Governor Baker: MBTA Performance ‘Simply Unacceptable’

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Tuesday, February 10, 2015

GoLocal Worcester News Team

On Monday afternoon, Governor Charlie Baker addressed the media with updates on Winter Storm Marcus and how it is affecting Massachusetts. After a brief statement about power outages, Baker made it a point to address the MBTA's performance during the storm.

“We’ve been frusturated and disappointed with the performance of the ‘T'," said Baker. "We spent a lot time over the course of hte weekend, talking to the folks at the T to make sure they were able to run an abbreviated schedule today. The fact that even that abbreviated schedule hasn’t been able to be maintained and once it stops snowing, we plan to have a long conversation with folks at the T with improving performance.”

Baker continued, "I admit that these are unprecedented levels of snow that have fallen over the last few weeks. No doubt about that. And there are a lot of people there that have been working really hard to try to keep the trains on the tracks and the traffic moving, but this is simply unaccpetable."

On Sunday, Baker announced that the MBTA would be running on a lighter schedule and expected possible delays. Mass.gov released an alert about the MBTA issues: "The MBTA is operating at limited service levels this morning, with reports that the Red Line Braintree branch is already closed from JFK South and there are many delays on the T.  There are many cancellations on the commuter rail and limit transit services available due to weather conditions.  Passengers that must travel are urged to plan ahead, be patient, and check mbta.com/winter for updates."

However, Baker is clearly upset with how things are being handled during the snowstorm.

“There a lot of people at the T that have been working extremely hard but this performance is simply not acceptable," said Baker. "The MBTA is an independent state agency. We don't have direct control over what they do. However, we did spend quite a bit of time talking to them toward the end of last week and into the weekend about what we might be able to do to support their efforts and what they needed to do to maintain at least an abbreviated schedule. For a variety of reasons, they weren't even able to maintain an abbreivated schedule."

"This is obviously a big issue," Baker said. "When the weather is bad, as it has been lately, the public transportation system needs to work. Once the snow stops, there's going to be an opportunity for us to do some heavy debrief on this. And let's face it, this can't happen again. It's been very difficult to count on the represenatations that have been made by the T over the course of the past few weeks. The first time it happens, you can blame that on the weather, but after a while, it starts to feel like something more."

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