The MBTA's new acting general manager is laying out his plans to overhaul the T's aging infrastructure, shifting the tone of Gov. Charlie Baker's efforts to reform the agency away from short-term austerity to long-term customer satisfaction.
Steve Poftak took the reins of the MBTA from former GM Brian Shortsleeve last month. He said Monday one of his main goals is to increase the MBTA's ability to efficiently spend the billions it will take to make a dent in the T's $7 billion maintenance backlog. Poftak is betting that putting new vehicles on the tracks and keeping the trains moving along improved infrastructure will turn around riders' dire opinions of the T.
"The MBTA was in the position, frankly, of sort of devouring itself a couple years ago. We were not spending the amount of money on maintaining the system," Poftak told reporters at a press briefing Monday to expound on the work of Baker's hand-picked Fiscal and Management Control Board, the team he's tasked with turning around the T. The FMCB was authorized by the Legislature to take over the MBTA in July of 2015 after a disastrous winter season brought the aging system to a standstill.
"We were not spending enough to just keep it level, never mind improve it to a state of good repair. We are now committed to spending enough to get to a state of good repair, but that is going to be a multi-year effort of sustained capital investment in the system and we are committing to do that," Poftak said.
To do that, Poftak says he will focus on getting more repair projects approved and funded so that the T can spend as much of its allocated capital budget as possible. The MBTA is authorized to spend millions more per year on repairs than it is currently able to manage.
Poftak will remain acting GM until a MassDOT search panel hires a full time replacement. When a new permanent GM is hired, Poftak plans to return to his position on the FMCB board.
The T says it's investment in repairs has increased $265 million dollars - 61 percent - over the average of the last six years. The biggest ticket items are a complete replacement of the the Red and Orange Line vehicles and a 123 percent increase on the ancient track, signal and power systems, Baker's strategy to make sure February 2015 never repeats itself.
"One of the great frustrations for me is that buying new rail cars has a seven-year cycle time associated with it. This is not buying a car off the lot that you put into service," Poftak said. The T is scheduled to start receiving pilot versions of new Red Line cars next year for testing, and both Orange and Red fleets should be fully replaced by 2023.
That's a long wait for frustrated strap-hangers who will, by 2023, have heard about the fixes in the works for eight years.
"We are... acutely aware that while we have made immense progress in two years... it hasn't necessarily translated into improvement in people's everyday commute. That's the ultimate test of 'is the T fixed,' but there's lag time and you have to build the institution," Transportation Secretary Pollack said.
The facts and figures that excite Poftak the most are the stats related to improving that infrastructure pipeline, awarding contracts for big capital improvements, and slimming down that foreboding maintenance backlog. It's a different thrust than that favored by Shortsleeve, the former Bain Capital executive Baker selected to aggressively balance the agency's books, disrupt business as usual and privatize portions of the T's operations.
Poftak is on leave from his job as executive director of the Rappaport Center at Harvard's Kennedy School. The 46 year old Roslindale resident (and bus, Orange Line and occasional Needham Commuter Rail rider) earned his BA from Middlebury College and MBA from Babson College. He's served as vice-chairman of the FMCB since its founding.
