by gokeefe
Arlington wrote:Then the question would be if BSRR could be nominated by MassDOT as operator of a Lowell to NH service, even as it nominates Keolis to operate its other lines. As long as the service is passenger, I don't see why it couldn't be legally papered to everyone's satisfaction.I think there is a problem. Equipment ownership is a big one. Keolis operates MBTA owned equipment. BSRR is not that type of operation. I suspect Keolis might even have exclusive rights to operate MBTA equipment.
Arlington wrote:And I don't think MassDOT would consider BSRR "competition" (or call that a bad thing) any more than it calls the Downeaster competition--and it certainly considers the Downeaster officially a Good Thing. Everyone is fully aware of the "kinda" overlap with the Haverhill & Lowell lines, and everyone's happy with it as a mobility win, not a turf loss.While the MBTA has passenger rights that doesn't necessarily grant access to ancillary facilities and property. In that sense alone Pan Am could be extremely difficult to work with. It's almost upside down from the operating model on the rest of the T. Passenger rights on freight owned track as opposed to freight rights on passenger owned track.
If the shareholders of BSRR are risk-seeking (dumb) enough to stake big $ on operating commuter service with MassDOT's blessing, I don't see why PAR would get to play spoiler.
gokeefe