BOSTON — One of the three contenders bidding to run the MBTA’s commuter rail system was eliminated yesterday because its proposal was incomplete, the Boston Globe reported.
The departure of Bay State Transit Services Inc., a consortium of British rail giant Stagecoach Group and Herzog Transit Services of St. Joseph, Mo., now leaves the T with two bidders on the lucrative contract: Billerica’s Guilford Rail Systems and the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail Corp.
Bay State Transit, which had its winning bid to maintain the T’s commuter trains in 1998 revoked over allegations of union-busting, was dropped for failing to include insurance costs in its bid, according to T officials who asked not to be identified.
The three bids were reviewed by lawyers who determined that Bay State Transit did not meet the MBTA’s criteria by its failure to include the insurance costs.
”We’re disappointed,” said Ray Lanman, vice president of corporate development for Herzog.
Lanman would not go into specifics about the failed bid. MBTA officials said they were told by Herzog that it did not include the price of insurance because it could not obtain accurate quotes from insurance carriers.
The loss of Bay State also eliminates one of the two foreign companies bidding on the contract. Stagecoach Rail, which was a 55 percent partner in Bay State consortium, had hoped to use the T as a strong US foothold to compete with ailing Amtrak, which runs commuter rail systems nationwide, including the MBTA.
Amtrak’s contract with the MBTA is set to expire next July, and agency officials are now working to select a replacement.
Today an MBTA-appointed bid review committee is expected to make a recommendation to T General Manager Michael H. Mulhern.
After reviewing it, Mulhern will make his recommendation to the T board – which must vote on the commuter rail system’s operator – at its December or January meeting.
The T’s commuter rail operation is the fourth largest in the country, with 140,000 daily round-trip passengers. Amtrak has run the service under contract since 1986.
Faced with an uncertain future, in part because of congressional resistance to further subsidies, Amtrak officials have said they will not bid on the lucrative T contract because the terms are too financially risky.
The current T contract paid Amtrak $180 million annually. And while T officials said they cannot reveal the current bids, Mulhern estimates the five-year deal has the potential to pay $1 billion.
Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail is a consortium made up of France’s CGEA Connex, the parent company of Connex North America Inc.; Canada’s Bombardier Transportation, the firm responsible for building Amtrak’s high-speed Acela Express trains; and Alternate Concepts Inc., a Boston-based transportation and management consulting firm whose principal is James F. O’Leary, the former T general manager.
Connex is the largest private passenger transportation company in Europe. It operates 25 passenger rail systems worldwide, including 10 commuter rail systems. It is also one of Britain’s first rail companies to be stripped of its rail franchise because of shoddy service.
The second franchise is Guilford Rail Systems of North Billerica, which gave up the MBTA commuter rail in 1986 after contentious labor disputes and complaints by state transportation officials of poor service.
The privately held corporation is the only pure American company bidding on the contract. It operates freight lines in every New England state except Rhode Island, and bought the former Boston & Maine Railroad in 1983. It is owned by Portsmouth, N.H.-based Guilford Transportation Industries.