‘This is not ... a short-term issue’
MTBA rips Keolis investigation of train car detachment
The MBTA’s private commuter rail operator fumbled the early stages of a probe into how a car abruptly broke free from a moving train in September, failing to interview witnesses and running afoul of federal regulators — moves officials say “severely” limited the T’s ability to find the cause, records show.
Keolis’ clumsy handling prompted federal officials to hang a civil penalty on the company, and laid bare the company’s fractious relationship with T officials, who blasted the company’s “historic failure” to properly investigate safety issues under its $2.69 billion contract, according to hundreds of pages of internal emails obtained by the Herald.
An outside consultant ultimately concluded that defective, and potentially worn, parts used to connect the train cars — known as couplers — “may have led” to the Sept. 6 incident, during which an empty car detached from a Newburyport line train carrying 250 people. No one was injured.
But officials acknowledged that more thorough maintenance checks may have caught and prevented the incident. And a consultant said its investigation exposed “quality control issues” that, while not isolated to the T’s system, could take years to address.
“This is not considered to be a short-term issue,” read a consultant’s notes included in the 87-page report released by the T. “It will likely take several years to address and to resolve the parts concerns raised as part of this investigation.”
The incident, and the ensuing fallout, has prompted a raft of changes at the T, including more rigorous checks of couplers every 90-plus days and “thorough inspections” of new parts as they arrive. The T said those efforts will help prevent similar incidents in the future.
But it also highlighted the long-standing friction between Keolis and the T, which has said publicly it intends to rebid the contract when Keolis’ deal expires in 2022.
“Our investigation revealed that Keolis has serious issues in incident preservation and incident investigation capability,” wrote Steven Adkins, the T’s director of maintenance for railroad operations, in a Sept. 22 email, more than two weeks after the incident. “The lack of critical information like witness statements, photographs of the scene and records from maintenance and transportation departments severely limited the identification of a root cause.”
Ronald Nickle, the T’s chief safety officer, fumed in a separate email that Keolis “has time and time again” failed to properly probe “serious safety concerns.”
“I think Keolis has in many instances caused much more grief than I care to remember,” he wrote.
The blunt criticisms stung David Scorey, Keolis’ CEO. He wrote to T officials that he was “stunned” by the allegations, including that Keolis mishandled the probe before the T assumed the lead on the investigation the day after the incident. He also challenged them to show the “chain of requests for the information” it was claiming Keolis didn’t provide.
“We are supposed to be working together,” Scorey implored.
Keolis spokesman Tory Mazzola, in responding to Herald questions, outright denied Keolis hasn’t met its responsibilities.
“We provided related materials in a timely manner in this case and in earlier investigations,” he said.
But the T’s final autopsy noted that Keolis didn’t provide any written reports from either the day of the incident or from “investigative” efforts the two days afterward.
The T also wasn’t the only entity rapping Keolis for its response. A Federal Railroad Administration official told Scorey in a Sept. 8 email that the agency intended to pursue a civil penalty against Keolis — but not the T — because it moved some of the defective equipment before it could be inspected.
“We are very concerned with how it was handled,” Janet Lee, of the FRA, wrote.
Joe Pesaturo, T spokesman, said the FRA has not imposed a penalty “at this time.”
A consultant ultimately concluded that each of the couplers connecting the train cars had defects, potentially from wear or “damage due to service.” Those issues “may have led to the couplers separating during service,” the firm, McConway & Torley wrote.
But T officials say they view the results as conclusive.
“While incidents like this are rare, MBTA Railroad Operations is confident, with a high level of certainty, that we understand the contributing factors and root cause,” Ryan Coholan, the T’s chief railroad officer, wrote to FRA officials.
Pesaturo, in response to Herald questions, downplayed the impact of Keolis’ initial mishandling of the probe, arguing that it did not impact the “overall outcome of the investigation.”
Officials from both entities also sought to frame their relationship as an improved one. Pesaturo and Mazzola both pointed to the T’s new director of commuter rail, Dan Grabauskas, as having dramatically improved communication between the two since he took over Sept. 25.