MBTA GM recalls narrow rail gut punch
Months after the MBTA made public widespread issues on the Green Line Extension that forced trains to a crawl last year, MBTA boss Phillip Eng said there were enough warning signs early on in the project that officials should have paused construction before service started.
But the New York transplant, now more than a year into his role as the head of the Massachusetts transit agency, again backed away during an interview with the Herald this week from fully determining whether former Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration ignored apparent red flags in its quest to make expanded service a reality.
“I don’t know, not being here, if it was ignored. But people knew it existed. So I’ll let other people judge,” Eng said while sitting in his Boston office. “But I think that there was enough information that they should have paused the contract, or at least paused the installation of these ties … It was identified. It should have been acted on back when it was first identified.”
The MBTA first acknowledged at the end of September that brand new stretches of the $2.3 billion Green Line Extension, which brought service to Union Square and Medford-Tufts, were defective and too narrow to run trains at efficient speeds.
Weeks after the revelation, Eng said the transit agency knew as far back as April 2021 — when Baker was in office — that large portions of Green Line Extension tracks were problematic but went ahead anyway with a December 2022 ribbon cutting at the MedfordTufts station that signaled an end to the project.
Gov. Maura Healey said senior officials at the MBTA under Baker knew about the issues “years ago and did not disclose them to our administration or address them on their watch.” Two MBTA unnamed officials who had “senior roles” in the project lost their jobs in the aftermath.
Baker, for his part, said last year through a spokesman that he was “never informed” of the issues.
The MBTA said the first instance of narrow tracks was observed in April 2021 by inspectors for the contractors building the project. Another inspection in November 2022 found 29 areas where tracks were narrow, which were addressed before service started.
In the interview with the Herald this week, Eng said the track fiasco “definitely took me back” when asked whether it was a gut punch only a few months into his tenure as head of the MBTA.
“There’s always desires to open things by a certain time and there’s always… decisions made. But I think what the mistake was, is if you go back in time, there were early indications of gauge issues and that’s when they should have tackled it back then,” he said, using a technical term for the narrow tracks.
MBTA boss ‘humbled’ by Mariano’s ‘train man’ comment
Forget the formal title. Call Eng the “train man.”
House Speaker Ron Mariano offered a gleaming vote of confidence in Eng this week when the Quincy Democrat rolled out his rewrite of the fiscal year 2025 state budget, a document that included a “record” level of funding for the transit agency.
“The last couple of folks that have run the team came out of the philosophical think tanks or the Pioneer Institute and a number of other places,” Mariano said in a pointed remark directed at former MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak, who worked at the Pioneer Institute before joining the transit agency.
But now, Mariano said, the MBTA has a “train man” or a “a man who can walk the tracks and not electrocute himself.”
“It’s a gentleman that we feel is going to make an impact,” he said. “We’re excited to work with him as he makes changes.”
Eng said he was “humbled” by the speaker’s comments.
“I’m humbled by those comments. But it really is the team. And it’s working with the Legislature and the administration too because I know that there’s great needs everywhere. I want to make sure that I’m part of the solution, and that I’m a team player across the board,” he said in an interview with the Herald this week.