The MBTA has finally released the results of an external investigation into its employees’ failure to properly inspect subway tracks. But full accountability for the fiasco is still lacking.
The investigation by Carlson Transport Consulting shows that workers in the agency department charged with maintaining its subway system’s tracks failed in their basic duty. Records showing which sections of track were repaired and inspected, and which weren’t were “missing and/or insufficient,” the consultant’s report said.
Discovering this in March, Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville – in his capacity as then-acting general manager – made what we characterized in this space at the time as a “frankly heroic” call to slow the entire system to a crawl to prevent a catastrophic accident. But as T workers feverishly reinspected every inch of subway line, as the Carlson report delicately summarized it, “an additional issue was identified related to the quality of visual inspections being performed by MBTA System Repairpersons under the supervision of Section Forepersons.”
In plain English: The people who inspected the tracks didn’t know what they were doing.
The Carlson report goes on to explain that too few people in the Maintenance of Way department had the depth of experience or training needed, and crucially managers had neither instituted standard operating procedures, nor kept rigorous records of staff-run or third-party run track inspections, nor arranged for clear roles and responsibilities within the department.
These findings aren’t exactly new. Multiple past investigations, including the scathing federal safety investigation last year, pointed out parts of these problems, but the Baker administration’s conscious choice to starve the T of the staff and resources needed to sort out these problems, and the state legislature’s willingness to turn a blind eye to repeated warnings, meant the T was allowed to drive over a cliff.
MBTA General Manager Phil Eng gave a good performance when detailing the Carlson report’s findings to the press last week. His candor, and the actions he and the Healey administration have already taken, show that progress is already underway to repair Greater Boston’s vital backbone.
But it’s troubling that Eng couldn’t explain who was being held accountable for this disaster, and how. That’s not to say skulls need to be placed on pikes over the door to the State Transportation Building – although Gov. Maura Healey may have encouraged at least one necessary beheading. Former T general manager Steve Poftak clearly got the memo that he needed to leave before she got into office, and resigned under a cloud in November.
The public needs to know managers in the Maintenance of Way department have been reprimanded for the parts of this disaster they were able to control. And Healey, Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano need to show they understand that the T needs enough money and staff over the long haul to help those same managers get a handle on the parts of this problem they weren’t able to control the first time around.
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