Below is the full transcript of the public comments our Executive Director, Jarred Johnson, presented to the MBTA Board on June 22, 2023:
“Good morning, Secretary Fiandaca, Chair Glynn, General Manager Eng, members of the board, and staff. I appreciate the opportunity to provide public comment.
My name is Jarred Johnson, the Executive Director of TransitMatters and a proud T rider.
I want to acknowledge that I truly appreciate how much the tenor of these board meetings has changed. I want to thank the new and returning board members for their work. I know this is not easy and is a serious time commitment. I also want to acknowledge the positive changes the Healey Administration has already started making. This is my first comment with General Manager Eng, a welcome addition. I’m also pleased to see the marshaling of resources to encourage mode shift during the Sumner closure.
I appreciate the countless hours that went into the CIP, but this agency is at a crossroads. It can’t continue to put out the same old type of plan that, despite the hard work, is essentially meaningless because it omits so much and is indecipherable to anyone outside of the agency.
I was shocked to read in the Globe months ago that the CIP contains about 10-12% of safety and reliability-related requests. I know that it will take time to get a full accounting of the system’s needs and develop a timeline for digging out of the mess the Baker Administration left behind. But I can do simple math and a 5-year plan that tackles about 10% of what is probably a drastic undercount of safety and reliability needs doesn't inspire hope.
And this is before we get to the needed modernization efforts. While others might dismiss commuter rail electrification, and Red–Blue Connector as frivolous expansion projects, they are critical to the resilience and reliability of the system. An opportunity like the MBTA Communities Act and the potential to alleviate some of the nation’s worst traffic combined with the condition of the MBTA’s locomotive fleet, should elevate, and indeed, accelerate the nearly 4-year-old commitment to regional rail. But that’s not what the CIP reflects.
To this point, I actually found the language at the last CIP update insulting. 400 people did not send in letters to tell the MBTA good job on the regional rail efforts. If this plan is a 5-year outlook, we will be woefully behind international peers and not reach the Governor's own 2040 goal. Parking failing locomotives in a $2-3 billion dollar station expansion that could be made significantly cheaper or eliminated by more reliable modern technology and a world standard operating model is not a plan. It is a deeply unserious distraction from the real work.
We must do something different with this CIP. Transit is in trouble across the country. But what has never worked, is scaling back ambition, looking inward, and failing to tap into the two greatest resources an agency has: its workers and its riders.
I’ll stick to speaking for the riders, but I would imagine that many of the MBTA’s staff and labor partners feel the same way. It’s time for this agency to fight. It’s time for this agency to demonstrate what I know because I have friends who work at the MBTA and because I talk with incredibly smart and dedicated civil servants that I call colleagues. But the everyday rider doesn’t see that. As my colleague mentioned, they see poorly executed diversions and outdated infrastructure. And what they don’t see is any vision for the future or any glimmer of hope for when they will have regular service.
Much of this is ultimately the fault and the responsibility of the General Court. But a closed mouth will never get fed. I will end by saying you have an unprecedented amount of support to shake things up and to do things differently, both from the advocacy community and from riders. But the MBTA has to take the first step. Right now riders, the economy, and our environment are the victims of the world’s most pointless and maddening game of chicken. It’s time for the MBTA to ask for what it needs and advocate more forcefully on behalf of riders. And we’re here to help you.”
For media inquiries, please e-mail media@transitmatters.org.
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