Despite spate of problems, gov insists T is OK
Gov. Charlie Baker defended the MBTA’s safety record — and his own political record — even as the Bay State’s transit arm faced several derailments and other accidents in recent months.
“Is there still significant work that remains to be done? Absolutely. But a big part of what we’ve done over the course of the past six or seven years is making investments that should have been made in the ’80s and ’90s,” Baker said Wednesday at a Framingham press conference.
On Tuesday, a Red Line T car derailed at the Broadway station with passengers inside, striking the platform. Over the weekend, an escalator at the Back Bay station suddenly reversed, sending nine riders tumbling down to a bloody crush at the bottom of the staircase.
A few weeks ago, a Boston University professor died after falling through a rusted-out staircase in Dorchester. In July, a Green Line B branch train crashed near Boston University, sending 27 people to the hospital.
Baker remained on the defensive throughout the conference, challenging reporters to “find me another administration that spent $5 billion on modernizing and upgrading a system that was horribly neglected for decades before we took office.” He added that he hopes for more money for upgrades upon the resolution of a congressional stalemate over an infrastructure bill that’s tying up federal funds.
Although Baker said the eight derailments in the last two years is “eight too many,” he repeated again and again that “the T is safe.” He deflected more detailed questions about the various incidents as the MBTA awaits the results of investigations into them.
Josh Ostroff, the interim director for the advocacy group Transportation for Massachusetts, agreed with Baker’s assessment that “this system has been under-resourced for many years, and the work that the governor addressed is mostly catching up with overdue maintenance and repairs,” but said the most important task now is regaining riders’ trust.
To combat the MBTA’s issues, Ostroff advocated for increased funding from the Legislature for deficits to the system, a new governor-appointed MBTA oversight board, which lapsed earlier this summer, and for investments in “clean and equitable and modern transportation statewide,” he said. He added that the funds that may go to the MBTA from the American Rescue Plan and other future federal sources are “necessary, but not sufficient” to fix these issues.
An MBTA spokesperson said in a statement that it’s conducting “thorough investigations” on each incident, and has invested almost $2 billion in fiscal year 2021 in infrastructure projects. The MBTA recently began a $1.2 billion project to improve tracks, signals and power systems on the Red and Orange lines.