BOSTON — Two state legislators are calling for a new agency to oversee safety issues with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, although they have different views on who should handle the job.
The Boston Herald reports state Sen. Michael Barrett has filed legislation to create an independent commission on transportation safety oversight, while state Rep. William Straus has authored a bill with the goal of transferring oversight to the state’s Office of Inspector General.
Both men agree that the job should no longer belong to the Department of Public Utilities, where it currently resides. Barrett told the Herald it distracts the DPU from its climate responsibilities; Straus said he was open to other ideas that would provide “independence for a safety oversight entity that has sufficient staff and resources.”
The DPU’s oversight of MBTA issues came under scrutiny last year when the Federal Transit Administration issued a series of special directives over MBTA safety deficiencies [see “Federal directives order MBTA to address safety issues,” Trains News Wire, June 15, 2022]. At the same time, the FTA also issued a set of directives to the DPU to ensure the MBTA acted on its directives, and noted that a number of areas of non-compliance remained from the FTA’s 2019 audit of the MBTA.
