Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has ordered an in-depth review of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, to be conducted by a panel of six transportation, economic and urban planning experts, according to a Friday press release.
The panel will conduct a diagnosis of the MBTA’s management and system governance and deliver recommendations from their findings to Baker by the end of March, the release stated.
“Public transportation plays a major role in supporting and driving the region’s economy, and in order to fix the problems with the MBTA, they first must be diagnosed,” Baker said in the release. “It’s clear that following past procedures will only yield the same unacceptable results.”
The release outlined the panel’s objectives to synthesize previous findings from recent MBTA reports, including its current State of Good Repair backlog, and assess how well previous report recommendations were handled. The panel will also evaluate the MBTA’s current “state of operations,” focusing on funds allocation, maintenance, operations, communications, decision-making and governance. The panel will then compare the information gathered to similar transit system operations.
Paul Barrett , former director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, will serve as the panel’s chairman.
The panel consists of Jane Garvey, a former Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Works; Robert Gittens , the vice president of public affairs at Northeastern University; Jose Gomez-Ibanez, the Derek C. Bok Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Harvard University ; Katherine Lapp, former executive director and CEO of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority ; Brian McMorrow, CFO for the Aviation Division with the Massachusetts Port Authority; and Braintree Mayor Joe Sullivan.
The Governor’s Secretary of Transportation, Stephanie Pollack, will also be an active participant in the panel’s discussions and meetings, Amanda Richard, deputy press secretary of MassDOT, said in an email.
“This group of national leaders in transportation and public administration will provide us with a framework we can build on,” Baker said in the release.
The MBTA review comes in the weeks following harsh winter storms that dropped nearly 100 inches of snow on the region and left many without access to public transportation. With the MBTA under scrutiny from the Massachusetts government and its residents, MBTA General Manager and CEO Beverly Scott announced her resignation on Feb. 11 — citing a want to spend more time with family as her reason — and Baker has promised to meet with MBTA officials to play a role in fixing the transportation system.
As a member of the panel, Gittens said the city of Boston needs to have a well-functioning, reliable, high-quality transportation system. With the winter storms seeming to have calmed, Gittens said the city can now assess why public transportation difficulties occurred.
“The governor wants us to understand the circumstances that the T is operating under and to take a look at what’s happened over time with an analysis of the T’s challenges and see if we can get an analysis of where things stand,” he said.
The panel has no authority, Gittens said, and is simply serving an advisory role to the governor.
“It allows for us to have a different perspective,” he said. “We have folks that have had a lot of experience in the world of transportation and in that realm locally.”
MBTA and MassDOT officials will be closely monitoring the panel’s findings, Richard said.
“The administration in coordination with the MBTA and MassDOT Board of Directors will be closely reviewing the framework and recommendations set out by the assembled panel for ways to improve upon public transit in the Commonwealth,” she said.
A representative from the MBTA declined to comment.
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said in an email statement that he is in favor of Baker’s plan to take a comprehensive look at MBTA practices.
“In order to create a modern, 21st century transportation system that serves all of our residents and all of our neighborhoods, the MBTA needs adequate infrastructure funding to modernize an aging system,” he said in the statement. “I applaud Governor Baker for his selection of a diverse and informed panel to examine MBTA operations, and I am hopeful the panel will quickly deliver recommendations that will guide how to improve the system.”
Several residents said they understand how the transportation issues have occurred, especially in the severity of the winter storms, but the city has a responsibility to make sure their residents can travel.
Eduardo Schettino , 22, of Back Bay, said the level at which the MBTA is functioning is unacceptable.
“It’s understandable because it’s not something you can fix right away, but it’s also unacceptable,” he said. “We had so many days off, people weren’t getting paid, schools were canceled, and so many people are even paying for school. This whole service and goods exchange, it’s not happening. Everyone is just sitting at home watching TV.”
Grace Johnson, 68, of Roxbury, said the severity of the storms calls for certain adjustments.
“That is the nature of the snow, but everybody should be responsible for us people who need to go to work and go to doctor appointments,” she said. “It’s [the review is] a very good thing because it makes the governor, the mayor and the residents realize what’s going on, and I hope they’ll fix it and it’ll be better next year.”
Alex Chao , 23, of Allston, said he is interested to see what kind of plans the MBTA has to get around necessary weather-related service shutdowns and a lack of funds.
“Funding is the number one issue for the T,” he said. “If they could somehow persuade the state to increase funding, I’d be interested.”
