Locomotive repairs off to bumpy start

A PROGRAM RUN BY KEOLIS Commuter Services to refurbish older, out-of-service commuter rail locomotives is off to a bumpy start.

Three locomotives have gone through the so-called UTEX program so far, and all three encountered problems that took them back out of service. Two of the locomotives, which came online in April and May, experienced problems with engine parts; officials say the parts were replaced by the vendor and the vehicles returned to service.

The third locomotive came online in August and had to be removed from service because of electrical issues. It remains out of service as Keolis tries to determine the cause of the problem.

Jeffrey Gonneville, the MBTA’s deputy general manager, disclosed the locomotive issues at Monday’s meeting of the Fiscal and Management Control Board.  The news prompted little discussion at the meeting, but Gonneville expressed some concern about the repair program.

“The performance is slightly below what we expected,” he said.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the T said it was concerned about the third locomotive. “The MBTA is still concerned that this locomotive has not been fully repaired and returned to service,” the statement said.

Commuter rail locomotives have been a major concern for the MBTA. Under a deal reached last summer, Keolis is required to have 67 locomotives available for daily service or face financial penalties. As part of that deal, Keolis was paid roughly $4.2 million a year to refurbish out-of-service locomotives and get them running again.

Keolis operates and maintains commuter rail locomotives and passenger cars, but the MBTA owns the equipment. A lot of the vehicles are old, and even the newer equipment has experienced breakdowns.

According to a report in April by Keolis General Manager David Scorey, the T has 97 commuter rail locomotives, 16 of which are inoperable. That leaves 81 for daily service, but Scorey said 16 typically are receiving some sort of service at any given time. The situation worsened this spring when 40 of the fleet’s newest locomotives, which came into service in 2014 and 2015, developed problems with their turbochargers, which had to be replaced.

The MBTA has no current plans to buy new locomotives, so officials have upgraded maintenance efforts on the locomotives that are running and launched an effort to get the out-of-service locomotives back on the track. Some of the work on the out-of-service locomotives has been contracted out; Keolis was assigned five locomotives for repair during the summer of 2016 and five more this spring. Keolis is currently working on its fourth locomotive, which is due to return to service in October.

Since the spring, Keolis’s locomotive counts have improved. Over the last 12 weeks, T officials say Keolis fell below the 67 target-mark for locomotives only once, on Aug. 10.

“It’s important to note that many overhaul projects have learning curve challenges,” the T said in its statement. “That said, the MBTA’s expectation is that the UTEX locomotives will be reliable and perform well in service. Keolis is implementing lessons learned to improve the effectiveness of UTEX, and the MBTA has increased its oversight of the program to ensure its success.”

Keolis issued a statement which said: “On-time performance year to date is approximately 89.3 percent, and we’d like to see this improve to be in the 90s. An increase in the total number of locomotives in the fleet can help achieve this and help reduce the likelihood of last-minute mechanical failures that impact a rider’s experience.”