BOSTON — Former Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng will become the new general manager of the problem-plagued Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Eng’s selection in a statement today, saying Eng “is the proven leader the MBTA needs to improve safety and reliability across the system and restore the public’s trust. He understands that a functioning transportation system is essential to a functioning economy, and he has a track record of taking the reins of struggling public transit systems and dramatically improving service. He also takes a collaborative approach to his work and maintains open lines of communication with customers, workers, businesses, local officials and communities.”
Eng will begin work April 10.
Eng has almost 40 years of public transportation experience with the New York State Department of Transportation and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, including time as MTA’s chief operating officer and interim president of New York City Transit, which operates the bus and subway system. He was president of the LIRR from 2018 until his retirement last year, and since then has been a consultant with the LiRo Group, an architectural, engineering, and construction firm.
“It’s time for a new way of doing business at the MBTA,” Eng said in the statement announcing his appointment. “As an engineer, a transportation professional for 40 years, and a commuter myself, I’m laser focused on finding innovative solutions to complex problems and approaching them with a sense of urgency that always puts the customer first. I’m also committed to supporting the hardworking employees who keep the MBTA running and ramping up hiring to ensure that we have the workforce in place to deliver the reliable service that riders deserve.”
Eng will take over an agency that has faced significant safety issues, leading to a series of directives by the Federal Transit Administration last year, and is currently dealing with massive operational issues in its rail transit network. More than a quarter of that network is operating under speed restrictions, reflecting long-term maintenance deferrals, as well as a more recent problem in which the agency was unable to provide documentation of track inspections and repairs.
The agency’s previous general manager, Steve Poftak, departed in January after resigning in November [see “MBTA general manager announces resignation,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 2, 2022]. Jeff Gonneville has been serving as interim general manager.
The late Endicott Peabody (Democrat) was Governor of the Commonwealth from 1963 to 1965, serving both after and before the late John Anthony Volpe (Republican). Both made huge contributions to public transportation, one local and, later on, one federal.
Volpe, as U.S. Secretary of Transportation in 1970, hoodwinked President Richard Nixon into signing the Railpax bill. Without Volpe, there likely would be no Amtrak.
Peabody, as Governor, abolished the MTA, 14 cities and towns, to become MBTA, that was constituted of 74 or 78 cities and towns, I don’t remember which. This act accomplished a number of major improvements. (1) MBTA saved commuter rail on the New Haven and the B+M, while also providing a framework that eventually led to NYC’s token commuter rail service to be greatly expanded. (2) It bought half a century of financial stability to the core subway and bus systems in Boston and immediate suburbia (3) brought private-sector bus suburban bus services into the tent, the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway (buses) and the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway (buses). (4) The enormously successful subway expansions, the Red Line south to Quincy and Braintree, the Red Line north to Alewife, and eventually the all-new Silver Line.
So, MBTA was a great improvement, for decades. Now the party is over. In common with other American transit systems, MBTA kicked the can down the road —- increased labor expenses, deferred maintenance, ballooning pensions, etc., balanced against decreased passenger counts. With a long string of wretched fools in the White House in Washington (both parties), and a bunch of ineffective governors in Boston (both parties), it’s all going down the drain.
I forgot to mention another major MBTA accomplishment, the reinstatement of commuter rail on the Old Colony. This long-lost former New Haven service was so dead the grade through Quincy didn’t even exist.
About the only positive he has going for him is that he can’t make it any worse than it is already I can’t wait to see how long he makes it.
Wish him the best. However, if he can not fix the politics in the state he won’t be able to accomplish anything.
Good luck with that; you’re going to need it.
In all seriousness, I hope he can straighten out that agency.
If he successfully straightens out MBTA, next send him to Amtrak!
How this goes is really going to be one to watch.
Please change the heading to MBTA.