MBTA General Manager Phil Eng spoke at a press conference in East Taunton on Monday, March 24, 2025, celebrating the first day of service on the long-awaited South Coast Rail. Photo by Chris Lisinski | State House News Service
The MBTA has not had any federal grants rejected or revoked amid a major belt-tightening campaign by the Trump administration, according to the T’s top boss, who also warned that tariffs could impact costs for materials purchased by transit agencies around the country.
“We’re monitoring the federal dollars. I’m pleased to say right now, with the grants and all of our expected dollars, they’ve continued to come in. We’ve not had them rejected or taken back,” MBTA General Manager Phil Eng told agency overseers Thursday. “In some cases, there have been extra levels of review done in Washington, but even in those cases, we’ve seen those dollars come.”
His description is a contrast from many other agencies and organizations that rely on federal funding, which are feeling the pinch of spending cuts and terminated grant programs under President Donald Trump.
Eng said his team at the T will “continue to be aggressive” and apply for available federal funding.
“Should any programs change, that’s where we’ll have to make tough decisions if that were the case,” he said. “But right now, I’m not seeing those impacts, other than maybe some of the dollars are taking a little longer just because of the reviews.”
Asked about prospective impacts from tariffs that Trump has imposed on several of the nation’s major trading partners, Eng said he recently met with leaders of other transit agencies to discuss the topic “because every one of us is facing the same thing.”
“Everyone is monitoring what those tariffs mean because all of the components, even the ones being built here in the U.S., procure materials from across the globe,” he said.
He warned that the public transit industry is “challenged” because only a handful of manufacturers are available to produce rolling stock for trains and buses.
“How do we partner with our manufacturers to make sure that price fluctuations can be something built in? Because the last thing we want — we only have two bus manufacturers. We can’t lose any of them,” Eng said. “What we want to do is make sure that price adjustments can be something [implemented] in the future. We’re looking at minimizing customization of different components because I think that makes it easier for manufacturers.”
The MBTA is under contract with Chinese manufacturer CRRC to produce all-new train fleets for the Orange and Red Lines.
Eng said earlier this month that he does not expect tariffs on China to impact what the MBTA will pay to CRRC. The latest contract update pushed the value of the deal to more than $1 billion.
The T’s contract with CRRC has been beset by upheaval and multiple delays, but Eng said Thursday that “everything is progressing as planned” at this point.
“By the end of this year, we will have all the Orange Line cars that are part of this contract delivered, and right now, we fully anticipate that we will have all the Red Line cars in 2027,” he said.
