BOSTON — The Boston Globe reports that financially ailing Amtrak plans to cut the jobs of 12 percent of the workers who run the MBTA’s commuter rail system, sparking fears that service for the region’s 70,000 daily passengers could deteriorate, T officials said yesterday.
The proposed cutback of 150 jobs, to take place before summer’s end, will be accompanied by an immediate freeze in overtime for the 1,200 Amtrak employees who operate and maintain the commuter rail network as the national railroad looks to slash $7 million in local costs, said Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joseph Pesaturo.
Amtrak, under pressure to find deep savings or face being sold off by Congress, yesterday confirmed that job cuts will be made but declined to specify how many, saying that plans to make the national railroad more financially efficient are being finalized.
But MBTA officials said that after hearing rumors of belt-tightening yesterday, they contacted local Amtrak officials who provided details.
MBTA general manager Michael H. Mulhern said that while he appreciates Amtrak’s need to cut costs, he is ”extremely concerned” that the loss of jobs could seriously affect commuter rail operations and possibly violate the contract.
”On the one hand, [Amtrak president David L. Gunn] is trying to make Amtrak efficient, and we support that, but we’re concerned about any impacts these cutbacks could have on our service,” Mulhern said. ”We negotiated a very good contract with Amtrak, so we would hope they live up to their contractual obligations. I need to understand what’s on Mr. Gunn’s mind.”
Commuter Rail Workers United, a coalition of unions, said the cutbacks would immediately affect service.
”It’s our hope that some irresponsible person stole some Amtrak stationery and sent out this directive,” said Charles Moneypenny, president of of the union coalition. ”I don’t think there’s fat to trim and the MBTA people would seem to agree. It’s an irresponsible action.”
Amtrak spokeswoman Lynn Bowersox said Amtrak will make any layoffs carefully in order to avoid hurting the T’s commuter rail schedule or rider safety.
”We are absolutely committed to the safety and reliability for our commuter service work for the MBTA,” Bowersox said. ”And we have every intention of continuing the high-quality service that we have provided over the last many years.”
Charles Chieppo, director of the Pioneer Institute’s Center for Restructuring Government and a frequent critic of Amtrak, said the national railroad’s contract with the T ”has more fat in it than bone” and could safely be cut back.
”Compared to every other commuter rail service in this country, Amtrak’s contract with the MBTA far and away includes more employees per coach and locomotive than any other,” Chieppo said.
Under a $200 million-a-year contract that expires next summer, Amtrak runs the T’s commuter rail system – driving, staffing, and maintaining the trains as well as maintaining the tracks.
Three companies are vying with Amtrak for a new contract, which is considered the most lucrative of eight similar agreements the national railroad holds in the Northeast and California.
Potential contractors in the past have suggested staff cuts in the T’s commuter system. Three years ago, the T gave preliminary approval to a bid from Bay State Transit on a maintenance contract that proposed reducing the workforce from 552 to 415. The T passed over Bay State, deciding to extend Amtrak’s contract.
Some T officials have said Bay State was passed over because of intense pressure from labor unions and now-deceased South Boston Democratic Congressman, J. Joseph Moakley, who opposed the job cuts.
Moneypenny said Bay State’s proposed cuts would have hurt commuter rail operations.
Boston’s commuter rail network, one of the nation’s largest, has doubled its ridership over the past decade, primarily because of an aggressive expansion program that has created extensions, to Worcester, Newburyport, and the two restored branches of the Old Colony line to the South Shore.
Amtrak, in deep financial trouble, received a $205 million reprieve from President Bush to allow the railroad to continue operating until October.