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MBTA general manager Phil Eng is mostly focused on the present, for good reason.
The T needs lots of investment — $24.5 billion, in the agency’s estimation — simply to get to a state of good repair.
That’s why the agency has been closing sections of the system — last week was the D Branch of the Green Line’s turn — to perform overdue maintenance.
And after the spate of accidents over the last few years, including fires, derailments, near-misses, and fatalities, I’m guessing few riders would argue against putting basic fixes first.
But in a meeting with the Globe editorial board last week, Eng made it clear he’s also thinking beyond the immediate challenges.
“Now our focus is a state of good repair, because it’s been long neglected,” he said. Once the agency makes more progress, he said, “we will have the breathing room… to deliver larger-scale projects.”
The choices for the state and the T are often framed as either-or — the state can either invest in big new projects or it can fix what it already has.
And there is at least some truth to that dichotomy: There’s only so much money in the budget or time on the calendar of top officials. In a report last year the Federal Transit Administration faulted “leadership priorities that emphasize meeting capital project demands above passenger operations, preventive maintenance, and even safety.”
But Eng pointed out that there are ways to do both simultaneously — make the fixes needed to run trains more safely, while also laying the groundwork for service improvements, even if those come later.
“If there are areas of single tracking on commuter rail it might be wise for us to take a look at building a bridge capable of double track. So when we’re ready to come back, we’re not reinvesting again in a facility, right?” Even if there is no immediate opportunity, building that bridge now “gives you the ability to be more open-minded” later. What would that longer-term plan actually involve? Eng sounded open to electrifying the commuter rail, noting it was “the longer vision, or the maybe not-even-longer vision” for improving the service, which he said would help capture reverse commuters.
But Eng also clearly feels like he has work to do to prove the T can handle those sorts of investments.
”There’s so many folks competing for a constrained pot of money,” he said. “And I certainly understand that no one’s going to fund us if we are not spending it wisely and properly, and that’s important because I need to rebuild trust, not only with the riders, I need to rebuild trust with” state leaders who are “going to help support us to be successful.”
Alan Wirzbicki is Globe deputy editor for editorials. He can be reached at alan.wirzbicki@globe.com.