(The following story by Noah Bierman appeared on the Boston Globe website on February 5, 2009.)
BOSTON — Commuter rail seemed like an inspired choice to Jim Birkhead last year, when the price of gas shot above $4 per gallon. And in some ways, it has been a good ride: no tolls, no traffic, a little space to get some work done.
But there is a problem, a big one, that could force him and others back to their cars. The trains are late. And getting later.
“I would prefer to keep on the train for financial and environmental and all those reasons,” said Birkhead, a scientist in Cambridge who takes the Worcester line from his home in Westborough. “But there comes a point where, if they can’t strive to make it more convenient for the general populace, that makes it tough.”
Over the past six months, during a time when the MBTA was trying to show new riders the wonders of mass transportation, one in five commuter trains arrived at least five minutes late, and many were much later. In December and January, the problem worsened – in part due to weather, maintenance problems, and track construction – with nearly a quarter of the trains failing to arrive within the five-minute window.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s commuter rail service is at a key juncture for passengers such as Birkhead – with ridership peaking in recent months just as reliability, a longstanding problem, has begun eroding again. The commuter rail system set a modern-day ridership record in November, with more than 76,000 round-trip passengers per day boarding the trains. But transit managers concede those gains are tenuous.
“If we don’t deliver on-time performance, then our customers are not going to stick with us,” said Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the MBTA.
Grabauskas attributes recent delays to unusually inclement winter, construction on the tracks, and the private consortium that operates the commuter service under contract with the T, the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. The private operator, in turn, says the MBTA’s old equipment has hampered its efforts to improve service and it is considering efforts to buy its own used locomotives because the T has not bought new ones.
Some lines have been especially unreliable. On the Fairmount line, where bridges are being rebuilt, more than half the trains were late over the past six months, prompting the MBTA and its operator to create a new schedule allowing more time on each trip, beginning Monday. Nearly three in 10 trains were late on the Fitchburg line over the past six months, partially as the result of track work.
For many longtime passengers, the recent tardiness is bringing back haunting memories of the service meltdown of fall 2007, when at least three in ten trains were late systemwide. Last spring, the system looked like it was beginning to rebound, with three months of on-time performance above 85 percent, but then another decline began.
The MBTA has long held 95 percent on-time performance as a goal.
Despite a poor record, Mass Bay Commuter won a three-year contract extension in December 2007, worth more than $230 million per year through July 2011. Officials at the time vowed better service and promised to tolerate no excuses.
“We think we’re making every effort to improve the service,” James F. O’Leary, part owner of Mass. Bay Commuter, said this week. “It’s everybody’s concern. It’s been a difficult winter. . . . The older equipment doesn’t hold up as well as we’d like.”
Grabauskas met Tuesday with leaders of the consortium and called reliability his top concern.
He agreed that many problems are outside their control, and praised the company for improving the maintenance of train coaches in recent months.
But on the whole, “their performance is subpar right now,” he said, citing problems with locomotive maintenance.
Grabauskas said the MBTA’s board will decide later this year whether to extend the operating contract another two years, through 2013, or solicit competition from other operators. Reliability will be the biggest factor in that decision, he said.
Under its contract, Mass. Bay Commuter paid nearly $650,000 in penalties for late trains between October and December. But the MBTA adjusts on-time performance for contractual purposes to hold the company blameless for elements considered beyond its control – including bad weather, construction, and track speed restrictions. Under those adjusted figures, only 7.5 percent of trains have been considered late over the past six months. Mass. Bay Commuter officials say the numbers prove there is blame to go around.
But passengers arriving late to work or to pick up their children care little about the debate over blame. “You expect some delays from the weather,” said Janet Santosuosso, a bank employee from Abington. But over the past month, she recalled five trips that were more than a half-hour late.
“When the train’s late, I’m late,” said the mother of two, shaking her head. “One dollar a minute per child at day care.”
Mass. Bay Commuter’s maintenance chief resigned last week. Richard A. Davey, the general manager, said the next person in that job will “bring some new energy and some new focus.”
The MBTA’s fleet of 80 locomotives is the biggest maintenance challenge. All are at least 15 years old and more than half were built between 1973 and 1981. Locomotives are expected to be in service about 25 years.
Last month, Grabauskas suspended an effort to buy new locomotives, citing the T’s deepening financial crisis and a dispute between two train companies that threatened to put the T in the middle of a protracted legal fight.
In the meantime, Davey said his company will explore buying six or seven locomotives being auctioned by Toronto’s transit agency. He said the T could lease the 20-year-old trains until able to afford new equipment.