WHEN “SNOWMAGEDDON,” an unprecedented succession of blizzards, shut the MBTA down in 2015, Beacon Hill created a five-person Fiscal and Management Control Board to right the organization. Control was the operative word in the board’s name, and led, at least initially, to long, weekly meetings delving into all aspects of the organization. The board brought badly needed transparency to the MBTA, but was criticized for taking up too much of the staff’s time.
When the control board expired in 2021, it was replaced by a new seven-member board that operated very differently. Meetings were held once a month. The board was reactive, not proactive, taking a hands-off approach to the agency and asking relatively few questions.
Now the MBTA is facing a crisis that some believe is worse than in 2015. Safety is a major concern. Slow zones cover a fifth of the subway system. Hiring is lagging. Ridership is stagnant. To address the situation, Gov. Maura Healey has hired a new general manager, a new transportation safety czar, and replaced three members of the T board, including the chair. The new chair is Thomas Glynn, a former MBTA general manager who has also run or helped run a number of other high-profile organizations.
Glynn is feeling his way, playing the role of Goldilocks looking for the “just-right” recipe for overseeing the MBTA, which he suggests is somewhere in between the approach of the old control board and the most recent board.
“The governor has indicated she wants an activist board. She wants a proactive board. She wants a board that’s focused on safety and focused on accountability,” he said on The Codcast. “We’ve been encouraged to be more engaged and have a sense of urgency.”
But Glynn said the board’s goal is not to micromanage. He says the board will continue to meet once a month, although he said this week’s budget meeting may roll over to a special meeting in June to provide sufficient time for deliberation.
At recent meetings of the board’s subcommittees, there was an early glimpse of the new board’s style. Glynn, for example, asked staff how much Big Dig debt the MBTA was carrying. He said a number of people have asked him that question so he decided to get some answers.
He learned the T originally absorbed $3.6 billion in Big Dig debt as part of an effort to spread the burden of the over-budget highway project across several agencies. That number has been whittled back to $1 billion, but it is still costing the T roughly $200 million a year in debt service payments. Glynn says some transit advocates believe the state should take over that debt, freeing up money at the MBTA for other pressing needs.
Glynn calls the Big Dig debt a “significant contributor to the T’s financial situation,” but he quickly adds that the board hasn’t even discussed the issue. He also expresses uncertainty about whether it’s the T board’s job to advocate on Beacon Hill, saying that’s the domain of Healey, Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca, and MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng.
Like everyone else, Glynn said he is waiting for Eng to develop a financial plan for the MBTA and to explain what caused the current slow zone crisis and when it will be fixed. Glynn said Eng may deliver his plans at the end of his first 100 days on the job, which would come around July 10. “He’s working on it,” Glynn said.
Glynn is agnostic about adding two new members to the T board, including a representative for the city of Boston, as the House has proposed in its budget proposal for fiscal 2024. He noted, however, that some have raised concerns about adding board members who represent a specific constituency.
“There’s a notion when you’re on the board you’re representing the interest of the whole T. So If the T becomes a constituency-driven organization, does that change the way it’s supposed to function?” Glynn asked. “A lot depends on who is sitting in the seats.”
Others have raised concerns that a board totally controlled by the governor would be wary of asking tough questions of T leaders. Glynn brushes aside those concerns, saying everyone in the administration is on the same page when it comes to the T.
“At the moment, there are no indications that there is anything other than total agreement between the board that just got appointed, the general manager, the secretary [of transportation], the lieutenant governor, and the governor,” he said. “I wouldn’t foresee any real major disagreements.”