MBTA sending Keolis penalty money back to commuter rail
After receiving about $7.5 million in fines from the commuter rail operator for late trains and other performance faults, the MBTA plans to spend all of that money on improvements to the rail service, including the hiring of fare agents on trains, MBTA Interim General Manager Frank DePaola told reporters on Tuesday.
About a year into its tenure, Keolis Commuter Services plans to work out new schedules with the MBTA to go into effect Nov. 1, which will minimize the movement of trains from one section of line to another section, which can cause delays.
Without needing to reopen the contract with Keolis or adjust the total cap on penalties, DePaola said the MBTA will seek to levy fines on a daily rather than monthly basis, avoiding a dynamic where vendor employees may feel a lack of incentive to keep striving for performance goals after the monthly cap on penalties has been reached.
After an initial grace period, Keolis hit the penalty cap each month for on-time performance and hit the cap for other types of performance penalties six out of the nine months, DePaola said. As the Keolis penalty money is used to improve commuter rail service, none of it will go toward the vendor's profits, DePaola said.
A "significant chunk" of the roughly $7.5 million in penalty money will go toward the hiring of fare agents, who will be Keolis employees, steam cleaning to help cleanliness on the coaches and new passenger information staff for Keolis to help keep riders updated, DePaola said.
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