(The following editorial appeared on the Boston Globe website on May 18, 2011.)
BOSTON — The MBTA’s commuter rail system might well run better under private stewardship than it would if the public transit agency controlled it directly. But for the arrangement to work, the T needs to have plenty of leverage to ensure its contractor keeps trains running efficiently and on time. Yet as the Globe reported Sunday, the T agreed, with little or no discussion, to a series of contract amendments that slashed the potential financial penalties it could impose on its contractor, the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company.
The most charitable explanation is that the long-troubled transit agency’s inability to live up to its own commitments — a joint audit with Mass Bay of the commuter rail fleet was never conducted, and promised locomotives were slow to arrive — made the strong financial penalties in the original contract unreasonable. At worst, the close relationships between officials at the T and Mass Bay made the transit agency much more tolerant of Mass Bay’s late trains than it would have been with a less connected contractor.
Full editorial: Boston Globe