Bidding on MARC contract canceled

Written by jrood

Maryland has canceled the bidding on a contract to take over the operations of the MARC Camden and Brunswick lines from CSX Transportation, saying its bid solicitation had failed to generate sufficient competition for the work, The Baltimore Sun reports.

"We were not happy
with the competition or lack of competition," said state Transportation
Secretary Beverley K. Swaim-Staley.

Swaim-Staley said the
Maryland Transit Administration would revise its request for proposals in an
effort to make it more attractive for bidders. She said it would take "a
couple of months" to put the contract back on the market. In all, the
decision to rebid the contract could extend CSXT’s role by a year over previous
plans, she said.

For riders, the
cancellation could delay the transition to a new operator that would presumably
be motivated to bring improvements to the service offered by CSXT – a freight
rail company for whom the MARC passenger lines are a vestige of its past.

CSXT has expressed its
intent to get out of the passenger operations side of the business. The Camden
Line runs between Baltimore and Washington, while the Brunswick Line extends
from Washington to Martinsburg, W.Va.

Swaim-Staley said the
state still hopes to make improvements to the service on the two lines, which
have struggled to maintain acceptable on-time performance numbers.

"That would be the
long-term goal," she said. But she noted that whoever eventually takes
over as operator of the service will have to deal with the same issues – track
problems, signal malfunctions and competition with freight traffic – that CSXT
struggles with now.

Rafi Guroian, chairman of
the MARC Riders Advisory Council, said he understands that the state was down
to one bidder – Keolis Rail Services America – after Amtrak dropped out of the
competition.

"It’s good they’re
making sure they have a competitive bidding situation, but I feel this should
have been taken care of years ago," he said.

Steve Townsend, president
of Keolis Rail, said his company was "disappointed" by the decision
to cancel the bidding. "We put in a lot of effort. We felt we had a very
good proposal," he said.

But Townsend said his
company would not be discouraged. "We’ll always be in the
competition," he said.

A third MARC route, the
Perryville-to-Washington Penn Line, is operated by Amtrak and was not involved
in the bid solicitation.

Swaim-Staley said CSXT
has agreed to extend its role as operator of the two lines. She said the
railroad had expressed a willingness to work with the state to determine why
the first round of bidding did not attract as much interest as anticipated.

"We did have
interest, but we did not have the interest we were contemplating," Swaim-Staley
said.

That extension comes with
a price for Maryland taxpayers. Swaim-Staley said the state pays an escalating
amount to CSXT the longer its stays in its role as operator. The expected
year’s delay would cost MARC an extra $1 million, she said. CSXT is under
contract until 2012, but the state has an option for a series of extensions,
she said.

Swaim-Staley said there
are a limited number of companies – about five – that are qualified to provide
train operations services. Amtrak is one of them, though it told a trade
publication this year that it would not compete for the MARC contracts because
of the liability provisions the state was seeking.

Keolis recently prevailed
over Amtrak in the bidding for a contract to operate Virginia Railway Express
trains, which also serve Washington’s Union Station. But the company has
recently been dogged by controversy because its majority owner is the French
national railroad SNCF, which some activists contended has never sufficiently
made amends for its management’s collaboration with the Nazis during the German
occupation of France during World War II.

Swaim-Staley said the
state’s decision had nothing to do with that dispute.

Townsend said his company
was surprised there weren’t more bidders for the contracts. He said Keolis
didn’t see anything in the terms of the bid solicitation that would deter
competition. The executive said his company is confident it could improve
service on the Camden and Brunswick lines, noting that passenger rail is one of
its core businesses.

But Townsend said he
understood why Maryland decided to start over. "I think MTA
probably likes Keolis’ proposal, but they have an obligation to the taxpayers
to make sure they have a competitive process," he said.

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