Walsh wants fast-track fixes for T
Mayor Martin Walsh is set to meet with the MBTA general manager next week after sending a letter to Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, urging the state to fast-track fixes.
Walsh said Thursday his staff is setting up a meeting next week with MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak in response to a letter he sent Wednesday demanding a faster timeline from Pollack and asking her to increase the number of trains on the Red Line and nearby Commuter Rail lines.
“We have to make sure that we do everything we can to fast track and to bring confidence back in the MBTA,” Walsh said. “There’s nothing I can say that’s going to make people satisfied … At the end of the day it’s about investments. It’s about getting the T working right.”
It has been more than a month since the Red Line derailment at JFK/UMass caused ongoing delays, and T fares have since gone up 6%. Baker said the plan is to get the Red Line back up and running by Labor Day and the preliminary reports show the work is ahead of schedule.
An MBTA survey from last month, however, shows the lowest approval rating for the transit agency in about three years.
“I’m not surprised at all that the MBTA’s approval rating with its customer base was the lowest it’s been in years. The derailment on the Red Line was a massive inconvenience — it still is an inconvenience,” Gov. Charlie Baker said. “We totally get that, I mean there’s work to be done there.”
Walsh added “we can’t start losing people on the T. It’s only going to cause another problem, a bigger problem than we already have with cars and congestion.”
Baker said he has “full confidence” in Pollack to turn the system around, noting that the MBTA had been under-invested in for 25 to 50 years. The first “serious investment” in the core system, Baker said, started when he took office. He pointed again to his $8 billion dollar investment plan, which he said will expand rider capacity by between 50,000 and 80,000 seats.