Goodbye diesel, hello electric. Battery-powered, improved service could be coming to MBTA’s commuter rail in 2027. - The Boston Globe (2024)

Currently, the Fairmount Line’s diesel trains run every 45 minutes, at best, on weekdays and every 90 minutes on weekends.

Advocates have for years urged the T to provide subway-like frequencies and electric trains on the Fairmount Line, which runs entirely within the city of Boston, from South Station to Readville through communities where most residents are Black and Latino. Emissions from diesel locomotives contain particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen, which have been shown to be harmful to human health, causing illness and premature death.

The Keolis proposal is the T’s most significant step toward discontinuing diesel trains on the commuter rail since the agency’s board called for electrification in 2019.

For Hyde Park resident Felicia Richard, “The impact would be tremendous,” she said. When Richard, 58, misses her train to get to work in Upham’s Corner, she’s often forced to wait in the cold wind or summer heat for 45 minutes until the next train arrives. Dark plumes of smoke hang in the air as the train leaves, she said.

“I’m really happy to see that they’re moving on this,” she said. “Our voices have been heard.”

Boston’s chief of streets, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, said the city is “ready to work with the T to make sure that this pilot program is a success.”

The MBTA is an outlier when it comes to its commuter rail service. Most peer systems in the United States and other countries studied by the T in 2018 already offered more frequent and partially or fully electric service.

The average wait time for trains in the 16 domestic and international systems the T studied was 12 minutes during peak hours and 32 minutes during off-peak hours. One of only two other systems examined by the T that had diesel-only service in 2018, Caltrain in the San Francisco Bay Area, has since committed to starting electric service by this fall.

Increasing train frequencies and electrifying service are also key to reducing carbon emissions, which fuel climate change. First, by making train service faster and more convenient than driving, it can induce more people to get out of their cars, reducing tailpipe emissions. Second, electric trains, particularly when powered by a grid that runs largely on renewable sources such as wind and solar, are far cleaner than diesel trains that emit greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. (Rail emissions do, however, make up a small fraction of the transportation sector’s greenhouse gas emissions.)

In 2019, the T’s former oversight board directed the agency to “transform the current commuter rail line into a significantly more productive, equitable and decarbonized enterprise.” The commuter rail of the near future should not just be for commuters, the board ordered, but should provide all day service every 15 to 20 minutes and “be largely electrified.”

The Providence/Stoughton Line, the Fairmont Line, and the Newburyport/Rockport Line from Boston to Lynn were scheduled to be the first sections to get electric and subway-like service as part of the first phase.

Instead, five years later, the T’s commuter rail remains powered by outdated diesel locomotives and weekday wait times between trains can stretch longer than an hour on some lines.

In 2021, the T presented a “deadline driven” plan to pilot electrified service in 2024 on the Providence/Stoughton Line, which already has electric power throughout most of the line in overhead catenary wires, used by Amtrak, followed by the Fairmount Line before 2030.

Then, in 2022, the T said it would take a different approach by using battery electric trains combined with some power from overhead wires in some areas. Battery electric trains can be implemented cheaper and faster than building new infrastructure, the T said, in order to meet the state’s goal of “net zero” emissions by 2050.

Battery electric trains are far less common than electric trains powered by overhead wires, such as on the Green and Blue lines, or by electrified third rail, like on the Red and Orange lines, and are mostly associated with less frequent service because of the charging time needed. No US transit agencies are using battery electric trains yet. The Bay Area’s Caltrain ordered a single battery electric train last year to test on its newly electrified system, and Metra in Chicago ordered eight two-car battery electric trains in February to be delivered starting in 2027.

MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said the agency remains focused on “decarbonizing” the entire commuter rail network and that the Fairmount Line pilot would provide a “proof of concept” for battery electric service. Funding is not yet available for electrifying the Providence/Stoughton and Newburyport/Rockport Lines, he said.

The Keolis proposal for electric service on the Fairmount Line was unsolicited, Pesaturo said, and does not include a price tag. Pesaturo did not say how much the T plans to spend on the electrification pilot. Other companies have until April 12 to respond with better offers than Keolis.

Keolis proposes procuring the new battery electric fleet, building a new maintenance facility, hiring and training all staff associated with the project, and operating the more frequent service, according to the T. The contract for the electric service pilot would run through June 2026, when Keolis’s contract for operating the T’s commuter rail system expires, at which point another company could finish the pilot if Keolis isn’t rehired.

A spokesperson for Keolis, Jake O’Neil, declined to say how many electric trains would be needed to meet the 20-minute frequency and how much the pilot would cost the T. He said one of Keolis Commuter Services’ parent companies, the French state-owned SNCF, has experience operating battery electric trains.

“Keolis believes that battery electric multiple unit technology has evolved to a place where it would serve as a great service solution and opportunity here,” O’Neil said in a statement, also highlighting the company’s “commitment to sustainability” that dovetails with the Healey administration’s decarbonization goals.

Jarred Johnson, executive director of TransitMatters, a public transportation advocacy group, applauded the move toward electrification: “I hope this step will excite policymakers and we can start lining up the funding and political will to have this happen on a larger scale.”

Taylor Dolven can be reached at taylor.dolven@globe.com. Follow her @taydolven.