TWO KEY state lawmakers are urging Gov. Maura Healey to set in motion now the process for selecting the next operator of the state’s commuter rail system even though the contract with the current operator has another three years to run.

In a letter sent to Healey on Monday, the House and Senate chairs of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee said the next contract is likely to be much longer in length, give much more responsibility to the operator, and deal with important transportation, climate change, and housing challenges. The contracting process, they said, will be lengthy and involved and require years of work.

“We view the next commuter rail contract as an opportunity for your administration to accomplish multiple critical initiatives for the next 10 to 20 years,” said the letter from Rep. William Straus of Mattapoisett and Sen. Brendan Crighton of Lynn.

The current commuter rail operator is Keolis Commuter Services, a division of a French company. Keolis won an eight-year contract in 2014 that was scheduled to end in 2022. Even though Baker administration officials were unhappy with Keolis and vowed in 2017 not to extend the company’s contract, a four-year extension was granted in 2020 (through June 2026) when COVID knocked the commuter rail system on its back, with ridership plummeting to all-time lows.

“I don’t think anyone was happy with that,” said Straus in a phone interview. “But there really was no alternative given COVID.”

Now the system is one of the brighter spots of the state transportation system, with on-time performance strong and ridership back to 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels despite the emergence of widespread hybrid work schedules.

In their letter, Straus and Crighton didn’t set out a specific course of action for the next contract, but they embraced the view that the agreement should allow the state and the commuter rail operator to form more of a partnership than a traditional company-vendor relationship with a focus on electrification, energy efficiency, and expansion.

“In the past, commuter rail contracts entered into by the state have been for relatively short duration with a renewal option as occurred with the current agreement with Keolis,” the lawmakers wrote. “We suggest that something different should be considered in the next contract for commuter rail service. Significant capital equipment changes are going to be required if you agree that climate-related improvements are appropriately part of this process and that will mean a longer contract timeline is likely a part of what is offered for bidding. In that way, the expected investment for any successful bidder will allow a compensation schedule to the operator which is fair to both them and the Commonwealth.”