(SOURCE: Boston Globe - By Nicole Dungca)
The MBTA
fined its commuter rail operator nearly $1.6 million for subpar service in
January and February that left thousands of passengers stranded.
Under its
contract with Keolis Commuter Services, the MBTA can issue up to $868,850 in
penalties every month for late or dirty trains, and other shortcomings.
After a
series of snowstorms stretching over several months crippled the transit
system, the commuter rail operation took more than six weeks to recover. The
company restored full service on March 30, weeks after the last major snowfall.
Keolis
officials declined to comment on the fines.
Company
officials had tried to invoke a provision in its contract that would have
allowed the company to avoid penalties for late trains and other deficiencies
because of “severe weather.” The company’s general manager at the time, Thomas
Mulligan, wrote to the MBTA that four major snowstorms had made it impossible
for the company to provide regular service.
Joe
Pesaturo, a T spokesman, said at the time that the MBTA had told Keolis that
instead of asking for relief from the penalties, the commuter rail operator
should be focusing on recovery.
But the
MBTA eventually agreed with Keolis: Pesaturo on Friday said the MBTA has
decided the company could not have performed up to par for several days because
of the four snowstorms.
“The
operating agreement includes exceptions for extraordinary events, and if the
snowiest winter in the history of Boston
doesn’t meet that criteria, then nothing will,” he wrote in an e-mail.
However,
Pesaturo also said that the decision had no effect on the amount of the fines
for late trains.
For
January, the T fined Keolis $434,425 because of late trains, the maximum amount
allowed under the contract. For other lapses, such as dirty trains and
stations, the T fined Keolis $273,000.
For
February, the T charged Keolis $434,425 in penalties for late trains, and
$434,425 for other shortcomings.
Since
Keolis took over as the commuter system’s operator last July, the T has
assessed $4.07 million in penalties against the company.
Pesaturo
said the tally for any fines from March will be available later this month.
About 80
percent of commuter rail trains ran on time last month, according to figures
provided by the T. However, the figure does not include the percentage of
trains that the company had canceled under a reduced schedule.
Because
of complications from the severe weather, the company could not keep enough
locomotives in service, so the T allowed Keolis to cancel 21 percent of its
trains last month. Keolis officials said they occasionally added trains to
these reduced schedules when locomotives became available.
State
transportation library closed, to be replaced with digital archive
Call it
the case of the missing library.
Boston, home of the oldest subway system
in the country, has its fair share of transit historians and enthusiasts. For
decades, they could visit a library on the second floor of the state Transportation Building
in Boston to look up the minutiae of the history
of subway lines, airplanes, or highway projects in Massachusetts.
Starting
last summer, workers began packing up the materials from the library. But
longtime fans had no idea where they were going.
“We just
saw bookshelf after bookshelf disappearing,” said Stuart Spina, a 24-year-old
MBTA and railway obsessive who has been going to the library regularly for a
decade.
Spina
assumed the Department of Transportation was going to redecorate the room. But
when the books didn’t return after several months, he decided that the state
agency had closed the library, Spina said.
On
Friday, a Department of Transportation official said the historic materials
were safely in storage. But he also confirmed that the library isn’t returning
to the second floor.
“Ultimately,
the contents of the library will be digitized and made publicly available,”
said Michael Verseckes, a MassDOT spokesman.
The space
was being “underutilized,” Verseckes said, so officials decided to make it into
a training room. Verseckes said he didn’t know when the digital library would
be open to the public.
Local
transportation wonks will surely be upset over the library’s disappearance from
the building.
An old,
undated brochure cited a collection of 25,000 books and technical reports. It
also had one reference that proved a particularly poignant harbinger of the
library’s eventual fate, in trumpeting a high-tech gimmick called “On-line and
CD-Rom searching of databases.”
In 2010,
the library was renamed for the late George M. Sanborn, the longtime librarian
who had become the state’s de facto dean of transit history.
Spina,
who used to visit the library at least three times a week, said he hopes the
documents will continue to be accessible.
“It was
pretty cool to let people flip through 125-year-old documents,” he said. “It’s
just not the same with a PDF.”
1,500
young riders to get discounts on T through trial-program lottery
Remember
those spirited young protesters who got arrested last year in their quest for T
youth discounts?
They’re
finally getting their day.
Applications
are open for a trial program that will offer 1,500 young people either $26
monthly passes or $7 weekly passes that offer unlimited rides on subway and bus
lines.
The T
offers similarly priced monthly and weekly passes to junior high and high
school students, but those passes are valid only on weekdays. Standard monthly
passes cost $75 and weekly passes are $19, with discounts also available for
seniors and people with disabilities.
To enter
a lottery for the new Youth Passes, T riders between the ages of 12 and 21, and
who are residents of Boston, Chelsea,
Malden, or Somerville,
must apply by April 30.
In
December, the T announced it would test out two new discount programs: the Youth Pass,
and another partnership with local universities.
The pass
program for college students is still being developed, said Pesaturo, the T
spokesman.
The
transit agency expects the programs to cost $696,000 in lost revenue and administrative
expenses, he said.
Nicole
Dungca can be reached at nicole.dungca@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ndungca.
