter rail, and the underhanded way in which it was done has created an extremely volatile situation.”
While Lydon’s firing will probably not affect local commuter rail service, Amtrak officials refused to say if they will follow through on proposed personnel cuts or make other budget reductions.
Moneypenny said the cuts Lydon was ordered to make would place Amtrak’s workforce in Boston ”roughly 10 percent below the manpower level which the MBTA … says is needed to run the service safely.”
Lydon refused to make the cuts in a letter dated July 23 and addressed to Lynn Bowersox, acting senior vice president for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
Not only would the cuts dip employment numbers below those required in the MBTA contract, Lydon wrote in the letter obtained by the Globe, but they would impact ”public convenience and safety, denigrate equipment and prevent fulfillment of the contracted scope of work.”
”I sincerely counsel restraint in embarking upon an action that would hinder the safety, quality or integrity of MBTA service,” Lydon wrote. ”To do less would be to forsake my duty here.”
In the letter, Lydon said that the cuts would put Amtrak’s operations at risk by depleting an already downsized workforce.
”Your instructions would further tarnish Amtrak’s already dimmed reputation as a dependable commuter rail service provider,” wrote Lydon.