Keolis to MBTA Riders: We're Sorry

Operator of MBTA commuter rail takes out full-page mea culpa in area papers after weeks of cancelled and late trains

After weeks of cancelled and hours-delayed trains following six feet of snow in 20 days, the operator of MBTA commuter rail took out full-page ads in Boston newspapers Thursday with the simple message: We're sorry.

"I heard what our customers were talking about, and the more I did, and the more I listened to them, I just wanted to apologize," Gerald Francis, general manager in Boston for Keolis Commuter Services, said in an interview Thursday. Keolis is a subsidiary of the French national railroad, SNCF.

Francis said he wanted to communicate with all of the T commuter rail's nearly 70,000 daily riders and tell them that "we know what their expectations are and what our standards are, and being quite honest with you, we're not living up to that right now. So I just wanted to take that opportunity to apologize to each and every one of them."

Riders reaction was mixed Thursday to the formal apology.

"It feels like, what choice did they have?" said Melanie Hedlund, a Lexington, Massachusetts, resident who takes the train daily from Belmont to North Station. "That's the least they could do, to say they're sorry, but we're all going: What the heck happened?"

Donald Kaufman of the Auburndale section of Newton, a retiree who takes trains on the Framingham-Worcester line regularly, said, "I thought it was nice. I didn't think they had to do it, but they did." Kaufman said he thinks Keolis shouldn't be solely or even primarily blamed for the winter service meltdown, because "a lot of the equipment dates from the '60s. They can't go out and fix that overnight."

"I think it's Mother Nature's problem. She was the one to blame. Nobody else," said Casey Franklin of Canton. "It's one of those things where, how can you stop the snow? It just keeps coming."

Francis said that besides saying sorry, Keolis has also learned it needs to communicate far more effectively and get out news, especially bad news, faster.

"We have to do a better job in communicating to our customers," Francis said. "I think they realize that certain things happen, but as they tell me: Just let me know. Let me know, because there are other options that I can take." Francis added that he was especially struck by an exchange with a working mother who'd been repeatedly fined by her daughter's day care for picking her up late. "It got to me a little bit, because she said to me, 'Mr. Francis, I understand that there might be troubles on the train or mechanical issues or so forth.' She said, 'But just communicate that.'"


With videographer Brian Butler

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