(The following story by Noah Bierman appeared on the Boston Globe website on January 9.)
BOSTON — The threat of a national Amtrak strike later this month is prompting Boston-area transit officials to prepare for potential chaos on commuter rail lines that would trickle down to subways, buses, and highways.
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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority owns most of the commuter rail track that carries suburban riders into and out of Boston. But Amtrak dispatches all service in and out of South Station – which handles 60 percent of the MBTA’s commuter trains – and operates the tracks between Boston and Providence.
A strike would virtually shut down South Station, forcing rail passengers to transfer onto subway lines at the Back Bay, Braintree, and Forest Hills stations. The MBTA would also have to shut down the Providence/Stoughton Line in all likelihood, forcing about 17,000 additional daily commuters to drive into town or to take alternate rail lines. North Station schedules would not be altered, but riders might see picket lines.
“There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. A strike that would shut down service in and out of South Station would severely hamper, perhaps even overwhelm, the subway system,” said Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the MBTA.
The private company that runs commuter rail under a contract with the MBTA, Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., has been discussing contingency plans with the T and making recommendations that include running fewer commuter trains, virtually eliminating off-peak runs. The commuter service, which carries 72,000 riders in and out of Boston daily, is already drawing ire from passengers fed up with increasingly late trains.
“It will have a significant impact in all likelihood,” said James F. O’Leary, general manager of the private contractor. “Even Amtrak doesn’t know what the ramifications would be.”
Amtrak workers have been working without a new contract for eight years, receiving only cost-of-living pay increases since 2000. An emergency presidential panel created to avert a strike recommended last week that workers receive a 35 percent raise through 2009, plus tens of millions of dollars in additional back pay for the years without increases. The unions were pleased by the report, but Amtrak would probably need help from Congress to pay for the full increases and has asked for a smaller raise.
The unions’ legal right to strike begins at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 30. Neither Amtrak nor union representatives would comment on the likelihood of a strike. The company has never had one.
In a statement, the unions said a strike is one of three possibilities, which also include a negotiated settlement and congressional intervention. David White, a spokesman for the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division, said the unions have invited Amtrak back to the negotiating table, using the panel’s recommendations as a basis.
“Amtrak’s concern has always been the railroad’s ability to make pay increases retroactive and to achieve efficiencies through work rule reform,” Cliff Black, an Amtrak spokesman, said in a written statement.
Commuter rails along the East Coast depend heavily on Amtrak, which owns or operates most of the route between Washington, D.C., and Boston, and owns Pennsylvania Station in New York City, the hub of all train travel to and from the Northeast. Transit officials in the cities that would be affected have been sharing information and preparing contingency plans.
Grabauskas said key MBTA staff members met on Monday to discuss plans, and have monitored the dispute since Thanksgiving. “I don’t want to set up a false expectation that we can accommodate, seamlessly, 100 percent of the people that would be displaced by an Amtrak strike,” he said. “We’d do the best we can, but it has the potential for severe disruption.”
Commuters who would be forced to depart their trains at Red Line and Orange Line stations during rush hour would pack another 2,000 riders onto platforms already over the recommended capacity. Grabauskas said he would try to add buses and subway cars, but has few spares during rush hour. He might make a public plea to employers to allow flexible scheduling.
“It scares the hell out of me,” said Roberta Conover, 49, of West Roxbury, who takes the Needham Line to work.
Conover said she has withstood six months of poor service and expects a strike would double her commute time if she were forced to switch to a bus or subway.
“What a mess,” she said.