BOSTON — Major improvement in Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority rail operations will take a year or more, MBTA board chair Thomas Glynn said in an online forum Thursday.
“I think people will see a different T a year from now,” Glynn said, according to a Boston Herald report, “but I don’t know if they’ll see a different T in two months.”
Glynn said new General Manager Phillip Eng is working to change the decision-making and organizational culture and address major projects which are well behind schedule. “A lot of these things need to be integrated to have a significant impact,” Glynn said.
Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, who is part of both the MBTA board of directors and its advisory board, said it could be a year and a half before the agency addresses “huge structural issues” and improves service.
Eng compared the situation to one he faced when he took over the Long Island Rail Road in 2018, saying “service and reliability was at some of low points in its history.” Improvement, he said, will require addressing a large track maintenance backlog, increased staffing, and addressing the capital projects that are behind schedule.
Isn’t it strange to serve on both the BOD and the advisory board? Who does the advisory board advise? Itself?