Exodus of T employees taking a toll
Hiring is strong, but attrition impedes efforts
The general manager of the MBTA said Tuesday the T is still struggling to retain employees, even as hiring hits a relative peak.
Phil Eng, who began leading the MBTA in April, said in an interview on WBUR that the T is “hiring at a rate we’ve never hired before,” but is facing steep competition from the private sector, and seeing far too many employees exit the troubled agency. He said the agency is meeting its internal hiring goals — although he did not specify what those goals are — but attrition is “offsetting those metrics.”
The T faced a 13 percent attrition rate throughout the fiscal year that ended in June, according to a presentation given during the agency’s July 13 board meeting. While about 280 workers retired, nearly 580 others left the agency for other reasons.
The MBTA hired 117 workers per month between the start of January and July 16, up from an average of 69 workers per month in 2022 and 27 per month in 2021, according to Joe Pesaturo, an agency spokesperson.
“We have made great strides in terms of the hiring,” Eng said on WBUR’s “Radio Boston,” and the agency is now focused on “making sure the employees that come on board know there’s a career at the T, and a long career, and it can be rewarding.”
He cited new bonuses, the T’s fleet of HR on-the-go vehicles, and a new deal with the Boston Carmen’s Union to change the number of hours new bus drivers can work as proof of momentum.
Limited staffing means more safety issues, reduced bus service, and increased service interruptions system-wide, as well as stalled progress on fixing speed restrictions, according to reports by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation in April and the Federal Transit Administration last year.
After nearly four months on the job, Eng said the work that still needs to be done “is not necessarily surprising,” but is “widespread across the system” following years of disinvestment.
“We have a very good picture of the situation across the whole system,” Eng said. “Where the challenge comes in is the workforce availability and the ability to schedule that work in a manner that allows us to still run service.”
He said the T is prioritizing projects designed to improve rider safety, citing the recent closure of the Green Line’s B Branch, which followed a derailment near the Packard’s Corner stop in June. That branch reopened over the weekend, although riders could be forgiven for not noticing faster speeds. The curve of the tracks near Packard’s Corner means trains are still capped at around 6 miles per hour, Eng said, but the new rails will help minimize the risk of future accidents.
Host Tiziana Dearing tried to bring listeners closer to Eng over the course of the roughly 30minute interview.
The new general manager said he has spent the last four months getting to know Boston, and its brewery scene, which includes a taproom across the street from his new home near Lechmere Station.
“That’s why the T is so essential, not only for people going to work, but to be able to take advantage of what the city has,” Eng said. “The culture, the diversity, the restaurants, and even breweries.”
Dearing asked Eng when he expected the majority of his time would be spent focusing on the agency’s future, not just putting out today’s — literal and figurative — fires.
Eng said giving a time frame would be “inappropriate right now,” but stressed that the MBTA needs to remain ahead on maintenance and avoid becoming complacent.
“It’s always continuous improvement, regardless of the day when the system is running more safely, more reliably. You can’t let go of that gas pedal,” Eng said. “If we’re running a safe and reliable system, actually those other projects are easier to deliver.”
Tuesday morning, Eng took the B Branch of the Green Line to WBUR’s Studio Two, where the interview was taped. He said his trip was smooth, with “no delays, no issues.”
But it was a different story on the line just a few hours earlier, when passengers were cleared from an inbound B Branch train around 8:55 a.m. One T employee said the subway was “backed up.”
Among them was Lori Chibnik, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, who said she has grown used to issues with the T cutting into her workday.
“I don’t know that I would have stayed in Boston after graduating if I thought that this was a daily thing,” she said.
The next train was bound for Government Center, Chibnick’s destination, but it terminated abruptly at Park Street station. She shook her head, stepped onto the platform, and waited for what would be the third B Branch train she rode that morning.