THE CHAIR of the MBTA board, backed by her fellow directors, set three broad priorities for the agency on Thursday – safety was No. 1, followed by an infrastructure spending target of $2 billion a year, and a call to deal with looming operating budget deficits.
Betsy Taylor said safety must be the agency’s top priority, and acknowledged the agency is coming up short right now.
“While thousands of people ride the T safely each day, too many tragic accidents have occurred of late,” she said.
She said the board welcomes the input of the Federal Transit Agency, which currently has teams reviewing safety measures at the T and is expected to release its findings sometime this summer.
Taylor said the T needs to continue to invest in its infrastructure at a pace of $2 billion a year. “Without such continued investment and funding resources, the MBTA cannot deliver a safe and reliable service that this region and our customers deserve,” she said.
Taylor also said the board will work with stakeholders and the Legislature to deal with looming shortfalls in the operating budget.
Each board member said they agreed with Taylor’s priority list. Board member Travis McCready said he wanted to double down on the priorities. “We must be obsessive about safety,” he said. “We need to ring the fire bell about the long-term structural integrity of the T’s budget.”
McCready said that without adequate funding the T cannot achieve its goals for transit equity and means-tested fares, which are sometimes called low-income fares.
Board member Mary Ann Mello praised MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak for taking all new Orange and Red Line cars out of service after an improperly installed bolt on a breaking mechanism disabled a train. Poftak told the T board on Thursday that an inspection of 1,584 bolts on the vehicles turned up 17 that were “out of the specified torque range.”
Poftak said the Chinese manufacturer of the vehicle will change its assembly procedures to guard against such problems in the future when the vehicles are assembled in Springfield. Poftak also said safety has to be the agency’s top priority.
“It’s more important that we get this right than avoid a couple of days of critical coverage,” Poftak said. “It’s surely more important to get this right.”
