Governor Baker Acts to Deliver Reliable Public Transit with MBTA Reform Legislation
Press Release
Today, Governor Charlie Baker filed An Act for a Reliable, Sustainable MBTA, acting on many of the recommendations made by the special panel that reported their findings earlier this month. The legislation would establish a Fiscal Management and Control Board (FMCB) and Chief Administrator to oversee operations and finances through 2018, create capital plans, introduce reporting and audit requirements and lift procurement restrictions for the MBTA. Together the FMCB and Chief Administrator would be charged with establishing a safe, reliable, financially sound and sustainable customer-oriented public transit system.
"This bill directly responds to the special panel's recommendations. We look forward to the Legislature's swift action on the reforms necessary to restore the public's faith in the Commonwealth's transit system," said Governor Baker. "The T failed its stress test this winter when we needed it most, exposing the deep operational problems and lack of planning. We simply cannot afford a repeat and this legislation sets in motion significant reforms to once again deliver accountability, reliability and the world-class transportation system Massachusetts deserves."
"The special panel concluded that a strong fiscal and management control board is vital to solving the MBTA's chronic and pervasive failures," said Secretary Pollack. "The legislation would give the MBTA many new tools that are essential if we are to succeed in transforming the MBTA organizationally and rebuilding and modernizing its assets."
"At the MBTA we are already hard at work implementing the Special Review Panel's recommendations, but this legislation and the fiscal and management control board that it creates are essential to ensuring that we can correct longstanding problems at the T so that it can provide the reliable transit services that our riders want and deserve," said Frank DePaola, interim executive director of the MBTA.
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