Baker: Consultant will get commuter rail on track

Gov. Charlie Baker said he’s putting his faith in an ex-MBTA general managerturned consultant to right the state’s beleaguered commuter rail lines as a litany of problems — including, of late, struggles to staff the trains — continue to push the system off-track.

“There was never anybody who owned the commuter rail program the way Dan Grabauskas owns it now and the way he will own it going forward. I think that was a problem,” Baker said yesterday when asked if Keolis, the system’s private operator, is living up to its $2.69 billion contract.

“I think that made the opportunity to think holistically about the operation, about the capital investment, the ridership issues, the cost of the contract — all of those things — more complicated to proactively manage and make adjustments,” the governor said of Grabauskas, the system’s new, $30,000-amonth executive director.

Keolis has been hit with $990,000 in fines this year solely because it’s not staffing trains with enough conductors, prompting nearly 90 delays in September and more than 200 when combined with overcrowded cars.

Grabauskas, who was forced out as T general manager in 2009, presented the data on Monday to the T’s Fiscal & Management Control Board, saying he intends to inject a new “tone” into the discussion about what ails the commuter rail.

The T, and its struggles, have been at the forefront of Baker’s agenda since shortly after he took office in January 2015, and they’re likely to figure prominently into his expected re-election campaign next year. Baker credited Grabauskas with bringing a new “comprehensive” perspective, saying with the scrutiny, “you learn some things you might not have wanted to know before.”

Last month, the Herald reported that the commuter rail had 338 mechanical breakdowns in 2016, more than any other system in the country, including those in New Jersey and New York.

“We all own the process of fixing those things,” Baker said, “and dealing with them.”