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Incoming MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng takes questions from reporters at a press conference announcing his appointment at the MBTA’s Riverside Green Line station on March 27, 2023. Photo by Chris Lisinski | State House News Service
The MBTA’s reputation and credibility with the public probably can’t get any worse. That said, you never know with the T and what fresh boneheaded decision or disaster tomorrow might bring.
The troubled transit agency is now a “national pariah,” a prominent local transportation advocate recently proclaimed on the pages of CommonWealth Magazine.
And it probably wouldn’t be a stretch to say the T has gone global in that regard, either. After all the talk about Gov. Maura Healey bringing in some bigshot from London or elsewhere, she wound up poaching former Long Island Rail Road chief Phillip Eng, a solid candidate certainly, but definitely no international transportation superstar.
Given the near-daily breakdowns and the now-routine safety mishaps that leave passengers shaken to the bone, and in some cases maimed or dead, communication with the public, and by extension the press as well, would hardly seem to be a priority.
After all, when riders are literally fleeing flaming trains, aren’t there more important things for the T to do than up its public relations game?
But what I am talking about here is not spin or PR, which the T attempts to do enough of already with decidedly mixed and at times comical results.
No rather, if the MBTA is ever to win a modicum of respect and understanding from the public and the press, it needs to shift its approach to communications from trying to gloss over or outright hide bad news, to speaking honestly about the challenges facing the beleaguered agency and what the road out of this mess might look like.
It’s No Time for Spin
So, what can Eng do? For starters, he may want to revamp how the MBTA deals with – and works with – the media.
Right now, if I were to give the T a grade on its media relations efforts, it would be a D, and that’s generous.
It’s not the fault of the individuals working in the press office, but rather the impossible situation they have been put in.
Let’s face it, the T is pretty much in crisis mode right now. And when you are in crisis mode you are going to need more than a couple harried spokespeople to handle the inevitable flood of calls that come in every time there is a new mess, which, at this point, is almost a daily occurrence.
Yes, the T has no money, but it also can’t afford to not communicate effectively. Bringing in an outside public relations firm on a contract basis, or hiring another staffer for the press office at a king’s ransom of $60,000 a year, is not going to break the bank.
Unlike Bill Belichick, the T doesn’t have the luxury of having a bad relationship with the media.
When you are a major public transit system that is no longer functional in any normal sense, trying to fight, spin, ignore or obfuscate bad news is as about as effective as trying to use willpower to stop water from flooding up Boston’s Long Wharf during high tide.
Make Staff More Available
Instead, the T should focus its public relations efforts on building a new relationship with both the media and its customers, the hundreds of thousands of passengers who ride its rails every day.
When they come into contact with the media, T officials and contractors working for the transit authority all but blanch, as if they have seen the grim reaper of careers cut short and cushy pension dreams dashed.
Scott Van Voorhis
Here’s an idea: Why not make various project managers and experts regularly and frequently available to speak to the media and answer questions about various challenges and projects? And beyond some basic coaching on not revealing state secrets, let them speak honestly, and without fear of reprimand. That might help build understanding, instead of simply fostering more distrust.
But on an even more basic level, it’s time for the T to stop looking at the press as a nuisance at best, or an enemy at worst.
The media has its own interests and motivations. If functioning properly, it’s never going to be your friend.
But it does provide both a conduit to public opinion, for better or worse, and some degree of independent oversight, which may be painful at times, but will pay dividends in the long run.
T executives might not think they need the media, or even that it has time to even engage with the press given the daily dysfunction at the agency.
But they do, and far more than they realize. Hopefully Eng realizes that.
Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
