WITH DAILY NEWS of shocking and unacceptable conditions for T riders, there is a danger that people will conclude that failure is inevitable.

However, I have seen the MBTA recover from desperately bad conditions at least twice in my lifetime. History shows that committed political leadership is the most important variable in making that happen. I remain hopeful that we are about to rebuild a successful, customer friendly MBTA capable of fulfilling its critical role in providing accessibility to riders, communities, and businesses; becoming the backbone of a sustainable, economically growing region; and playing a major role in combatting climate change.

Gov. Maura Healey has already taken big, important steps, including:

  • Recruiting a new general manager with a track record of success.;
  • Supporting the general manager’s hiring of a new team.
  • Appointing highly experienced MBTA board members, including as chair a former successful T general manager.
  • Securing significant increases in state funding for MBTA operations and maintenance in this year’s budget just approved by the Legislature.
  • Supporting the hiring of 2,000 new employees to replenish a workforce diminished by decades of false austerity;
  • Supporting negotiation of a contract with the Carmen’s Union that will enable recruitment of bus and train operators, a necessary prerequisite to more frequent and reliable service.

In parallel, the Legislature, the citizenry, and the federal government are also stepping up. The Legislature has supported, and in many cases initiated, reforms, such as the addition of a designee of the mayor of Boston and a suburban mayor to the board. The voters approved the Fair Share amendment, providing a new revenue stream, allowing for $1 billion a year for new transportation and education initiatives. The Biden administration has provided significant increases in federal funding for capital investment through the bipartisan infrastructure initiative.

Let’s look at the history of previous Lazarus-like recoveries at the MBTA. History shows that sustained concerted efforts by political leaders and key constituencies can lead to steady growth in quality performance.

The 1964 MBTA enabling legislation set change in motion. After a campaign led by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor supported, and the Legislature passed, a law that dramatically increased the service area of the transit system and enabled significant state funding of the new MBTA.

The period from 1964 to 1978 was, for the most part, a time of steady and significant improvement in public transportation. Very symbolically, during the blizzard of 1978, the MBTA continued to deliver service at a time when transportation using autos was impossible.

The new statute expanded the prior 14-municipality MTA to a regional district of 78 cities and towns called the MBTA. The motivation was to rescue the region from growing traffic gridlock that threatened to choke the economy. The legislation provided a huge incentive to the new agency to invest in expanded transit by providing that the state would pay for 90 percent of the debt service on MBTA bonds to support system investment.

This regional approach, among the first in the US, quickly resulted in the expansion of the Red Line to Quincy and the expansion of the Orange Line to Malden, while replacing elevated structures at North Station and in Charlestown.

With these path-breaking investments, the MBTA construction department became an industry leader in introducing innovative construction techniques like slurry wall tunnel construction. Plans for further expansion were reflected in regional master planning.

Several decisions were made between 1970 and 1978 to reinforce the focus of transportation in Greater Boston on expansion of the public transportation system, by cancelling proposed destructive urban interstate highways and instead shifting major amounts of federal funding into investing in further transit expansion.

Bipartisan efforts by Govs. Frank Sargent and Michael Dukakis, along with support from Boston Mayor Kevin White, the Legislature, and congressional delegation led to the Red Line extension south to Braintree and north beyond Harvard Square to Somerville and Alewife. It also brought about the removal of the elevated rail line in Roxbury and relocation of the Orange Line in the Southwest to better serve Back Bay, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain.

Very significantly, the state took responsibility for new investment and expanded service on the commuter rail system, including restoration of service on the abandoned Old Colony Line.

Underlying the fiscal foundation of this transportation-led economic growth program was the continuation of the 1964 provision for 90 percent state funding of the MBTA’s debt service. That financial commitment was reinforced by state assumption of major responsibility for funding operating costs of the MBTA, relieving the municipal tax revolt against the property tax that had begun to threaten the financial basis of the MBTA.

At the federal level, the Massachusetts congressional delegation in 1973 succeeded in changing federal law to permit the state to receive billions of dollars in additional federal transit funding equal to the interstate highway funding that would have supported construction of the cancelled urban interstate highways.

That same year, Congress for the first time provided federal funding to support transit operations and capital investment, absorbing some of the pressure of transit operating costs on the overburdened property tax.

The path of progress from 1964 to 1978 did meet some resistance, particularly from municipal dependence on property taxes.  An anti-transit governor was elected in 1978, and the passage of Proposition 2 1/2 in 1980 led to a fiscal crisis. In 1980, failure to reach agreement on state budget support for the MBTA led to the system actually closing for a day! The secretary of transportation was caught taking a bribe! Customer satisfaction with MBTA service was a dismal  50 percent.

The key turning point initiating the second resurrection of public transportation was the installation of a strong leader, Jim O’Leary, as general manager; legislative support for strong management; and the election of a governor committed to public transportation.

Recognizing O’Leary’s leadership, Dukakis asked him to stay on when he returned to the corner office in 1983. The governor and the Legislature were again strong supporters of public transit, providing adequate operating and maintenance budgets. Silver Line service into the Seaport district and restoration of Old Colony rail service to the South Shore was funded.

Customer satisfaction rose to 82 percent in 1988, when O’Leary completed his service, and satisfaction continued to rise to 92 percent while current MBTA board chair Tom Glynn served as general manager until 1991.

Unfortunately, gubernatorial and legislative support eroded after that, with a statute change in 2000 that removed the state funding of 90 percent of debt service, and weakened state support for operating and maintenance budgets.

Further service expansion ended, the excellent construction management capacity was dismantled, and preventative maintenance of assets was undermined. Gubernatorial efforts in 2006 to reverse the damage caused by the change in philosophy and statute were only partially successful, and a philosophy of austerity has continued to undermine staffing levels, hinder preventative maintenance, and cramp investment in service expansion.

Today, the very poor performance of the MBTA post-COVID, economic slippage in the downtown, and the return of some of the worst traffic congestion in the United Satates requires a significant reinvigoration of public transportation.

While I am optimistic that the MBTA can be transformed into the healthy engine of sustainable economic growth it once was, this outcome is by no means certain, and a strong coalition of citizens; environmental, business, and academic institutions; and the governor and the Legislature will be required to stay the course over the long term.

It took over a decade of sustained good management supported by a pro-transit governor and Legislature to move customer satisfaction of T riders from 50 percent to 92 percent. It will require a sustained and patient supportive coalition to bring about the transformative public transportation that we need.

But I believe that a community that has witnessed so many firsts – the first public transportation in the colonial US in the form of ferry service over 400 years ago, the first unified electric streetcar service in the US in the 19th century, the first subway system, and the first metropolitan area willing to reject over-reliance on the auto and embrace public transportation – has the political will to succeed.

Fred Salvucci is a senior lecturer at MIT who served 12 years as the state’s secretary of transportation.