BOSTON — Newly sworn-in Gov. Maura Healey is pledging to beef up the MBTA’s beleaguered workforce to help address chronic staffing issues raised by a federal investigation of the state’s troubled public transit system.
Healey, who took office last week, said her new administration will recruit and hire at least 1,000 new transit workers during her first year as governor.
“We know the MBTA is woefully understaffed — and we know that lack of staffing has had grave consequences,” the Democrat said in her inauguration speech last Thursday.
Over the past year, the T has seen a month-long closure of the Orange Line, a Federal Transit Administration investigation that resulted in a raft of safety directives, and the death of a man last April who died after his arm got caught in a Red Line train and was dragged.
The FTA’s probe of the agency flagged chronic worker shortages — particularly among dispatchers — as a key issue contributing to safety failures. The MBTA has an estimated 900 vacant positions, many of them safety-related.
The T isn’t alone in struggling to attract and retain enough workers. Business groups have complained of chronic shortages over the past year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many employers not able to find suitable workers to fill vacancies.
Healey has talked about the need for growth in vocational schools and programs, some of which would be aimed at creating a pipeline for MBTA maintenance and repair jobs.
Meanwhile, the T is operating with an interim general manager as the Healey administration conducts a nationwide search for a new leader.
As governor-elect, Healey tapped Krauthamer & Associates to help the new administration find a replacement for Steve Poftak, who resigned days before she and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll were sworn into office.
Healey said the consulting firm will be “looking statewide, nationally and internationally to identify strong candidates who have transit and management experience and who understand the urgency of addressing safety, reliability and accessibility issues across the system.”
“Let’s acknowledge that we can’t have a functioning economy without a functioning T,” Healey said. “So I will appoint a GM with deep experience and a laser focus on making our transit safe and reliable.”
Healey also plans to appoint a T safety chief within her administration’s first 60 days to inspect the system “top to bottom and track by track.”
Janet Domenitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, says the T’s next general manager needs to be a “chess master” who can simultaneously tackle the transit agency’s myriad woes while modernizing the system.
“There’s no one silver bullet,” she said. “It’s not just more money, more staff or oversight. We need someone in charge of the MBTA who really is committed to the infrastructure that we need to get us around, and get past the years of problems and neglect and unfulfilled promises.”
The Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank, said it supports Healey’s efforts to boost MBTA staffing but questions how it will get done.
“The T has already put on a full-court press, reaching out across the region, offering hiring incentives and higher salaries — even as T salaries are already among the nation’s highest,” said Pioneer spokesman Chris Sinacola said. “And the authority’s benefits are generous, and pensions lavish to the point of nearly bankrupting the system.”
He said Pioneer believes solving the T’s hiring problem will require “deeper structural reforms” in addition to other initiatives.
“Job one is to create an environment that welcomes young people hoping to build a career and rewards achievement, value, and service rather than providing a haven for well-connected individuals seeking a generous pension by simply putting in their time,” Sinacola said.
Former Gov. Charlie Baker, who stepped down last week after two terms in office, argued that he made progress improving the MBTA’s system over the past eight years, including hundreds of millions of dollars on upgrades and new investments to improve service and reliability.
But Baker says the MBTA workforce shortage remains its biggest challenge, and filling those vacant positions should be “priority No. 1” for the Healey administration and the T’s next general manager.
“The biggest problem the T has right now is the head count,” he said in a recent interview. “The underlying message in the FTA report is that we don’t have enough people to do the work that needs to be done — they’re getting tired and they’re making mistakes.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.