The MBTA’s General Manager Phil Eng says problems with the new Green Line Extension are more extensive than first thought. The tracks’ prefabricated ties were built with the rail gauge too narrow and will have to be repaired.
According to Eng, the problem was identified as far back as April 2021. He says his predecessors at the MBTA should have been more “proactive,” adding, “I wish I had known earlier because then I think we would have tackled this.”
About 50% of the Union Square branch and 80% of the Medford/Tufts branch will need to be "regauged," or have the space between the two rails widened, according to Eng. He said that, though they are below construction standard, they are wide enough to safely accommodate full-speed travel.
Eng began as the T’s new GM in April and said he only learned the extent of the problem when recently reviewing the project’s documents.
It's not yet clear how much it will cost to fix the problem or how long it will take, but Eng says the construction firm responsible for the project has submitted a plan to repair the issues, and said it is “not something that the public should be paying for.”
The $2.3 billion project opened in 2022, the final year of Gov. Charlie Baker's tenure, to great fanfare.
In a statement, Gov. Maura Healey, who took office in January and later appointed Eng to run the MBTA, pointed the finger at unnamed officials.
“I share the public’s frustration and disappointment at the revelation that senior MBTA officials under the previous administration knew about issues with the Green Line Extension tracks years ago and did not disclose them to our administration or address them on their watch,” she wrote. “The people of Massachusetts deserve better.”
Baker, who declined to run for a third term and left office in January, now leads the NCAA. Jim Conroy, Baker's longtime political advisor and his spokesperson, told GBH News in a statement that Baker was not told of the problems with the Green Line Extension.
“The governor's office was never informed of the gauging issues with GLX,” he wrote. “Governor Baker hopes the MBTA and the contractors involved will address these issues as soon as possible."
“The Green Line Extension project was on track to never get built when the Baker-Polito Administration first took office and while these setbacks are massively inconvenient for riders, the project itself will deliver enormous benefits for the greater Boston area for decades to come,” Conroy added.
Healey celebrated Eng for uncovering what happened and “taking swift action to hold people accountable and demand a work plan from the contractor to fix the narrow gauges on their own dime.”
The Green Line Extension was a project that lasted for more than 30 years, after the state forged an agreement with the nonprofit Conservation Law Foundation in the 1990s. The state committed to the project as a way to offset increased emissions from the Big Dig, Boston’s major highway project.
CLF filed lawsuits and fought for decades to get the extension opened, and reacted with exasperation to the latest news.
“This level of dysfunction and irresponsibility defies explanation,” said CLF attorney Seth Gadbois said in a statement Thursday. “The previous administration was clearly more interested in cutting a ribbon than getting this project done safely and correctly.”
Jarred Johnson, the executive director of the advocacy group TransitMatters, found the news deeply disappointing. But he applauded the Healey administration’s transparency.
“Having this press conference, being the most forthcoming I've seen the T be in some time, is a very good start,” he told GBH News Thursday. “It's really incumbent on the Healey administration to keep this up, and to really turn the page on Baker’s culture of austerity, of secrecy and of underfunding the T and getting us into this mess.”
Jim Aloisi, who served as Massachusetts secretary of transportation under former Gov. Deval Patrick, also hailed Eng’s transparency.
“It's not easy to stand up there at a press conference like that, do what he did,” he told GBH News.
“The only thing finger pointing ever got someone was a cold finger,” Aloisi added. “Today, I think, was a step in the right direction. But we have many steps to take in that same right direction before we have an MBTA that's offering the kind of service that we all need, want and expect.”
The extension opened in December 2022.
