Consider those eggs cracked with Scott’s shocking recommendation that the MBTA should drop its longtime, politically wired commuter rail operator — the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad — in favor of a French firm, Keolis Commuter Services.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s board of directors backed her up, awarding a nearly $3 billion contract to an outsider challenging a hometown favorite. That happens rarely in Massachusetts, and it’s probably no coincidence that it happened under the leadership of another outsider like Scott. She’s the first African-American woman to head the T and a newcomer to the Bay State political stage.
Conventional wisdom suggested that Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad had everything teed up for another lucrative T contract.
Jim O’Leary, a former MBTA general manager, founded Massachusetts Bay, and his company held the contract with the T for the past 10 years; Richard A. Davey, the current state transportation secretary, worked for O’Leary as Massachusetts Bay’s general counsel and general manager; and Doug Rubin, a former chief of staff to Governor Deval Patrick who now runs his own consulting firm, was part of the team pitching for the contract renewal.
Davey officially recused himself from the decision-making process — and Keolis hired its own politically wired team to fight for the contract. But Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad basked in an aura of inevitability, until Scott pierced it.
She has three decades of experience in public transit systems across the country. Still, her selection as head of the MBTA was controversial after word got out that Patrick chose her even before the board that supposedly has authority over the appointment interviewed the two finalists. As she prepared to take over the MBTA, she was dogged by negative headlines — including one report that things got so rocky in her last job as head of Atlanta’s transit system that the board to which she reported required her to meet with a business psychologist.
She took the pounding in stride and promised to run an open, transparent, and more responsive agency. One of her first executive decisions was to invite Christmas carolers back to sing after they were banished from the Forest Hills station. After a flurry of early, feisty interviews, she seemed to play a low-key role on the state’s transportation stage.
The decision involving a multibillion-dollar contract to operate the commuter rail system puts Scott back in the spotlight. Since news was leaked that she was backing Keolis, the rival team threw everything — including questions about the French company’s commitment to diversity — at the T and, by extension, at the African-American woman who runs it.
Workforce diversity is important, especially for a transit authority that has long struggled with challenges on that front. But what commuters need first are reliable trains. To get them, Massachusetts needs a break from the perception that one company has a lock on running those trains, no matter how mediocre its performance.
The weather and old equipment were blamed for past inefficiencies, and MBCR has worked at improving its service record.
But as the Globe recently reported, the Bay State’s commuter rail ridership has declined over the past 10 years, even though population in the service area has increased. This ridership track record runs counter to national trends. At a certain point it is more than fair to give another company a chance.
And for Massachusetts, it’s also important for other companies to believe they have a chance. Yet in this case, there was only one challenger.
During his recent trip to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, Patrick met with what he described as “one of the most highly experienced operators in the world,” which had considered the commuter rail bid but withdrew. In a December interview on Boston Public Radio, Patrick said he wanted to hear why the company dropped out of the bidding process. He didn’t reveal its explanation. But if it had anything to do with the perceived lack of an open competitive process, this contract vote sends a strong message of a more even playing field in the future.
Scott cracked some eggs. Now the railroad-riding public gets to judge the omelet.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.