(The following report by Karin Crompton appeared at TheDay.com on January 15.)
With a possible Amtrak strike looming at the end of the month, the state is brushing off its contingency plan to transport passengers who ride the commuter rail lines.
A strike, though considered unlikely, would affect the Northeast Corridor, which runs through Connecticut. The local commuter-train service, Shore Line East, runs on those tracks, primarily between Old Saybrook and New Haven. Three weekday trains run out of New London’s Union Station.
The state’s contingency plan calls for 30 buses scattered among the train stations to carry passengers at half-hour intervals. Shore Line East carries about 2,000 passengers a day, according to the state Department of Transportation.
“Basically, we’d try to do our best to mirror the train service with alternative bus service,” said Eugene Colonese, the state’s rail administrator. “It’s always difficult to do buses, but we feel that we can do a pretty good job of it.”
Passengers would still purchase train tickets, Colonese said, that they could use on the buses. Colonese said he expected Amtrak management and diverted DOT staff to handle the duties of ticket-taking and other operations.
Colonese said the state is talking to CT Transit, the state-owned bus service, about using their buses. Colonese also said there aren’t as many charter buses running now as in the summer, which could be another option.
Colonese wasn’t sure Monday what the costs would be involved if the contingency plan became a reality, but he said the DOT would not be paying Amtrak employees, who run almost all facets of Shore Line East, including maintenance.
“It is quite expensive to maintain this (contingency) service for a long period of time,” Colonese said.
The state does not expect a strike to affect the Metro-North system because that operates independently of Amtrak.
Amtrak officials and union negotiators are expected to resume contract talks this week. The two sides have gone through more than eight years of unsuccessful mediation, with the White House stepping in on Nov. 28 to create a five-member Presidential Emergency Board to work with both sides and make a recommendation.
If an agreement isn’t reached, the unions can strike beginning Jan. 30. Amtrak has never had a strike in its nearly 37-year history.
The emergency board last week recommended that Amtrak provide full back pay to employees who have been working without an updated contract for eight years and to abandon its plans for sweeping changes in work rules.
About 10,000 Amtrak employees have been working under outdated contracts since 2000. However, under the Railway Labor Act, they could not strike until federal officials determined that mediation had been unsuccessful.
The National Mediation Board released the parties from mediation on Nov. 1; the convening of a presidential emergency board is the final attempt to facilitate a deal.
(Associated Press reports were included in this story.)