IT’S BEEN ABOUT six months since the Healey-Driscoll Administration took office, an opportune moment to assess its performance in connection with the revitalization of the beleaguered MBTA.  Let’s look at decisions regarding personnel, resources and actual outputs to get a clear picture of whether, and what kind of, progress is being made.

From a personnel perspective, the administration’s appointments to the MBTA board of directors have been well received and, in my judgment, were perhaps the best signal that the governor intends to have strong experienced leadership guiding policies at the MBTA.

Tom Glynn, the chair of the board, and fellow board member Tom McGee are in the top rank of seasoned professionals who bring literally a lifetime of experience working on transportation and transit-specific issues. These appointments are highly reassuring.  Having a new board member from Worcester, Eric Goodwine, is also good news, and I expect him to offer an important perspective as the MBTA explores its responsibilities to serve not only the dense inner core communities of Greater Boston but the regional mobility and access needs of metropolitan Boston.

The governor, and the Legislature, continue to resist expanding the board to provide for more direct municipal participation.  Boston Mayor Michelle Wu may be the state’s most prominent and passionate supporter of (and believer in) public transportation.  Depriving her of a voice on the board is a missed opportunity.

Bringing on a new general manager would not have been a priority of mine, as I have repeatedly observed that the deputy GM, Jeff Gonneville, is a proven professional who is willing to take on tough assignments and see them through.  When he was acting GM earlier this year, he took the unpopular but necessary decision to introduce a major slowdown of the heavy rail subway system because he realized that inadequate reporting and due diligence called into question the safety of the rails. That is leadership.  However, I can understand the governor’s desire to bring on a new person as GM who can be a more dispassionate manager, having no prior relationship with the MBTA.

Phil Eng has, in his brief tenure, proven to be open, transparent, and steady under pressure.  There is no way, given that Eng started on the job only about two months ago, to offer any meaningful assessment of his performance, but all the signals to date have been good ones. Most transit advocates remain in a hopeful posture.  Eng’s decision to work with T unions and eliminate the part-time work rule that was a significant barrier to hiring new bus drivers was the right move to make and will, I predict, make a measurable positive difference as the T seeks to staff up and restore more bus service.

A big test for the board and Eng will come with the approval of a final Capital Investment Plan (CIP). The CIP is the blueprint for MBTA investments over the next five years.  The draft CIP put out for public comment earlier this year was a disappointing rehash of Baker administration austerity thinking, including lots of happy talk about regional rail that, upon closer inspection, was not backed up with meaningful investments. This continued failure to address the Fiscal and Management Control Board’s phase 1 regional rail commitment, as well as continued unwillingness to put forward a real, actionable plan to advance the Red-Blue Connector, were significant omissions.  T riders will be able to judge whether real progress in moving forward on these mission-critical initiatives is going to happen under this administration’s stewardship when the final CIP is approved.

As a frequent T rider, I have seen slow zones on the Red Line reduced, a sign of measured progress taking place. There are many issues that remain, particularly a disappointing rollout of Green Line extension service (which by all accounts remains painfully slow, unpredictable, and unreliable). Restoration of full service on the Blue Line, including six-minute headways, in anticipation of the imminent closure of the Sumner Tunnel, will be important progress if it is delivered as everyone hopes.

Overall, progress improving the subway service has been slow but steady.  Unlike what happened a year ago, when the T over promised and underdelivered with regard to its 30-day Orange Line closure, its messaging over the past six months has been more transparent and realistic, an important way to begin restoring rider confidence.

When it comes to resources, particularly financial resources, it is too early to assess whether the new administration will successfully collaborate with the legislature to address the anticipated MBTA operating budget shortfall sometime next year.  This issue is not unique to the T – it is a nationwide issue – but it remains a significant looming problem for the T.  The problem is structural, not a one-off, and needs to be resolved as a long-term structural fix.

The MBTA depended on fare revenues for a third of its operating budget before the pandemic.  This level of fare revenue support is not tenable in a time of post-pandemic ridership recovery, when ridership has plateaued at roughly 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Federal Covid recovery money, which has kept every US transit agency from facing operating budget shortfalls, is now running out. The Legislature and governor should not wait until there is a shortfall and crisis to act.

What needs to be done?  The Legislature and governor need to settle on a permanent, stable new funding source for a portion of the T operating budget going forward.  This is not something that can be addressed as a “one-time-only” infusion of funds.  Rather, a true lasting solution requires a reconsideration of how Massachusetts funds public transit as a public good, and whether existing revenue sources need to be expanded or supplemented by new ones.

As a stopgap measure, the Legislature this year should take two actions: first, shift the cost of paratransit from the MBTA (and all state regional transit authorites) to the Commonwealth; second, shift at least 50 percent of the cost of debt service (not just Big Dig-related) to the Commonwealth. These actions will free up significant operating budget flexibility, averting a crisis, while discussions about a longer-term structural fix proceed.

There is much work to do, and many potential pitfalls lie ahead.  The closure of the Sumner Tunnel will be yet another test of how well prepared and coordinated the state’s transportation agencies are in dealing with potentially massive mobility disruptions. Early signals are mixed.

Decisions regarding shifting a large portion of the cost burden of mitigation on to the MBTA, which is facing a significant budget crisis, make no sense and are deliberate unforced errors. This is a tunnel and highway project, not a transit project.  Transit riders should not bear the cost burden of mitigation efforts. A plan to run more frequent commuter rail services from the north is nowhere to be seen. A free harbor ferry and free Blue Line respond to some (not all) local community needs, but they do virtually nothing for drivers coming from the north. We can ask people to “ditch the drive” only if we provide them with viable mobility alternatives.

This is the dilemma: it’s still early enough in the Healey-Driscoll administration to withhold any final judgments on its performance turning the MBTA around and restoring it as a high quality transit system, but the best opportunities to introduce transformative change come early in any governor’s tenure, not later. The next six to 12 months will be the critical period when real progress and redirection on multiple fronts will need to occur.  That is a short window of time, and will require a large measure of effort, creativity, and collaboration. Thus far the signals are generally positive, but mixed.  Those of us who are passionate users of and advocates for transit stand ready to be helpful because this is a complex and multi-faceted problem. We want the T to succeed, and all hands need to be on deck.

James Aloisi is a former state secretary of transportation and a member of the TransitMatters board.