BOSTON — A Massachusetts Senate committee has announced an investigation into the early operating issues on the South Coast Rail project that opened last month, saying responses to date “lacked specific assurances to riders and the public at large.”
The Bedford (Mass.) Standard-Times reports that Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford), chair of the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, is requesting information from Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority CEO Phillip Eng , as well as Keolis, the MBTA’s contract operator for commuter rail.
The MBTA and Keolis have cited a shortage of qualified operating crews for the 37-mile South Coast Rail extension that opened on March 24 for train delays and cancellations, as well as the substitution of buses for trains on some weekend trips. [See “After first-month issues, MBTA extends …,” Trains News Wire, April 26, 2025].
Montigny has set a 5 p.m. deadline on Friday, May 2, for answers to 15 questions. They include “When and how did Keolis confirm its readiness to operate the Fall River/Bedford line, including adequate staff, prior to March 24?” and “When will the weekend commuter rail service fully resume with adequate, qualified staff to safely operate the Fall River/New Bedford line?”
Referring to reports that some shuttle buses have failed to appear when replacing trains, Montigny said that stranding passengers is an “unacceptable error that presents a potential safety issue … in addition to the obvious inconvenience inflicted upon all passengers.”
This billion dollar boondoggle is a great example of poor use of state money.There are very few people that will commute to downtown Boston daily from New Bedford or Fall River taking 1 1/2 hours.They could have run buses from New Bedford to middleboro to see what the demand would be.ROUTE 24 in taunton on the way to New Bedford and fall rivergoes from 3 lanes to 2 lanes and the highway has not been updated since it was built in about 1960,that is 65 years ago.That is why Boston has the worst traffic in the country.A rhino republican authorized this construction, hard to believe.
Appearances seem to imply that Keolis did not think that South coast would not be ready when construction company(s) said it would be ready for service. Now are various punch list items still open?
Did Keolis not run enough qualifying runs and why?
Charles, you may remember that the MBTA said they would not renew the contract with Keolis after their first year with the original contract. About a year after that the “T” and Keolis kissed and made up. Amtrak had the contract for years, and I don’t remember if the service was better or not. Wouldn’t the year of testing all the infrastructure of the line given them enough time to train all the peeps as well? Typical of a state-run entity. Employees stealing wire for scrap and embezzlement of millions only adds to the problems. I suppose this is normal operating procedure for whatever commuter rail system we could speak of.
Now I’ll make my third post of the AM. (After all, I may be one of the few SE Mass natives, me and Ed Lecouyer, who post on these pages.) If the train ever runs, will there be any riders? I’d like the see the comparables of commuter rail at these distances. For example, how much of the catastrophic drop of METRA ridership is from the far-off fringes such as Kenosha or Harvard or McHenry or Geneva. And that’s before we get into the demographics, such as how many residents of traditionally lower-income, minority (Afro-Portuguese and now Brazilian) residents of the South Coast commute to Quincy or Boston each day.
Contrary to what some readers might think, eastern Massachusetts isn’t all that compact. The train’s indirect route, the required transfer at East Taunton on some schedules, and the lack of access to Back Bay Station, don’t help. The train schleps through four counties (Bristol, Plymouth, Norfolk and Suffolk). As an indication of the distances, Middleborough is the second largest, by area, of the 351 cities and towns (second to Plymouth).
As a SE Mass native, I wish this service good luck and heavy patronage. Would I stake money on it? Perhaps not.
While I am a SE Mass native, I have no first hand experience on this topic – having moved out-of-state many years ago. I wish the new South Coast rail service the best of luck.
This is disgusting. Heads need to roll at both MBTA and Keolis. How man y years of development and how many dollars have been poured into a train that doesn’t even run?
And what happens if MBTA dumps Keolis. Keolis has the contract because no one else will do that job for that price. The next contract operator will charge more, money that MBTA doesn’t have.