Philip Eng was named General Manager and CEO of the beleaguered Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority on March 27, 2023. When Gov. Healey used the word “desperate” in her introduction of Eng to describe a commuting public looking to turnaround the bedraggled system, few would accuse her of hyperbole. Eng had a tough job ahead of him.
It’s been sixty years this summer since the MBTA was created as the first combined regional transit system in the United States, serving 78 municipalities in the Greater Boston area. Even then, many of the trains had already been operating for decades.
A system cannot improve without growing pains, and riders certainly felt their share of those in the summer and fall of 2023 with the shutdown of subway sections for long overdue repairs. Astute observers would have known that under Philip Eng’s leadership, a little pain now would be insurance for a more stable future. When he retired in February 2022 as president of the Long Island Railroad, it was enjoying its best performance in its 169 year history.
“When I took over the [the Long Island Rail Road], it had the worst on-time performance in decades. Little by little, we invested in the things that caused those problems” and turned around performance, Eng noted in his first Boston press conference in March 2023. During a press conference. “Sometimes you have to spend a little money to save a little money.”
Who would want to take the helm of this system? Would it be the equivalent of riding a train to nowhere? Philip Eng is a leader and a commuter. He spearheaded the “LIRR Forward Initiative” in 2018 that called for the replacement of 10 track switches in six months that were responsible for 40 percent of all switch problems. His early efforts for the New York City Subway Action plan helped that beleaguered system start on the road toward updating train signals to help decrease delays, adding more escalators and elevators to stations, rehabilitating Penn Station and extending the Second Avenue subway line into Harlem. What similar plans are in store for Boston?
SAMPAN spoke recently with Eng about public service, community safety, and the overall vision he has for keeping the MBTA on time, stable, clean, and safe for all.
SAMPAN: What did you expect you’d find and what did you end up finding in your first few weeks here?
Phillip Eng: I was born and raised in New York and spent 40 years in transportation in the New York market. When this opportunity came up I did my due diligence research. I saw the FDA safety management effort that was ongoing and many of the things that were affecting people’s travels and people’s lives. I knew how transportation supports quality of life economy businesses and even just enjoying the purpose of transportation, for work or play. It was exciting for me because I had always been a public servant for my whole career. I came here to have the opportunity to join a state that is so vibrant in the northeast.
We’re trying to support the travel needs of everybody and that’s always been the case. While it’s a very tough challenge working in the northeast because of the population density and the amount of people that use the system, it’s also an exciting challenge. How do you fix something and still provide the same level of service that people need despite some of the things that you know make the job harder? I really do enjoy the opportunity and I do relish the excitement of helping turn things around and rebuilding public confidence in the system.
SAMPAN: Many have been complaining, rightly or not, that nobody seems to get things better. How do you plan to build on the trust so essential to a position like yours?
Phillip Eng: I do want to keep open lines of communication and maintain a healthy dialogue with people. I’ve learned over my career that while we may be in the transportation profession and have ideas, if we don’t listen to people on specific needs and specific concerns sometimes the product will not be what people are expecting. Dialogue allows an agency to take that feedback and incorporate it into the solution and at the same time it proves to the public that we’re listening. We know that the disruption from the closures now is less impactful than if we continue to allow the system to be in disrepair. Slow travel makes businesses close and people move out. We need to fix things much sooner. That rebuilds confidence and restores the ability for people to actually think ahead about raising their families here or opening a business here because our forecasters are telling us that in two months or at the end of 2024 the system will be running more reliably, safely and frequently.
SAMPAN: Could you elaborate on your plans for a safer mode of transportation?
Phillip Eng: Right now we’re seeing a much stronger ridership on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. With remote work, Mondays and Fridays tend to be a lighter travel day. We also see a shift in the hours because folks don’t necessarily just have to work from 9:00 to 5:00 anymore. Some businesses have allowed them more flexibility in the work hours. What you’re seeing is sometimes some people can leave earlier or later so the rush hours are a little more spread out.
The ridership for our light and heavy rail is probably around 60% of pre pandemic I believe the commuter rail is actually probably the strongest in the nation returning around 90% and I think that has to go to with the fact that commuter rail on time performance is very high, around 93%, and that makes riders more confident. That’s what we’re going to do with the subways. The many things that were occurring gave people the feeling that the system was unsafe. I want them to know that it is safe but I also want them to know that we are working very hard to restore the level of service, the timeliness of the service. They are starting to feel it with every piece of work that we finish and as we restore the system we’ll demonstrate that we can deliver as we promised.
2024 will be a big year for us. I really do thank Governor Healey and her administration for all the support last year. We had a record hiring historic hiring here at the T. I think we reported yesterday at the subcommittee meeting of over 77,130 additional headcounts and over 1,400 new hires, exceeding the governor’s commitment of 1,000, so that is also crucial. Rebuilding the workforce and giving employees a system that they’re proud to work in goes a long way in terms of convincing people to make their careers here at the MBTA
SAMPAN: You mentioned Governor Healey’s commitment to you. What does that really mean in terms of 2024, maybe even 2025, in terms of funding? What do you still need to get done?
Phillip Eng: The support of Governor Healey, Lieutenant governor Driscoll and Secretary/CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Monica Tibbits has been instrumental in terms of my ability to be successful and make some bold decisions. Knowing financially that we had support for the hiring and that they are invested in making sure transportation is supported is great. I know there are so many competing needs across the state and that there are very difficult decisions ahead, so when the projected budgets are finally finalized we will make best use of those dollars. If we invest in transportation, those dividends will go back to the community we serve because it is a symbiotic relationship. Communities, businesses, and residencies thrive with a strong, supported public transportation system.
SAMPAN: Are you planning right now to increase the subway lines out to heretofore unreached communities? Is the commuter rail system reliable? So many people don’t wanna drive but they really don’t have any other way else to get into work. I’m thinking of the systems in Lowell and Lawrence being modernized and made more accessible to lower income communities.
Phillip Eng: Right now we need to reimagine our entire system. We’re working very hard to bring the bus operation headcount back to where it used to be. Restoring a bus service is important even if it can’t reach every community. I think the Lynn ferry and our ability to not only provide new service but to extend the months of service is something that we continue to look at and commuter rail as it goes further out.
How do we decarbonize commuter rail? We definitely do need to go further into communities that don’t currently have mass transportation options. Those are all things that we will be looking at as we look at this new capital investment plan for the next five years, projects that are already in progress but also crafting the capital program that allows us to deliver on commitments and expand the system. That’s the exciting part of being in transportation or in any agency that delivers projects. We need to invest in maintaining and bringing our system to a state of good repair. It’s also important for me and exciting to see how we can plan for the future because as communities grow and as the state continues to grow we need to be ready to deliver those projects. They don’t happen overnight, as everyone knows, but we need to be thinking ahead because we’re not just building a system to provide service but today we’re building a system that provides service for our children’s children. We want our families to be able to set permanent roots here and that means all parts of the Commonwealth. I don’t have all the answers to that piece yet but it’s exciting as we look into this capital investment plan we will be putting together.
SAMPAN: How does Boston compare with New York City or LA when it comes to dangerous public transit? I was wondering what you’re thinking right now about the level of anxiety and how real it is and how you are handling that?
Phillip Eng: Safety is essential, especially hiring and training transit police. I know they’re not at the numbers they need to be but we’re going to continue. There’s a current class right now in training that will add to not only our police forces but all the forces. They’re very robust training programs. Some of the things that I’ve been doing is setting up a working committee internally to better understand their challenges. Sometimes these challenges can be solved with other means and that’s what we’re going to do based on feedback from the public. We plan to improve our stations and that means cleaning them up and sometimes when you walk into a station and it’s not well kept people treat it differently. If it’s well kept, people will help it stay that way.
We’re going to improve the lighting in our stations. In some areas where people have raised concerns about safety we put things such as mirrors so if you’re walking around a corner you can see if there’s something happening. That doesn’t mean that person’s doing something bad, but it gives people a sense of comfort. If you’re walking down a corridor, you’ll be able to see. Those are little things. We plan to continue making sure our inspection programs and our systems are safe and if there’s things that you know transit police can help us with in terms of people gathering where they shouldn’t be for too long. There’s a lot of social things that are in society and we want to continue to work with those agencies that are best trained to help people with different needs. We need to make sure we’re working in collaboration with them so it’s a lot of different components. Safety is our top priority and every day we cannot lose sight of that.
SAMPAN: It seems extremely important to spend more time in terms of helping the transit police forces understand how to deescalate and how to help people who are in mental health trouble handle that as best as possible because that’s what we all need to do. The police are right there in the front and so they have to do it the best. Are you working with the transit police to institute additional training?
Phillip Eng: The police agencies across the country have a very tough job very tough job and they’re dealing with societal issues that do require unique training. Those are the things that I need to make sure that not only the police but even our staff have the real appropriate guidance and training and procedures because we need to de-escalate, not make things worse. We need to understand why these situations are occurring. It doesn’t always mean someone’s looking to do something bad. It just means they have challenges in their own personal lives that we all have to acknowledge.
One other big thing in addition to the things that we talked about that I also think ties into the improved infrastructure and improved service and hopefully the return of ridership is making our stations more vibrant and encouraging more people to travel. I think everyone felt that even in New York and here that when people stop commuting or going out it creates isolation. As people come back there’s a greater level of comfort because you’re now amongst many and not just walking in an area by yourself. All of these things, and continuing to promote all the safety efforts we’re instituting builds people’s trust back and then hopefully everything will follow from that.
SAMPAN: Is there anything else you would like to share with Boston?
Phillip Eng: Well, you touched on most everything. Just know that the workforce, myself, and this administration are committed to quality of life issues. We are committed to fulfilling people’s expectations. There are exciting times ahead and I look forward to more conversations in the future.
