Moving MBTA oversight from the DPU into a brand new unbiased company holds the “greatest promise” for reforming rail transit security, however would take for much longer than shifting the accountability to an present state entity, a brand new report discovered.
A brand new company, with restricted appointing authority from the governor, was touted as the very best resolution for state security oversight of the area’s embattled subway system in a 21-page report launched Monday by the MBTA Advisory Board.
“The creation of a new state agency would mark a bold, new approach for oversight safety for public transportation in Massachusetts, but one that follows the model set forth by New York state and the Washington, D.C. metro area,” states the report written by Chris Dempsey, a former assistant secretary of transportation.
“An independent entity would have clear lines of responsibility, and, unlike the DPU, would be able to focus exclusively on transit safety, as both New York’s PTSB and Washington’s WMSC do,” the report said, referencing the Public Transportation Safety Board and Washington Metrorail Safety Commission.
An “entirely new state entity” composed of members with transportation experience might hold a slender give attention to MBTA rail security, much like the oversight authority for WMATA, the one different subway system to bear a federal security administration inspection, the report stated.
Or its duties could possibly be expanded to incorporate oversight of a broader set of public transit and personal passenger transportation. The Legislature might choose to switch bus security oversight and different transportation community firms from the Department of Public Utilities, which the feds discovered to be understaffed and ineffective in its oversight position, to the brand new company.
According to the report, the DPU’s security oversight program, which incorporates an SSO director and 6 full-time discipline employees, is funded with a $1.35 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The quantity represents solely a sliver of the division’s $21 million funds.
In comparability, WMATA’s oversight authority, WMSC, which changed a pre-safety administration inspection Tri-State Oversight Committee and has 18 full-time workers, has an annual funds of greater than $5 million. The price is cut up between federal grants and funding from the three governments served by the transit company.
“While an independent entity holds perhaps the greatest promise for a durable solution to rail and transit safety, creating, staffing and resourcing this organization will require a significant effort from state leaders,” the report said.
For instance, creation of a brand new oversight authority for the D.C. metro system took greater than a yr and a half, the report stated, and included a prolonged legislative course of between Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, the three governments included within the system.
If a brand new state security oversight entity is created, it needs to be one with “unquestioned” independence from the MBTA, with a minority of gubernatorial appointed members, because the majority of the T’s Board of Directors are appointed by the governor, the report states.
The solely different “feasible” choice for Massachusetts lawmakers, based on the report, is shifting oversight of the T from the DPU to a unique, present oversight entity, such because the state auditor, inspector normal or the MBTA Advisory Board, the latter of which consists of native mayors and different municipal officers.
State lawmakers are drafting laws that considers each choices put ahead by the report, state Sen. Mike Barrett, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities & Energy, advised the Herald final week.
“I’m interested in moving transportation safety out of the DPU for two reasons,” Barrett stated. “First, the DPU has blown it in terms of consistently attending to its oversight responsibility, but secondly as the climate issue looms larger and larger, I don’t want to see the DPU distracted by other issues.”
A DPU spokesperson stated final week that the company is working diligently to adjust to federal directives, which incorporates beefing up its staffing and conducting extra discipline work and auditing to offer additional oversight.
Consistent and efficient unbiased oversight received’t simply occur with a “one-time governance.” Under both choice, the Legislature and Gov.-elect Maura Healey’s incoming administration should present “sustained attention and the commitment of sufficient resources to build a best-in-class oversight entity,” the report states.
“This will take years to accomplish, and Massachusetts must avoid a repeat of the dire situation that prompted the FTA to take the nearly unprecedented steps that it did in 2022,” the report stated.
Through a spokesperson, Healey declined to touch upon the place she stood on the 2 oversight choices into consideration, however has said that she’s going to “instruct her new transportation safety chief to review” the DPU’s position in MBTA security oversight.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”