(The following story by Kelly Hannon appeared on the Free Lance-Star website on January 16, 2010.)
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Executives at Keolis America pledge to improve the passenger experience on Virginia Railway Express when it takes over operations and maintenance from Amtrak in July.
Keolis will elevate interactions between riders and conductors, keep the trains clean and run the trains on time, said Steve Townsend, executive vice president of Keolis America.
Keolis wants to “make sure that it’s a positive experience every time they ride the train,” Townsend said.
In an interview yesterday, Townsend and other top Keolis managers said the company knows its U.S. debut running a commuter rail system will be watched closely. “It’s a high-profile service it’s in the nation’s capital. It has all of the elements of making a good reference for us, for us to prove what we can do,” Townsend said.
Keolis America is a subsidiary of Keolis, an international company based in Paris that operates more than 5,000 trains a day and moves more than 360 million passengers a year globally. Its parent company is SNCF, which operates high-speed rail service in France.
After July 1, Keolis America will staff VRE trains with conductors, locomotive engineers and maintenance workers through July 2015.
The contract could be renewed twice, for five years each time.
In October, Keolis bested Amtrak and Bombardier Transportation in a bidding process to run VRE trains that ranked competitors on nine factors.
Amtrak had held VRE’s operations and maintenance contract since 1992.
Since losing the contract, Amtrak officials have raised concerns over Keolis’ status as a first-time U.S. commuter rail operator.
“We’re soon after the decision, so emotions run high in any organization, whether it’s Amtrak or others,” Townsend said. ” But those things have the tendency to calm down. Our knowledge and experience with Amtrak at the operating level has been good.”
Keolis America will have 10 managers working full time on VRE in a Manassas office, said Gregg Baxter, general manager of Keolis America. Baxter spent 15 years working for Amtrak before joining Keolis.
In addition, the company wants to hire conductors and locomotive engineers familiar with VRE, the same staff currently working on the Fredericksburg and Manassas lines for Amtrak.
Keolis has meetings with unions representing rail workers scheduled for the week of Jan. 25.
Workers who switch to Keolis will keep their current salary, benefits, retirement package and accrued vacation and sick time. They will also get a signing bonus for moving to Keolis.
Workers also have the option of keeping their jobs with Amtrak and switching to a different train service.
Changing the train culture will start by raising expectations for passenger interactions, Townsend said.
“If there’s not a high expectation for the conductors, then they’re going to perform at the level of expectation for the service and the people that are managing them,” he said.
The company’s U.S. corporate office is in Rockville, Md. Keolis America is also interested in operating and maintaining commuter trains and stations in Maryland on several MARC lines.
Yesterday, Patrick Jeantet, executive senior vice president-international for Keolis, said he expects the company could eventually compete for business on the West Coast as well.
Jeantet said he will visit frequently during the contract, and expects to follow his company CEO’s practice of checking small details, such as calling customer-service phone numbers on holidays. “I will do similar things,” Jeantet said.
Keolis executives attended a meeting of the VRE Operations Board yesterday in Woodbridge.
Later at the meeting, the Operations Board voted to authorize the purchase of two land parcels to expand parking at the Brooke train station in Stafford County.
Currently there are 500 parking spaces at the Brooke station, and the lot is 72 percent full each day.
The adjacent land parcels were headed into foreclosure.
The Federal Transit Administration gave VRE permission to purchase the land for the appraised value of $500,000.
Once the FTA and VRE finalize environmental documents, final design plans for the new parking spaces can begin. Ideally, Stafford and VRE would like to add at least 250 spaces.
“Every car we can put in a VRE parking lot is a car that won’t be sitting on I-95 in traffic,” said Stafford Supervisor Paul Milde, VRE Operations Board chairman.