Veolia Transportation Asked to Assess LIRR

Veolia Transportation is no stranger to Long Islanders. It recently took over all operation of LI Bus from the MTA, saving the State and Nassau County tens of millions of dollars annually in the process.

What many may not know is that Veolia is the World's largest operator of commuter rail lines, operating Florida's Tri-Rail, Bostons' MBTA as well as hundreds of other rail properties worldwide. Formerly known as Connex-ATC, Veolia's annual revenue exceeds $1.3 billion.

For the past three months, Viola accountants, at Governor Cuomo's invitation, have been scrutinizing LIRR operating financial and payroll information at MTA headquarters, apparently to determine if it can offer cost savings to the state by operating the LIRR. This is being kept very quiet for fear of a lashing out by labor or organized riders' groups.

You heard it here first.

Would the take over of the LIRR bring any change to the corporate culture at the RR? Any improvement in the ranks? Or would the unions fight this tooth and nail?

And what does the Tool think of all this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBijhcJQ7YY <If Veolia takes over LIRR.

Connex was almost chased out Melbourne, Australia because of how bad the service was.

N-Trizzy2609 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBijhcJQ7YY <If Veolia takes over LIRR.

Connex was almost chased out Melbourne, Australia because of how bad the service was.

I don't see how the LIRR could get worse then already having a "railroad shut down" guide available. I've never seen one for NJT or Metro-North.

Tool, we were instructed to not discuss this publicly, here or with employees. Now that you spilled the beans, did you see the artists conception of the Veolia M-7? What did you think of the orange RDC passing through Ronkonkoma?

Date, they've been riding on Sperry, and the union got tipped off on the legislative proposal. Cat's out of the bag. MP-54's had orange ends too -- but they were run by railroaders.

Veolia did a fine job in Los Angeles. Just ask all the surviving victims of the head-on crash of 2 trains a few years back.

Didn't the parent company of Veolia divest itself of it's transportation companies? What cracked me up was the head of the Nassau bus union pointed out while under Veolia, they were no longer bound by the Taylor Act, and now free to strike. This would be contrary to Mr. Lhota's initial drive to get the commuter rails into the Taylor Law, no?

More wasted money...

The MTA had better be careful when making decisions on parting from different transit and transportation agencies. If it continues it's trend, and drops too many agencies, there won't be a need for an MTA.

Having loosely looked into Veolia after the LI Bus take over, It would have been obvious that they would try to dig their heals in to the region by taking the LIRR first and slowly try to nibble at the MTA for more. I knew for a while now that Veolia was interested in operating the LIRR. So it's no news to me.
I don't know their proposals. Just that they showed interest.
Unlike LI Bus (Nassau County) LIRR is still a state owned railroad regardless of who "operates" it, MTA or Veolia. So anything state given such as pensions and benefits, protection from assault, ect... *might* still be able to be kept as is to some degree, through Veolia.
It would be a public private partnership.
Well since the beans have been served I'd like to hear more?

My guess is that if Veolia were to take over the operation of the LIRR the work force would have a lot of things to face and they would not like what might happen. Management and labor would probably both be affected and it could hurt really bad.
Noel Weaver

Haven't seen anything in the news yet; I'm going to have to set a news alert for this one.

Datenail wrote:Tool, we were instructed to not discuss this publicly, here or with employees. Now that you spilled the beans, did you see the artists conception of the Veolia M-7? What did you think of the orange RDC passing through Ronkonkoma?

If this has actually occurred, the State and the Governor are now open to public outrage by other private transit carriers (Herzog, etc.) for allowing Veolia to "see the books" without any formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to outsource the carrier. Recall how the Nassau County Executive was willing to give a private developer the rights to public property for his "Lighthouse" project. This was met with outcry for neglecting the competitive bidding process by other suitors.

Again, if true, I don't think the Governor is that stupid not to follow procedures.

Much like the outsourcing of the freight department, this will all point to "who knows who" and party alliances that allegedly allowed Veolia to see the books.

So if they do take over the LIRR and manage to cut costs I am guessing these cost savings will be passed onto tax payers in form of lower taxes? I really would be surprised if this take over happens I think there will be to much pushback.

I warned the $2000 suits from the UTU of the possibilty of this happening when they took over LI Bus and they said that I was crazy. Their arrogance is priceless