The MBTA will not renew its contract with Keolis Commuter Services, state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said Thursday. The contract is set to expire in June 2022. Officials said they plan to go back out to bid for a vendor to take over carrying millions of passengers over nearly 400 route miles each year. "Our intention would be to begin a re-procurement process so that it could be completed and a transition -- if one were going to even take place -- would happen at the end of the current eight-year contract," Pollack told the State House News Service. Signed in the final year of Deval Patrick's administration, the $2.69 billion eight-year Keolis contract included two two-year options to extend. "More than two years have passed since Keolis assumed operations, and their delivery of services, even apart from the 2015 winter issues, has raised a number of management concerns which I believe are derived from the nature of the contract itself," Democrat Rep. William Straus wrote in an October 2016 letter to Pollack. In November, Pollack responded that MBTA officials share many of Straus' concerns and the "MBTA does not intend for its current commuter rail contract to extend beyond its remaining term … The T is committed to initiating a new procurement on a timeline that ensures that a new contract will be in place no later than the end of the current contract period," according to a letter obtained by the News Service. Straus favors a "much longer"contract term and shifting responsibility for purchasing equipment onto the vendor.

The MBTA will not renew its contract with Keolis Commuter Services, state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said Thursday.

The contract is set to expire in June 2022.


Officials said they plan to go back out to bid for a vendor to take over carrying millions of passengers over nearly 400 route miles each year.

"Our intention would be to begin a re-procurement process so that it could be completed and a transition -- if one were going to even take place -- would happen at the end of the current eight-year contract," Pollack told the State House News Service.



Signed in the final year of Deval Patrick's administration, the $2.69 billion eight-year Keolis contract included two two-year options to extend.



"More than two years have passed since Keolis assumed operations, and their delivery of services, even apart from the 2015 winter issues, has raised a number of management concerns which I believe are derived from the nature of the contract itself," Democrat Rep. William Straus wrote in an October 2016 letter to Pollack.

In November, Pollack responded that MBTA officials share many of Straus' concerns and the "MBTA does not intend for its current commuter rail contract to extend beyond its remaining term … The T is committed to initiating a new procurement on a timeline that ensures that a new contract will be in place no later than the end of the current contract period," according to a letter obtained by the News Service.



Straus favors a "much longer"contract term and shifting responsibility for purchasing equipment onto the vendor.

