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New from CommonWealth Beacon CARE CHASMS: When hospitals close, communities reel. Even in well-covered Massachusetts, some regions of the state still struggle to access its nation-leading health care. And after decades of hospital consolidation, the system is staring down federal changes likely to make the hard job of providing care for underserved communities even more challenging.  OPINION: Essential details — including key finance, operational, and workforce questions that haven’t yet been answered — about the proposed CVS-MGB merger are too sketchy to either endorse or reject the plan, write John E. McDonough and Paul Hattis. But one thing is certain — the idea needs close scrutiny.

Blocking and tackling with Massport CEO Rich Davey September 8, 2025 By CommonWealth Beacon Staff

For a job about planes, Massport CEO Rich Davey still spends a lot of time with his eyes on the road. Not as a driver – the Back Bay resident still famously doesn’t have a car – but because the people flowing in and out of Logan Airport are getting stuck in the same traffic jams and navigating the same MBTA system as the rest of the region.

On The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Davey about his first year at the helm of Massport, after two years as president of the New York City Transit Authority, part of the sprawling Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

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His move to the MTA in 2022 was a return to active transit management, though for once not in his home state of Massachusetts. That was more of a day-to-day “blocking and tackling” role as the system moved about five million people around its buses and subways every weekday. Now he can operate on a longer timeline, wrestling with traffic to and from the airport, what greener air travel could look like, plus pressures on tourism and travel prompted by the second Trump administration.

Davey is the only person to serve as MBTA general manager, Massachusetts transportation secretary, and the CEO of Massport. Before leading MassDOT, Davey ran the state's commuter rail system as general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad. After leaving the MBTA leadership post in October 2014, Davey went into consulting, still with an expertise in transit, and was tapped to head up the unsuccessful bid for the Boston 2024 Olympics.

It seems like quite a shift to go from overseeing the busiest transit system in the country to figuring out how to keep grumpy Bostonians sane at the baggage claim, but Davey says the role is a combination of easing customer pain points and broader-scale system improvements.

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Between the Silver Line bus system, navigating the rise of ride-share services like Uber and Lyft, and thinking about water transit through the Massport-controlled Port of Boston, Davey can never be too far removed from the flow of buses, trains, cars, and boats around the region.

Driving to the airport can be a traffic nightmare, so Logan is working on TSA screenings “remote terminals” at offsite parking areas in places Braintree, Framingham, and Back Bay. After being screened and parking, customers could shuttle directly to the gates rather than wind through security at Logan. Interestingly, the closer a person lives to Logan Airport, he said, the more likely they are to take Uber or Lyft to the airport than public transit.

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“Part of what we need to do is offer services that allow folks to get their time back, but without causing the mass traffic,” Davey said. “I’m actually really worried about Waymo and autonomous vehicles in the future.” The technology is already here, he said, and people are taking self-driving cars to airports in San Francisco and Phoenix. “I do worry that could create massive traffic around Logan airport as well, so part of what we’re doing is working with the T to see if there are other opportunities.”

On the episode, Smith and Davey discuss how to improve the daily experience of getting to and from Logan Airport (6:00), the climate impacts of air travel (19:45), his past in immigration enforcement (24:00), and whether the city’s system could have handled the strain if the Olympics landed in the Bay State (29:20).

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More Context Salary divide (July 2011)  Political Notebook: Current and former transit chiefs on comeback trail (May 2024)  20-20 hindsight on Boston 2024 (July 2024)

More from CommonWealth Beacon A CRAP DEAL: Despite major progress, more than 40 combined sewer overflow sites along the Charles, Mystic, Alewife Brook, and Boston Harbor persist – discharging wastewater into rivers – partly because addressing them comes with more complicated engineering challenges and therefore higher costs. Bhaamati Borkhetaria digs into the problem, which is likely to worsen in the coming decades without action.  SHOT IN THE ARM: Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday announced state measures designed to break ties with federal immunization policies, ensure the availability of COVID-19 booster shots at retail pharmacies, mandate insurance coverage of vaccines and establish a regional public health collaborative. Alison Kuznitz of the State House News Service has more.

Job Board Deputy Director — Free Software Foundation Director of Development — Boston Debate League Executive Director — Metro Housing|Boston (Metro Housing) Director of Green Infrastructure — City of Boston Solar Construction Manager — Resonant Energy Sr. Business Development Manager — Resonant Energy Senior Economic Development Planner — Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) ADVERTISE YOUR JOB LISTING

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What We're Reading COURTS: Former Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson has been sentenced to one month in prison over corruption charges. She pleaded guilty in May to charges of wire fraud and theft of federal funds after orchestrating a kickback scheme. (WBUR)  PUBLIC HEALTH: Senator Ed Markey, flanked by former US Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, denounced Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for anti-vaccine policies that critics say could upend decades of public health policies. (Dorchester Reporter)  VOTING: Advocates attempting to restore voting rights for incarcerated people in Massachusetts kicked off a statewide petition drive Friday by collecting signatures inside Suffolk County jails. They are hoping to reverse a 2000 ballot referendum that stripped voting rights from people serving time for felonies. (GBH News)  MEDIA: The Boston Globe’s HR department investigated “Spotlight” editor Brendan McCarthy this spring for multiple claims of verbal harassment, brought by at least two Globe journalists. The investigation concluded McCarthy had not broken the rules and would not be disciplined in any way. (Semafor)  ELECTIONS: Officials in Massachusetts are already preparing for the 2030 census. Secretary of State Bill Galvin says ensuring an accurate count in the Berkshires – regardless of a resident's citizenship status – is critical to protecting the state’s influence in Congress. (The Berkshire Eagle – paywall)

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