Now another great battle has been fought, and I think I can persuade you that it might be a turning point in American passenger railroading. No guns were fired, but this battle had threats, bitterness, and ruined work lives. And it appears to have awakened Amtrak from a long and arrogant sleep. I can't claim it will ever rise to the legendary status of the Pullman strike, but it will be worthy of more than a footnote in the history books. I'm talking about the battle between Amtrak and the French company Keolis for the contract to run the Virginia Railway Express commuter service. Surprised?

You never heard of this nasty fight? Even if you did, you will probably be surprised to learn how vitriolic it got behind the scenes.

Amtrak ran VRE for all of its 18 years, and apparently assumed it would continue running VRE, even as other companies lined up to bid for a new contract. That assumption was fed by arrogance and a certain level of incompetence among the Amtrak group in charge of the VRE contract. But on Oct. 16, 2009, the hammer fell. The VRE Operations Board recommended Keolis. "I think they were blindsided," says Dale Zehner, chief executive officer of VRE. He says Amtrak had been informed of the bidding schedule more than a year earlier, and had spent more than a year negotiating a new agreement to operate trains into Union Station in Washington.

But VRE officials say the Amtrak contract proposal was far more costly than the Keolis contract, and did not meet many of VRE's requirements. What's more, the Amtrak group that presented its bid to VRE obviously had not read the agency's requirements. For example, VRE specified that no more than seven officials could officially present the contract and answer questions. Amtrak showed up with eight. And that group had no answers to many VRE questions. "Their proposal didn't respond to what we wanted in a service," Zehner says.

Meanwhile, Keolis mounted a masterful campaign to win the bid and actually listen to VRE. "First you've got to ask the client what he wants, and then listen," says Steve Townsend, executive vice president of Keolis' VRE operation. Keolis won.

Amtrak protested, but only after the 10-day time limit for protests had expired. The battle then turned bitter, and Amtrak and its unions turned nasty. Union officials made it clear to employees that if they signed with Keolis, they would be fired immediately by Amtrak and permanently blacklisted. Crews who agreed to stay with Amtrak not only received a $5,000 bonus but were guaranteed a job. Amtrak, meanwhile, even tried to hire crews laid off from New Jersey Transit who had been approached by Keolis. The idea was to prevent Keolis from hiring enough crews to run the system by takeover day, June 28.

The reason for this strategy was made clear in a note tacked to a crew bulletin board by a union official, calling on members to be respectful of Keolis officials who recruit them. "We are trying to get this contract back, and we cannot be seen as interfering with them doing their job or harassing them in any way," the note said.

When that failed, Amtrak did everything possible to harass Keolis. Amtrak refused to allow newly hired VRE engineers to ride with Amtrak crews to familiarize themselves with the route. Keolis and VRE struck back by operating non-passenger "qualification trains" on weekends, a costly process. Even when the Federal Railroad Administration asked Amtrak to allow Keolis engineers in the cab just before takeover day, most of the Amtrak engineers on the Manassas Line refused, and Amtrak would not order them to comply.

Rumors spread like a grass fire after a drought. "I was surprised by the number of false rumors," Zehner says. In the end, only one senior Amtrak engineer hired on with Keolis.

Amtrak President Joe Boardman, in an interview, acknowledged that he hoped Keolis would fail and Amtrak would have another chance. But, five days after the July 12 launch of Keolis operations, Boardman says he believes Keolis will keep the VRE contract for the full 15-year term. He suspects Keolis may have underbid to get the contract (something Keolis strongly denies), but he has no proof of that. "We'll wait and see what the real cost is for this service," he says.

Despite his misgivings, Boardman was tougher on himself and Amtrak. "We know we did not provide the right answers," he says. Boardman considers the battle over VRE a wake-up call. "I see a lot more competition coming forward," he says.

Boardman also decided to drop out of the bidding for operating the old B&O Maryland diesel commuter service between Washington and Baltimore and between Washington and Frederick, Md., and Martinsburg, W.Va., over CSX lines. He says Amtrak was dissatisfied with the liability provisions of the proposed MARC contract. Keolis might well have won the MARC contract by the time you read these words. (Amtrak did win the Washington-Baltimore- Perryville, Md., MARC contract last year, operating over the Northeast Corridor.)

Nevertheless Keolis, which runs commuter rail and bus systems around the globe, now has a firm anchor in the United States, in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol. This is a bitter loss for Amtrak. However, if Amtrak really has awakened from its sleep, it might also be one of the best things ever to happen to Amtrak and to Joe Boardman.

DON PHILLIPS, a newspaper reporter for more than four decades, writes this exclusive monthly column for Trains.