The Federal Transit Administration believes “that the MBTA has started to turn the corner in terms of safety culture,” a top T official said Thursday.
Chief of Quality, Compliance and Oversight Meredith Sandberg said she met on a recent trip to Washington, D.C. with FTA officials who were happy with the T’s progress related to safety incidents. Greater Boston’s beleaguered transit system has faced a number of safety failures and subsequent attempts to address those issues over the past few years.
The FTA prescribed a 38-point corrective action plan to the T following a safety management inspection in 2022, which criticized staffing shortages, a backlog of maintenance and a lackluster commitment to safety culture.
“I’d never presume to speak for the FTA, but the high-level headline was that I think they believe that the MBTA has started to turn the corner in terms of safety culture and our approach to responding to both safety incidents in specific and also our longer-term planning capabilities, and seem very pleased with our progress to date and what we’re projected for the next calendar year,” Sandberg said Thursday during a MBTA Board of Directors Safety, Health and Environment Subcommittee meeting.
An MBTA spokesperson did not respond when asked Thursday for any documentation of the FTA’s appraisal of the T.
Sandberg said the FTA officials she met with did not express any specific concerns over the T’s performance addressing the safety issues, but said “it’s important that we then stay on track, literally and figuratively.”
The 2022 FTA investigation tied the safety risks to staffing shortages, as well as communication failures and a pattern of underinvestment in deferred maintenance.
Over the last year, the MBTA has been on a hiring spree, pushed by Gov. Maura Healey who has said it is among her priorities to get more workers at the T. The hiring blitz has been fueled in large part by labor agreements that boosted wages and rolled out retention bonuses, as well as sign-on bonuses for new hires.
As of Thursday, Chief Workforce Officer Ahmad Barnes reported the T has hired 1,493 new employees and internally promoted 543 people since Healey took office in January 2023. During that same time period, 598 employees have left the MBTA — leading to a total increased headcount of 895 employees.
Last April, T officials budgeted for an increase of 964 positions at the MBTA in fiscal year 2024, 14 percent above last year’s budget.
Seven months into the fiscal year, the agency has brought on an additional 640 people, Barnes said Thursday.
“Noting our overall goal, we’re still increasing our headcount despite these lean months in the winter time,” Barnes told the Planning, Workforce Development and Compensation subcommittee at its Thursday meeting.
Members of the T’s safety board also received an update Thursday on repairs made to the T during a multi-week shutdown of the Green Line.
Nearing a year into his job running the MBTA, General Manager Phil Eng has adopted an approach of implementing longer-term shutdowns of certain lines to expedite overdue repairs on tracks and in stations.
Green Line riders were left without T service for half of January. Shuttle buses took over routes through Boston’s downtown as the Green Line was shut down between North Station and Kenmore, and from Kenmore to Heath Street.
During that time, workers replaced 880 feet of track and repaired another 7,700 feet of track, according to Chief Safety Officer Tim Lesniak.
T employees also completed work at several stations including painting, repairing floors, stairs and benches, replacing tactics, making bathroom accessibility improvements, and conducted structural inspections across all stations and several tunnels. There were no safety incidents during the repair period, the safety chief said.
As the MBTA implements these full-service shutdowns for repairs more frequently, Lesniak said the T has “definitely been able to work better in planning ahead of time,” and is learning from each shutdown.
