Rick Dimino
The MBTA has been struggling with a range of issues for years, and the appointment of Phil Eng as the new general manager marks a crucial first step towards reviving our troubled transit system. However, it is important to recognize that Eng alone cannot rebuild the transit system.
To modernize the T and ensure its long-term sustainability, we need to go beyond just new leadership and an increased workforce. We also need to explore new approaches to capital projects, service delivery and funding plans.
Eng is inheriting an agency that is in worse shape than the system that failed during the winter storms of 2015. The pandemic and long-term problems with deficient infrastructure have prevented more sustained progress, even after the comprehensive efforts made by Gov. Charlie Baker and state leaders to address the crisis. Today, a new GM and governor need the support of the legislature, business community and general public to address the current challenges.
Too Much on T’s Plate
The MBTA’s response to the Federal Transit Administration’s safety inspection requirements is the most pressing issue. For nearly 300 days, the subway has failed to operate on regular service schedules, resulting in riders choosing to avoid public transit and slow commutes for all riders. Restoring service and safety is the top challenge for Eng and his team and should be considered a full-time job in itself.
While Eng focuses on safety and service, there is little time or financial resources for other priorities that are essential to the future of the region, particularly with capital projects related to bus maintenance facilities and carbon emission reduction plans. The MBTA, as currently constructed, cannot deliver on the region’s shared goals because the organization struggles to deliver complicated infrastructure projects and hiring enough staff. We now have enough evidence that the agency’s current procurement rules and capital delivery practices should be adjusted.
The legislature and governor gave the MBTA relief from the state’s Pacheco Law after the crisis in 2015, and this authority should be granted again. A second solution should be public-private partnerships (P3), which can help speed up renovations and expansion of the facilities that support the T’s bus network.
The MBTA’s current goal is to transform the bus network by 2040 to allow for a fully electrified bus fleet. Gov. Maura Healey made a public commitment to reaching this goal by 2030, which requires new bus maintenance facilities to maintain and operate these new vehicles. The T’s former Fiscal and Management Control Board developed a plan six years ago to renovate the agency’s nine current bus facilities, but the MBTA is already significantly behind schedule and over-budget on this effort. Instead of hoping the MBTA alone can do this work, a new approach is justified.
As the MBTA attempts to rebuild the busing network and their garages, while continuing to operate each facility, they are also expected to improve the commuter rail network, implement climate resilience protections, deliver the Red-Blue Connector and many other projects. None of these goals should be delayed or avoided. Instead, we need to give the MBTA a way to do all these efforts at the same time, while they continue to address federal safety oversight requirements.
How Private Sector Can Help
A Better City published a report on the potential to improve the Albany Street garage in Boston as a mixed-use development that also serves the MBTA bus fleet’s needs. This expanded P3 authority will require legislation but would make it more likely the MBTA reaches its goals for better bus service, reduced carbon emissions and new developments that increase housing throughout the region. Private investment will also help to address the MBTA’s budgetary challenges and relieve MBTA leadership from directly implementing this work.
The MBTA is facing a looming budget challenge in 2025 on both the capital and operating budget, but the organization also needs help hiring and spending its money. Expanded procurement rules are not a substitute for a new comprehensive transportation finance plan, but they are a complementary piece that should be part of a larger plan that helps MBTA leaders to be more effective with public resources, expand their workforce and complete new transit infrastructure projects. Public and private investment can help accelerate the projects that will benefit the region and riders.
The MBTA still needs a new funding plan, and a conversation should begin this summer involving elected officials, advocates and the business community. The MBTA is facing a long-term funding deficit that could begin in 2025 and jeopardizes our economic, environmental and transit equity goals. Building a new MBTA is not only about new money, but also new expectations for what the MBTA can achieve by itself. This approach would be a shift from the past, but could be the best way to deliver modern transit service that is essential to Greater Boston’s future.
Rick Dimino is president emeritus of A Better City
