MBTA General Manager Phil Eng pledged Thursday to hold commuter rail operator Keolis “accountable” for staffing problems that caused a string of deflating service disruptions on the brand-new South Coast Rail extension.
Several weekend trains have been canceled on the Fall River/New Bedford Line in the month since it launched, in some cases prompting reports of stranded passengers or lengthy shuttle bus rides to replace trips.
A representative for Keolis, the private company contracted to operate the commuter rail, attributed the upheaval to problems with train crew availability.
Eng said Keolis officials communicated to the T before the extension opened that “they were ready to deliver this level of service.”
“It’s their responsibility to address these issues. It’s their responsibility to ensure that we can deliver that level of service and what they’re going to be doing going forward,” Eng told MBTA board members at a Thursday meeting. “We’re going to hold them accountable for that.”
A T spokesperson said Thursday that the MBTA has imposed $51,541 in fines against Keolis for the disruptions so far.
Keolis Commuter Services CEO Abdellah Chajai joined Eng at the public meeting, where he faced several pointed questions from board members.
Chajai said commuter rail staff need to receive federally-mandated qualifications, calling the process “quite complex.” He insisted that Keolis had “the right level of staffing” for South Coast Rail but “didn’t have enough resilience about the training.”
“We had enough qualified people from day one. It’s just a lack of resilience,” Chajai told MBTA board members.
Keolis began training and qualifying crews in early January, the company said. By the time the Fall River/New Bedford Line launched, the company had 44 conductors qualified for the 32 shifts per week required.
As of Thursday, there were 54 conductors qualified, and Keolis is pushing to reach 65 by early in June, the company said.
Asked if he was satisfied by Keolis’s explanation and response, Eng said his team has “made it clear that [Keolis leaders] need to address the qualifications of employees and they need to accelerate the qualification of employees.”
“The vacancies that they encountered, that should have been addressed in advance. Unfortunately, it wasn’t,” he said. “But they are working right now to accelerate qualifications of not only conductors and engineers, but also managers, to have the ability to backfill some of those positions.”
“Going forward, the directive is that they need to qualify and train every conductor [and] engineer on the whole south side to ensure that they have more than enough, ample employees to cover these shifts,” Eng added. “Because southeastern Massachusetts and everywhere else, they deserve the same level of robust train service that was scheduled.”
South Coast Rail’s first phase launched on March 24 to major fanfare, reviving train service between Boston and the region for the first time in more than six decades. Scores of elected officials attended the ribbon-cutting, where Gov. Maura Healey said the $1.1 billion extension would be “transformative.”
Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, a member of the T’s board, on Thursday recalled the “vibrancy” he observed at the project’s opening day.
“People of the South Coast were so hopeful about what was occurring, and they were so excited, and I think they felt respected in some ways,” Koutoujian said. “That’s almost the most heartbreaking part of how this has fallen off track, so to speak.”
The T initially planned to make South Coast Rail trips fare-free on weekends through April, and the agency announced last week that it would extend that period through May amid the challenges.
Keolis has been under contract to run the commuter rail network for more than a decade, and after several extensions, the agreement is set to expire in mid-2027. MBTA officials are weighing whether to change the contract model for the next procurement.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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