New Yorkification of the MBTA begins; can MTA and LIRR veterans help right the T?

The MBTA announced today that General Manager Phillip Eng has brought in a series of lieutenants from his days of running railroads in New York to try to turn the T into a fully functioning and safe transit system.

The hires come after a Globe reporter spent two days in June shadowing Eng:

Occasionally, a staff member enthusiastically agreed with Eng. “Lowest bidder is a loser for us,” a T employee said after Eng proposed “spending more now to save later.”

But often, he’s told that things are typically done a certain way at the T or in Massachusetts, a response to which he seems profoundly allergic.

Among the new hires: Dennis Varley, who comes to the T from the Long Island Railroad, where he served with Eng in a variety of engineering positions. He'll be taking the newly created job of chief of stations, so will be in charge of "station safety, security, and cleanliness" - most immediately, the T says, figuring out how to keep heavy objects from falling from station ceilings and ensuring that station standpipes meant to provide high-pressure water to firefighters in an emergency actually work.

Also joining the T: Sam Zhou, who helped oversee capital projects for the NY State Department of Transportation, and who will become the MBTA's new assistant general manager of engineering and capital, a job in which he will be responsible for such things as ensuring "the safe engineering and delivery of MBTA assets" - for example, major new construction projects.

Doug Connett's most recent experience was as a private consultant and vice president and assistant chief safety officer of operations and investigations at Washington's Metro system, but before that, he was vice president and chief officer of the New York MTA's Staten Island Railroad. He'll be filling a new job here as MBTA chief of infrastructure, overseeing 1,000 T workers in track, signals and communications, power, facilities, and logistics, with the goal of increasing productivity, revenue and ridership by improving service quality and reducing costs.

Connett also has MBTA experience: His consulting work was at K&J Safety and Security Consulting, which the T hired last year to help it deal with one of those emergency federal directives.

Rod Brooks, formerly senior vice president of operations at the LIRR, will become senior MBTA advisor for capital, operations and safety and will help make "purposeful capital, operations, and safety decisions" in general and will oversee the extension of commuter rail to Fall River and New Bedford in particular.