The MBTA has until Monday to submit an updated plan for improving employee safety and preventing trains from striking workers after federal overseers, who still aren’t satisfied with the T’s staffing levels, deemed their initial proposal “insufficient.”
MBTA officials say they’re making progress in addressing safety and staffing issues that have seen subway frequencies slashed, disrupting trips across the Boston area.
Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday while hinting he will pursue additional funding for the T as it rolls toward a budget cliff caused by the end of federal pandemic aid and emergency safety mandates brought on by years of disinvestment.
MBTA shuttle buses are replacing Orange and Green Line service in portions of downtown Boston and Cambridge after the transit agency said the Bulfinch Crossing development has caused structural weakness to the underground tunnels.
Massachusetts lawmakers are pointing the finger at the governor’s office for the latest MBTA problems and promising an oversight hearing, a day after the agency slashed subway frequencies in the wake of federal safety directives.
The Federal Transit Administration is ordering the MBTA to make immediate changes due to ongoing safety concerns.
Federal transit overseers will wrap up their on-site inspections of the MBTA this week, and they have already flagged a quartet of major safety issue areas they want the agency to address quickly, the T’s top safety official said Monday.
The MBTA’s plans to redraw its bus network should excite even the most cynical observer – and they hold promise for the real estate industry, as well.
MBTA officials expect a federal safety probe of the transit system to continue for at least “the next few weeks” and have their eyes on “late summer” for the Federal Transit Administration to announce its findings.
Four days after the T announced it would again extend the shutdown of Blue Line subway service between Maverick and Bowdoin because a “construction tool cart derailed,” MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak told reporters there have in fact been three such incidents during the maintenance effort.
Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday that he welcomes a nearly unprecedented safety investigation the Federal Transit Administration will launch into the MBTA, an agency under the governor’s watch.
Warning that a long-term federal intervention at the MBTA could lead to fare hikes and service cuts, a transit advocacy group on Wednesday slammed the T’s board of directors for “lax oversight” and called on Beacon Hill to reimagine how Massachusetts funds the agency.
Federal transit officials will meet with T leaders this week to kick off a safety investigation into the agency, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said Tuesday, amid heightened scrutiny following a series of high-profile and sometimes fatal incidents.
