Would Phil Eng’s MBTA be different?
The biggest snowstorm in years is also the biggest test for MBTA general manager Phil Eng.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Eng has been the best general manager in more than a generation, a guy who has developed a cult following among commuters and who seems to get a standing ovation wherever he goes. He is perhaps Governor Maura Healey’s most important hire. He even wears a second hat these days as the state’s interim transportation secretary. Getting the T back on track has been one of Healey’s biggest achievements in her first term, one she hopes to trumpet during her re-election campaign.
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Still, I knew to keep my expectations low — perhaps not low enough. What should have been an hour-long morning commute into Boston’s Copley Square took twice that long.
Shockingly, the problem was not the Mattapan Trolley, which connects Milton to the subway system. Impressively, the trolley was running, unlike on Monday when buses had to replace it. I’m told the T had special snow plows running all night to clear the tracks.
On Tuesday, the Mattapan Trolley was up and running, while the Red Line faced significant delays in the morning.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
It was the Red Line that was the bane of my commute. It took an hour just to get from Ashmont Station to Park Street because of disabled trains. My commute, with riders packed in like sardines, was a series of fits and starts, as we waited for trains ahead of us to move along.
As we sat at Ashmont Station for what seemed like an eternity, one commuter said the quiet part out loud: “Why did I come here? I should have stayed home.”
On Tuesday, Red Line commuters endured long delays during the morning commute because of disabled trains due to the snow storm. Shirley Leung/Globe Staff
Caitlin Allen-Connelly, executive director of advocacy group TransitMatters, said the T should have switched to a reduced schedule like the commuter rail to avoid frustrating commuters.
“There are a lot of delays — unexpected and unannounced,” said Allen-Connelly. “This is because they committed to running regular service.”
The MBTA has come a long way under Eng, especially the Red Line, where he’s eliminated slow zones and convinced so many of us to get back on the T. An engineer by training, Eng focused on improving operations, and it shows. For a while, I had ditched the Red Line for the Fairmount commuter rail, but once Eng eliminated the slow zones I eagerly returned.
And now?
I’m loath to judge the T solely on its worst day amid 23 inches of snow and frigid temperatures. But a transit system’s real test is whether it works when people need it the most and when driving isn’t an option. With this being the biggest snowstorm since Eng took over the T in 2023, did he pass or fail?
I’m not ready to declare that Eng’s T can’t handle New England weather, but Tuesday was not a good day for transit riders, the first day many of us tried to trek into the office. Along with Red Line delays, there were at least two dozen cancellations on the commuter rail. While my evening commute was uneventful (I got home in an hour!), commuter rail riders at North Station were greeted with a sea of “DELAYED” on the departure board.
The evening commute on Tuesday was a tough one for commuter rail riders who were greeted with a sea of delays and cancellations at North Station.Rebecca Robison
And it’s only January. There’s a lot of winter left including potentially another Nor’easter this weekend.
MBTA Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan told me the Red Line struggled in the morning because it was difficult to keep the rails and switches clear of snow. That posed a problem for the old Red Line cars.
Coholan explained that at one point a new Red Line train had to “rescue” an older train by pushing it to the next stop. By noon, the T had resolved its excess snow issues, but Coholan said the cleanup continues to stay ahead of the next Nor’easter.
Coholan said the system can easily handle six to eight inches of snow, but these bigger storms take more time to dig out of and that could affect travel times this week.
“I would highly recommend giving yourself a few extra minutes,” he said.
When the T failed us all in 2015, Charlie Baker had just become governor and he spent much of his first term trying to fix the system. He didn’t campaign on building a better transit system, but he owned the problem, for better or for worse.
By contrast, Healey came into office vowing to fix the T, and Eng’s success is a key talking point of her re-election strategy. The T’s struggles test whether “In Phil We Trust” can survive a real winter.
Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at [email protected].
