Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday that the Federal Transit Administration has formally closed its years-long review of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities’ safety oversight of the MBTA, returning direct supervision of the T’s safety equipment and management to the agency.
On Sept. 11, the FTA sent a letter to the Department of Public Utilities, formally ending their oversight and returning responsibility of the remaining safety actions to the state agency. Federal authorities said the state had satisfied all requirements and demonstrated significant improvements in its ability to independently oversee the safety of MBTA rail operations.
“When I took office, the T was in a dire state. After years of underinvestment, workers and passengers alike didn’t feel safe on the rails. Today, the T is safer, more reliable, and more affordable for the riders who use it every day,” Healey said in a statement. “That’s in large part thanks to the investments we have made in the T and the DPU, as well as strong leadership of Phil Eng, DPU’s Robert Hanson and their teams. Riders can now have confidence that there are dedicated leaders at both the MBTA and DPU working every day to keep them safe.”
“With the FTA’s role overseeing special directives concluded, we have officially closed the book on the serious safety issues we saw four years ago,” Department of Public Utilities Commissioner Staci Rubin added. “We made a commitment to invest in the Rail Transit Safety Division, strengthen technical expertise, and build more rigorous oversight processes—and we delivered. This was made possible thanks to our dedicated rail safety staff and support from the Legislature. The DPU is well positioned to ensure safer T operations in the years to come.”
Phillip Eng, interim secretary of transportation and MBTA general manager, called it “a huge accomplishment for the T and DPU,” and said he is “extremely proud” of the milestone.
In 2022, after several major safety incidents at the MBTA, the federal government directed the Department of Public Utilities’ Rail Transit Safety Division to make significant changes to its staffing, operations, funding, and safety practices. The FTA found that the agency was under-funded and couldn’t provide adequate safety oversight of the T.
In response, the state overhauled its MBTA oversight, creating the Rail Transit Safety Division, which conducts independent inspections of the T’s subway cars, stations and maintenance facilities, and produces safety and compliance audits.
The state has also invested in improvements to MBTA safety and reliability, eliminating all slow zones, upgrading cars and stations and increasing hiring.
