BOSTON — The MBTA could name a new commuter rail operator as soon as next week while a key state committee begins to explore whether the T should eventually run the service itself, according to the Boston Globe.
T General Manager Michael Mulhern told the Joint Transportation Committee yesterday that he would forward his choice for a new commuter rail operator to the T board at its meeting next Wednesday.
The board would then vote to choose either Billerica’s Guilford Rail or the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail Company, a Boston-based consortium that includes a former MBTA general manager. A third consortium, Bay State Transit, was eliminated last month after submitting an incomplete bid.
The commuter rail service contract is expected to cost about $1 billion over the five-year span and is currently one of the most lucrative rail deals in the country. The commuter rail service, the nation’s fourth largest, is operated by Amtrak under a contract that expires in July.
Representative Joseph C. Sullivan, a Democrat from Braintree who chairs the transportation committee, also said the state should begin examining the feasibility of the T’s running the service when the new contract expires in 2008.
”I think the option exists that the committee and those that care about public transit should consider enveloping this” service into the T’s other operations, Sullivan said. ”It raises as many questions … as there are answers. I think it’s a worthwhile pursuit and it’s one I’m anxious to look at over the next couple of years.”
Sullivan said his interest in the issue peaked when Mulhern testified that the T was one of the few rail agencies nationwide to own its rail lines, stations, and other infrastructure.
Much would need to be done to have the T run the service, including legislative amendments and the creation of a commuter rail authority to oversee the operation.
”I think this most recent [bid] process has been a good one, but in terms of future options … the committee will look to see if the state should position itself at a later date to pick up responsibility for this service,” Sullivan said.
Earlier this year, Amtrak expressed interest in bidding on the new contract but later withdrew from the process, calling the T’s new terms too restrictive.
Mulhern and others at yesterday’s meeting said the move away from Amtrak could save the T an estimated $50 million over five years. ”Massachusetts would have been at an extreme disadvantage doing [further] business with Amtrak,” he said.
A six-month transition period will follow the expiration of the current contract.
”I think this committee ought to keep a close eye on how Amtrak operates during the transition process,” said Charles Moneypenny, railroad division director for the Transport Workers Union of America.
Amtrak CEO David L. Gunn was asked to testify at yesterday’s hearing but declined.