Eng sees FTA letter as no big deal

ON MAY 19, the Federal Transit Administration emailed a letter to top officials at the MBTA telling them a plan the agency developed for addressing the safety of workers performing repairs in and around subway tracks was “insufficient” and had to be redone.

The letter was sent to MBTA General Manager Phillips Eng, six of his top aides, and the newly appointed state transportation safety czar Patrick Lavin.

None of those officials chose to share the FTA letter with the MBTA board of directors, which met on May 25, or with the public.

The letter became public on Monday after a report by WBZ-TV.

Eng said in a brief telephone interview late Tuesday afternoon that he didn’t brief the MBTA board because he viewed the FTA’s rejection of the MBTA plan as no big deal.

“It wasn’t something that shocked me because we are always going back and forth with the FTA,” he said. “I just looked at this as just part of an ongoing effort.”

The May 19 letter from Federal Transit Administration Chief Safety Officer Joe DeLorenzo was in response to a May 5 MBTA “action plan” presented to the federal agency after a string of near-misses and injuries of employees and contractors working on MBTA tracks.

The FTA on April 18 had demanded quick action from the T to address the problems. “Given recent events, the results of FTA’s on-site inspections, reports from DPU, and the MBTA’s backlog of maintenance work which necessitates continued track access for work crews, FTA finds that a combination of unsafe conditions and practices exist such that there is a substantial risk of death or personal injury,” DeLorenzo wrote.

DeLorenzo, in his May 19 letter to T officials. concluded the plan submitted by the T did not measure up. He said it was focused too far in the future, with completion dates on some measures in late 2023 and 2024. He said the focus needed to shift to the next 60 days.

“Given the immediate risk to worker safety on the right of way, FTA requires direct and focused actions.” DeLorenzo said, calling for the T to submit a revised plan by Monday

“If MBTA fails to appropriately revise the work plan and comply with other requirements of the April 18 letter, right of way access will be prohibited,” DeLorenzo wrote.

That would be a major setback for a subway system that is struggling to eliminate slow zones covering a fifth of the system.

Eng has promised greater transparency at the MBTA and Gov. Maura Healey, who hired him, has “promised to be transparent with the public about what’s going on, what the needs are, to not hide the ball on anything.”

A spokeswoman for Healey could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Eng said he wasn’t hiding anything – that he viewed the latest FTA letter as just another in a very long series of correspondence with the federal agency over ongoing safety issues.

Eng said he was briefing at least one T board member on Tuesday about the FTA letter and will try to recognize the importance of releasing such information more publicly in the future. (The FTA did post its letter to the MBTA on its website.)

“He should know better. He’s been around a long time and these things matter,” said Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, which represents the cities and towns that are part of the MBTA service area.

Kane also urged the FTA to start copying the MBTA board chair on its emails.