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Report: MBTA leads in commuter rail breakdowns

WORCESTER, Mass. — The Commuter Rail is landing on top of a new list that it really doesn’t want to be on.

The federal report finds trains here in Massachusetts break down far more often than trains in other states.

To be fair, the data is from 2016. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and Keolis have had nine-and-a-half months not to be the worst.

>> Read the 2016 Transit System Breakdown Report

Did they get out of the cellar this year? That data is not available yet.

To get to the root of this:

The MBTA and Keolis have had a few different multi-million-dollar programs to bring in new locomotives and revamp old ones to put them back into service.

Each have had issues, though.

The MBTA website shows the Commuter Rail overall has operated on time 87 percent of the time over the last month.

But, tell that to Worcester-Framingham riders.

Their on-time rate in the last month is only 73 percent.

“The T has been working closely with Keolis to improve performance and reliability through hundreds of millions of dollars in both infrastructure and rolling stock improvements," MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in a statement to Boston 25 News. "Forty new locomotives have replaced many of the decades-old locomotives that were unreliable. In 2017, commuter rail performance has been much improved, with on time performance rates averaging nearly 90 percent."

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