Media Statement: MassDOT Leadership Transition

BOSTON, January 21, 2021— 

We wish Stephanie Pollack well as she joins the Biden Administration as Deputy FHWA Administrator. As the new Administration puts together its transportation team, we are hopeful that a new federal focus on and commitment to sustainable mobility, multi-modalism, access and equity will guide our path forward, as we seek to build back better.  

As MassDOT transitions to new leadership, the Commonwealth finds itself making almost no progress toward meeting its climate goals or fulfilling the recommendations of the Future of Transportation Commission. Instead, the Administration has doubled down on auto-centric policies including reliance on EVs as proposed in the “2050 Decarbonization Roadmap” and Interim Clean Energy Climate Plan for 2030 reports. The outgoing Transportation Secretary has presided over avoidable cuts to the MBTA and unproductive machinations to shape the Allston I-90 Multimodal project into a highway-first project. Numerous priorities such as the Rail Transformation Process and low-income fares also saw little progress since they were adopted by the FMCB. We hope that we may now enter a new period of collaboration that will support a strong, equitable and sustainable post-COVID economy. 

We welcome Jamey Tesler to the role of Secretary of Transportation. Jamey is a solid, smart and talented public servant who has a strong record of leadership in several leading state transportation sector roles. We hope he will provide the thoughtful leadership that is vital at this crucial time, a time when Massachusetts needs to restore and modernize its public transportation system to support a strong post-COVID economy equitably. This is also an opportunity to repair relationships between the agencies and advocates. We look forward to working with Jamey and his team in an environment of mutual support and respect. 

For media inquiries, please e-mail media@transitmatters.org. 

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Media Statement: MBTA Safety Review Panel Report

In a report released on December 9, 2019, an independent safety review panel concluded “safety is not the priority at the T”. Our statement on the findings of the report is below:

BOSTON, December 9, 2019 — 

No public transportation system can – or should – function in the absence of a strong safety culture. Today’s report by the MBTA’s Safety Review Panel demonstrates how much work still needs to be done to transform Metro Boston’s transit and rail system into one that is modern, reliable, responsive and, most importantly, safe. 

Safety is not something to be considered in a vacuum.  As the report indicates, degraded safety culture relates to the inadequacy of the T’s Operating Budget;  the stagnation and starvation of maintenance budgets and protocols; the slashing of training resources; and whipsaw nature of top-down staffing and management changes that have stifled trust, communication and a sense of agency among front-line staff in the performance of their duties.  

The T must address the adequacy of its Operating Budget as a priority.  The report exposes the danger of a mentality that prizes balanced budgets over performance: “Budget resources are lacking in critical areas (training, manpower for operators needed to build and make schedules, maintenance crews, emergency response teams and safety) which may be affecting the safe delivery of services. There is also no contingency in the budget for safety emergency related issues.”   We have called for increasing the T’s operating budget to enable it to attract, hire and retain the talent it needs across the organization. Our prior concern was focused on the T being able to get work out faster, and to perform maintenance activities in a more regular and disciplined manner rather than deferring such activities until they qualified as a capital expense. We now add safety to the list.  We renew our call to the legislature and the administration to make an adequate Operating Budget a priority of the 2020 session.

The report’s suggestion that there is lax maintenance on Orange Line (and by inference Red Line) cars is alarming. The public must have confidence that the equipment carrying it every day is well maintained by a motivated professional workforce.  Sadly, this report seriously undermines that confidence. We call on the General Manager to address this issue as an immediate priority.  

The Safety Review Panel report is an indictment of an agency that everyone in Metro Boston depends upon for safe, reliable transit and rail service, regardless of whether they use it or not. The MBTA is too important to the lives of literally tens of thousands of people for anyone to pass over this report lightly. At the same time, we caution that this report must not distract from the urgent need to advance key modernization and connectivity projects like Regional Rail, Better Bus, West Station and the Red/Blue Connector.  The MBTA must be able to multitask. If leadership and staff cannot do this because they lack resources, the legislature and governor must provide those resources.  

For media inquiries, please e-mail media@transitmatters.org. 

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