General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

I might be totally off-base, but don't they technically have to put it up for bid after the contract runs out? I thought MBCR just never had competition for the bidding...
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
I might be totally off-base, but don't they technically have to put it up for bid after the contract runs out? I thought MBCR just never had competition for the bidding...
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No, because there are renewal options in the contract (per the news article). Keolis could have had 4 more years uncontested if the options were exercised.

It all depends on the contract terms; this one happens to have renewal options in it.
 
bigpicture7 said:
No, because there are renewal options in the contract (per the news article). Keolis could have had 4 more years uncontested if the options were exercised.

It all depends on the contract terms; this one happens to have renewal options in it.
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Got it, thanks. Are there any indications that there are other operators who could feasibly take over? MBCR dissolved, correct? Did anyone else besides Keolis compete the last time around?
 
RandomWalk said:
In house means union, which would make it a non-starter for the Baker administration.
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Railroad workers are divvied up into 3 unions. You get the same regardless of who's operating it.

Not-union: upper management hacks. Also not-union and very hacky whether on an outside contractor or on the inside.


Tiebreaker?...you can't keep heaping blame on an outside contractor when that's yourself.
 
Keolis tweeted out a rebuttal saying that Sec. Pollack said this has nothing to do with performance and that they are welcomed to rebid:

Keolis Boston Team @KeolisBoston
@Steph_Pollack: “Decision not to extend current 8-year contract is not reflection of Keolis’ performance; fully expect Keolis would compete

https://twitter.com/KeolisBoston/status/817161516759842819

This got sensationalized by the media BIG TIME. Nicole Dungca at the Globe got the story right.
 
datadyne007 said:
Exactly. This isn't even Keolis' fault. They're doing the best job so far out of any of the previous ownership. Keolis inherits pathetic broken equipment from decades of underfunding the T only to get blamed for everything that is really the T's & legislatures' fault.
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Agreed. This will be true of any operator, and IMHO, the only way that the underfunding issues will be resolved is if it becomes a MassDOT owned operation (whether MassDOT or MBTA).

datadyne007 said:
Keolis tweeted out a rebuttal saying that Sec. Pollack said this has nothing to do with performance and that they are welcomed to rebid:

Keolis Boston Team @KeolisBoston
@Steph_Pollack: “Decision not to extend current 8-year contract is not reflection of Keolis’ performance; fully expect Keolis would compete

https://twitter.com/KeolisBoston/status/817161516759842819

This got sensationalized by the media BIG TIME. Nicole Dungca at the Globe got the story right.
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It still doesn't make sense why they would choose to go to bid over exercising the options.

UNLESS there is pressure from Beacon Hill to let the contract expire and make it go to bid again.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Got it, thanks. Are there any indications that there are other operators who could feasibly take over? MBCR dissolved, correct? Did anyone else besides Keolis compete the last time around?
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MBCR competed for the same contract Keolis was awarded. They were the only 2 competing for it.

The commuter rail bidding process has been shrouded in secrecy since August, when proposals were submitted by the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad, which has been running the system since 2003, and the sole challenger, Keolis Commuter Services.
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Boston Globe, 1/8/14
 
Settle down folks. This is simply a negotiating tactic. This puts other consortia on notice that the T is not necessarily going to auto-extend as most expected them to do. It gives other potential operator 3-4 years to make themselves known to the state and start working up a bid and partners. The T may still ultimately extend the Keolis contract for a couple of years.
 
Red Line North Passageway at Downtown Crossing Station will be out of commission for construction, 30 Jan through 5 Feb per MBTA text message. I believe this is the connection between the Alewife platform and Forest Hill platform. It has been leaking excessively over the last week at the stairs up to the Forest Hills platform, and Sunday it looked like the ceiling was about to cave in!
 
winter st concourse construction
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iUZBpQI.jpg
 
What are they putting there?

What a tantamount to a very dull & dismal area! They should put some small shops & eateries there! :eek:
 
Quite the Baker-aggrandizing piece of literature. One might think the commuter rail is the engine driving the majority of commerce in the region and that Baker has thought up a revolutionary way to fix it. The improvements and innovation the piece talks about come at a price. That price is still born by the Commonwealth in some fashion, not the contractors. What a fanciful notion that locking someone in long term will fix everything when the real issue is that the whole system is poorly funded to begin with; privatizing does nothing if we low-ball the contract and don't want to pay the full bill that needs to be paid.
 
omaja said:
Quite the Baker-aggrandizing piece of literature. One might think the commuter rail is the engine driving the majority of commerce in the region and that Baker has thought up a revolutionary way to fix it. The improvements and innovation the piece talks about come at a price. That price is still born by the Commonwealth in some fashion, not the contractors. What a fanciful notion that locking someone in long term will fix everything when the real issue is that the whole system is poorly funded to begin with; privatizing does nothing if we low-ball the contract and don't want to pay the full bill that needs to be paid.
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Political theater. "See, we did something*"

* not that the "something" we did really mattered, but most voters don't think that far.
 
I noticed some differences on the new articulated MBTA buses. The one I rode yesterday didn't have a plexiglas driver shield and didn't have a weird single seat within the articulated area. The one I was on this morning had the plexiglas and had the weird single seat within the articulated area.

Such a small thing to notice, but it's peculiar. Did they change their mind?
 
sm89 said:
I noticed some differences on the new articulated MBTA buses. The one I rode yesterday didn't have a plexiglas driver shield and didn't have a weird single seat within the articulated area. The one I was on this morning had the plexiglas and had the weird single seat within the articulated area.

Such a small thing to notice, but it's peculiar. Did they change their mind?
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I thought the driver shields were a limited pilot program?
 
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