New from CommonWealth Beacon OPINION: The MBTA’s electric bus mandate is a laudable goal, writes former Massachusetts transportation secretary James Aloisi. Yet constraints on the US electric bus marketplace put the MBTA in the position of being forced to purchase the wrong vehicles at the wrong price at the wrong time.

Keeping time with MBTA General Manger Phil Eng July 7, 2025 By CommonWealth Beacon Staff After years of underinvestment and disrepair, the MBTA is well-positioned to build on crucial recent improvements, according to the man tasked with turning the blighted system around.  With the system moving more than 800,000 passengers around its service area every day, facing the ire of frustrated riders and public pressure from elected officials to get the system on track, General Manager Phil Eng said he entered the transit system’s top job when it was hard but essential to “think big, think bold” to shake loose from a “status quo” spiral of worsening service.  “The future is bright,” Eng told reporter Gintautas Dumcius on The Codcast, about two and a half years into the MBTA job and just after lawmakers and the governor approved a sweeping supplemental budget sending $548 million to the MBTA. When he started, Eng said, the system was “slowing down. We were degrading service, and confidence had been lost.”   The culture at the T at the time was reliant on “external experts” rather than internal institutional knowledge, Eng said. There were also issues with decision-making and “accountability” for those decisions, he said.   A civil engineer, Eng came to the MBTA from his post as president of the New York commuter railroad, the Long Island Rail Road. From his vantage point as a newcomer, “we were basically going towards shutting down the system, if you ask me, if we’d continued down this path.”  Leadership had to juggle several priorities at once, like building and retraining the workforce and leadership team, making signal improvements, getting delayed new subway cars on the tracks, tackling the dozens of dreaded speed restrictions that dragged several lines to a crawl, and building a better process to handle new slow zones quickly if they appear.  “The idea is to not let it get back into that state of disrepair that we were facing,” Eng said, “and that’s why, this year, we continue to have diversions to actually bring the condition of that track to where we want it to be.”

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Last year, Eng said, the light and heavy rail system was at about 65 percent in a state of good repair, and by the end of this year he estimates the system will be 75 or 80 percent in a state of good repair. Frequency of service is up, he said, and the number of dropped bus trips is down to just 0.6 percent this spring from 8.8 percent in 2023.  Eng emphasized that MBTA leadership is constantly keeping an eye out for service expansion and improvement opportunities – be that through boosting water transit or long-term changes to the commuter rail system as the T works on a new commuter rail operator contract.   One lesson he brought with him from his postings in New York – including roles at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York State Department of Transportation – Eng said, is even if “mega-projects” are the focus of headlines, “the smaller projects that are out in the suburbs are just as important to those communities. And whether it’s 50 people or whether its millions of people, those transportation projects support quality of life, support housing, support businesses. It’s just a different magnitude.”  During the episode, Eng talked about the overall state of the MBTA system (1:30),  balancing the needs of current riders with future ones (14:30), and the future of the commuter rail (16:00).   LISTEN NOW

More Context Healey brings in a transit professional to run the T (March 2023)  What’s the timeline for return to a normal-functioning MBTA? No one will say. (August 2023)  More MBTA shutdowns expected in 2025 (November 2024)

More from CommonWealth Beacon HOLYOKE LESSONS: As the Holyoke public schools exit state receivership after a decade of state oversight, the failure of the intervention to boost student achievement is prompting fresh scrutiny of the 2010 law allowing state takeover of struggling districts. Michael Jonas has more.  WOOD-BURNING WORRIES: Health advocates in Springfield are speaking out against a wood-burning power plant that recently received court approval, warning that it would worsen the city’s already high asthma rates. Bhaamati Borkhetaria has the details.

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What We're Reading ECONOMY: A growing movement of mental health advocates and political leaders say the US approach to “responsible gambling” is too weak and focused on individual behavior. They’re looking to regions like Norway as a model for more tightly controlled gaming. (New England Public Media/MassLive)  ENVIRONMENT: A new study suggests residents in Boston’s hottest neighborhoods could experience cooler summer temperatures if the city planted more trees and installed white roofs that reflect sunlight. (WBUR)  EDUCATION: In the midst of a fierce dispute between Harvard and the Trump administration over institutional independence, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education quietly laid off its chief diversity officer and shut down its diversity, equity, and inclusion office. (GBH News)  GREEN SPACE: After decades, the “missing link” in the Neponset Greenway – which traces a coastal multi-modal path over 8.2 miles from the Neponset River trails to South Boston – is finished. Officials opened the extension just before the holiday weekend. (The Dorchester Reporter)  IMMIGRATION: Leverett town and school employees are being advised not to provide assistance toward any US Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions or offer help to any other federal official who might come to the town tasked with removing undocumented immigrants. (Daily Hampshire Gazette – paywall)    excerpt:  By SCOTT MERZBACH Staff Writer Published: 07-05-2025 8:01 AM leverett MA facebook LEVERETT — Town and school employees are being advised not to provide assistance toward any Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions or offer help to any other federal official who might come to Leverett tasked with removing undocumented immigrants. The Select Board Tuesday unanimously adopted a policy that mandates there be no complicity or participation with those who may be looking to deport individuals, with the only exception being in the case of judicial warrants that have been signed by a judge. The policy applies not only to police officers, firefighters and public works employees, but others who work for the town at Town Hall, and for the schools and library. Select Board member Jed Proujansky brought forward the policy, which he said strengthens language the board has previously adopted. “What I don’t want is police turning information over to ICE, or people at school letting ICE in,” Proujansky said. Select Board Chairwoman Patricia Duffy said it is wise to include schools in the policy, since some employees in other districts have allowed ICE agents or Homeland Security members access to those buildings. Museum study In other business, the board is considering entering into a contract with Eric Gradoia, an architectural historian from Northfield, who will assess the Leverett Family Museum building at 1 Shutesbury Road. The Field Building Ad Hoc Committee is recommending the town hire Gradoia for $18,900. Committee member Maureen Ippolito said Gradoia would start work Aug. 1 and have his assessment completed in time for a community forum on the building’s future in January. A report would then be provided to the Select Board and a funding article would be drafted to come before annual Town Meeting in 2026.

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