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Retired head of Long Island Rail Road to take over at the MBTA
By adamg on Mon, 03/27/2023 - 9:37am
Gov. Healey today announced she's hired Phillip Eng, who retired as president of the Long Island Rail Road last year, as the new general manager of the embattled MBTA.
Eng spent some 40 years in New York transit agencies, including a turn as interim president of the New York subway system, a job now held permanently by Richard Davey, who once served as general manager of the MBTA.
As LIRR President between 2018 and 2022, Eng oversaw a workforce of 7,600 employees and a $1.6 billion operating budget.From 2018-2022, Eng served as President of the MTA Long Island Rail Road, where he managed a system of 7,600 employees and a $1.6 billion operating budget, and the state says:
He transformed the system from having the worst on time performance in decades to having the most consistent on time performance in the railroad’s history. He oversaw the implementation of new technology that improved the accuracy of train arrival time estimates on platforms and led to the release of the new and improved LIRR TrainTime app, which provides the public with up-to-date service information.
Also, the state says:
He led the procurement and awarding of a $540 million contract to modernize the MTA’s mobile ticketing system and improved the MTA’s contracting methods to better ensure that projects would be completed on time, with reduce costs and with improved quality and durability.
In a statement, Healey said:
He understands that a functioning transportation system is essential to a functioning economy, and he has a track record of taking the reins of struggling public transit systems and dramatically improving service. He also takes a collaborative approach to his work and maintains open lines of communication with customers, workers, businesses, local officials and communities.
Eng said:
It’s time for a new way of doing business at the MBTA. As an engineer, a transportation professional for 40 years, and a commuter myself, I’m laser focused on finding innovative solutions to complex problems and approaching them with a sense of urgency that always puts the customer first,” said Phillip Eng. “I’m also committed to supporting the hardworking employees who keep the MBTA running and ramping up hiring to ensure that we have the workforce in place to deliver the reliable service that riders deserve.
Eng, who currently lives on Long Island, will move to Massachusetts to start his new job on April 10.
Longtime T manager Jeff Gonneville, who has been serving as interim general manager, will remain with the T.
Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca will introduce Eng at a 2:30 press conference at the Riverside Green Line station. Eng and Fiandaca will then take the Green Line to Park Street, where they will mingle with riders, before walking over to the T's operation center on High Street. Healey and Driscoll will not be joining them on the ride.
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Comments
Obvious Joke
Since they have a busy schedule, they'll walk to save some time.
T photo ops
They've already done T photos recently. They won't set foot on MBTA property again until the next election.
The top 5 priorities are 1)
The top 5 priorities are 1) avoid train derailments
2) safety for passengers against crime
3) Add more parking at various available mbta stations or purchase available real estate for parking at nearby stations.
4) partner up with local billion dollar tech companies ( who can use train buses etc for advertising) mbta can use extra revenue.
5) more ferry service on Boston harbor also it would be nice to have ferry service to the Boston harbor islands during summertime.
Hmmm.
The train is always 20 minutes late, but it's always 20 minutes late.
No joke
One of my fears is they'll just make 10-15 minute headways on the subway lines the standard during rush hour and even less frequently off-peak. It's a lot easier to make the trains run on time when they don't run many of them.
No it isn't
It is actually harder to run trains on time with fewer trains as there will be more backups for boarding/unboarding as more passengers have to board each train that is in service. Spreading out boardings between more trains makes boarding faster, resulting in faster service. Lower service levels are not a way to improve on time performance, they are, if anything, likely to do the opposite.
If the T is thinking about doing something like this, and there might be some reason to fear that, it reflects a race to the bottom mentality that will only make things worse. I really Hope they aren't, and I wish we had such a quality transit service that we didn't have to worry about stuff like this.
How about if they just make
How about if they just make the headways 10-15 minutes BUT then keep doing what they are doing. Move the goal posts but do not change the players. If you kept the same high school basketball team on the court but swapped the nets for 8 footers all of a sudden you are going to see a wave of slam dunks.
Not a bad idea!
/s
Do you work for the Healey/Baker administration?
At least then you can plan
At least then you can plan around it being 20 minutes later than the schedule and just grab a coffee or leave your house later or whatever.
Is he familiar with the MBTA?
I don't think he has any idea what he's walking in to. Will be make it one year on the job?
maybe all these annoying
maybe all these annoying online sports betting ops will take that bet.
2 years…
Then he’ll be gone and nothing will be improved.
As you can tell, I’m very skeptical. I hope to be pleasantly surprised though.
GM of the MBTA is one of the
GM of the MBTA is one of the most politically toxic positions in the public transit sector. After Beverly Scott got fired in 2015, it's been a revolving door with hardly any qualified person willing to take the job.
You must be new here
I remember when Dan Grabauskas got the job. Very competent man. Did a great job at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. My first thought was that he was walking into a buzz saw. 4 unproductive years later, Rich Davey (this guy's current boss) came in and at least got a promotion after this report came out. That gets us up to Beverly Scott.
In short, you can put as much lipstick on that pig as you want, but the MBTA GM job has been a stinker for about 2 decades now.
Was Scott actually fired?
I thought it was a "f**k all of you, I'm not taking the blame for this sh*t, I quit" thing.
Good luck Phillip
And may God help your immortal soul.
Phil is first having breakfast
at Mul's, with Billy Bulger, where he will get a full briefing on the way things work around here.
Thanks For the 2002, Not 2022 Comment
Mul's has been gone for over three years.
Bulger's influence over the T has been gone for much longer.
Defensive reaction by the Ward 16 Mutual Admiration Society
Well, the old building may be gone, but Mul's sort of survives like Filene's Basement at the South Shore Plaza. As for influence, the damage done by that regime will linger past our lifetimes, no matter how they may spin it at the McKeon or Florian or Castle Island.
have you been to Southie since Blinstrub's burned down?
https://www.amrheinsboston.com/muls
Generally good news
having ridden transit systems both here and abroad, I think the best we can hope for for the T is to re-org and better allocate dollars for repair and incremental improvements and upgrades. Things what a poker player might call 'table stakes' - track in good condition, trains in usabble condition, equipment kept up and new ones swapped out, stations not falling apart.
I think we many years, if not 1-2 decades away, of approaching some of the modernizations that the NYC MTA put into place 20 years ago. Maybe by 2030, we'll have the T in a place where parts of the US were in 2005, and where Europe and Asian were in 1990.
However, I wonder how much savings could be had to basically gut the motorman's union and automate trains vs paying out union wages, pensions, etc. It would be a big spend upfront, but would save money.
We live in a city of smart people, you would think we can get some people at MIT and Wentworth to help solve some of these operational issues, then we get new vendors, and stop hiring crooked ones.
Yeesh
First two grafs are fine but then …
Turns out that converting existing railroads into automated systems is not exactly easy. Most automated systems which have been built new, and others have required years-long shutdowns to retrofit. The Green Line wouldn't work since it interacts with all sorts of non-train things, and buses are buses. Only about 10% of carmen operators are in heavy rail anyway. Really have to wonder if this is a Charlie Baker burner account, since the answer to years of political disinvestment and incompetence is "gut the union."
So believe it or not, some of the smart folks there are working on this. But there's only so much that can be done when the management at the T is focused on shoveling money out the door without any checks on whether it is being used well or even at all. There's only so much that can be done when track condition reports have been falsified for years and management looks the other way. Nothing against the MIT and Wentworth folks (and others) but T management is the problem here, not the people who spend all day operating despite the low pay (that's why they can't recruit new operators) and conditions.
Unions
Unions are both good and bad - I’m a fan of them when used to protect workers and promote safety. Makes me wonder how the T can attract drivers for trains and buses esp on routes where drivers get attacked.
He'll look at MBTA as a
He'll look at MBTA as a pleasant change of pace from some of the union contracts he had to deal with at LIRR.
FLIRR
F'ing Long Island Rail Road. Pronounced FLEUR. The F was added on by my dad, who rode the LIRR for 48 years. His main complaint: late trains.
"FLEUR"?
"FLEUR"?
Nine-plus decades of family history living on LI, depending on the railroad, cursing the railroad, laughing at the railroad, visiting LI, traffic reports, etc... NEVER heard anyone call it "FLEUR".
L - I - double R
...and whatever expletive you want in front of it (deleted or not)
FLIRR
sounds like one person's pet name for a daily headache, not a regional reference. I'm sure there are other variations!!
Forward-Looking Infra
Forward-Looking Infra-Railroad
Why would he do this to himself
Seems like he’s had an accomplished career and retired on a high note. Who advised him this would be a good idea?
I know you can’t change who’s family, but you don’t have to listen to them.
Everyone needs a challenge
I've seen what happens to people who stop working and spend their lives sitting in front of a TV. It's not pretty.
The worst that could happen is that he'll fail. And that's always possible, especially if the Governor and the legislature don't give him the resources he needs to do what they've hired him to do.
But it would still be better than sitting at home in front of the TV all day.
A well qualified
A well qualified transportation person who is already earning a good retirement income and can just say "FU" and walk away if he is asked to move forward with an agenda he doesn't agree with is probably what the MBTA needs (although I think Gonneville would also do well as full0time GM, and maybe will get a chance again in a few years when the new guy retires again). It is clear that most of the General Managers for the past 20 years were not willing to push back when pressured to do things that were not in the best interest of a well functioning MBTA.
Some people...
Some people get a thrill out of handling venomous snakes, and do it for fun. Just sayin'.
He led the procurement and
Didn't I read the MBTA is going to spend $1 Billion for their modernization? What's up with that?
With all due respect, this standard corporate-speak statement sounds like a steaming pile of you know what. Sense of urgency and customer first are not what the T is all about. I want to hear what he is going to do to change that.
He has a nice smile.
Pleasant with a hint of skepticism. That could turn into a sneer, given what he’s agreed to be tasked with.
But I’ll give him a chance. He looks like he knows a thing or two.
cautiously optimistic
At least they've hired someone with experience in running a large and complicated train system.
Agree
They had floated up the name of the head of the Ottawa transit system had one point.
That's nice.
I was hoping for the head of a rail system less than 22 years old to run a 125 year old system which is underfunded and falling apart. Things would have been great. Just great.
Beverly Scott
I often find myself thinking about Dr. Beverly Scott and how Charlie Baker reflexively canned the last actual transit expert to lead the MBTA after what ultimately turned out to be one of the more understandable (though no less sucky) T meltdowns of recent history.
To go back to 2015
And keep Bev Scott in charge instead of bringing in the Pioneer Institute.
Good times
When I think of Beverly Scott, I think of this comment from 2015.
The Media
Made her look foolish when she went to Philly / NJ to try to get the contractors doing repair work there to do better.
She went out on a limb but was ridiculed here. Shame.
Media failing
It is a media failing that everyone doesn't understand this story as directly leading to the current crisis at the T. Pioneer specializes in advocating for privatization schemes for public resources and letting public resources crumble from within, while selling off as many pieces as you can, so you can justify privatizing the whole thing when it falls apart is the neoliberal model in a nutshell. This isn't an accident and the people who killed the T have names and addresses, it is journalistic malpractice that they aren't being named and shamed for this.
Scott was what is known in the trade as "Huh?"
Given the current administration "track" record so far -- I was expecting another "Dr. Scott"
Beverly Scott was definitively not what was needed by the T -- first she came from Atlanta -- where they don't know snow, don't have old equipment and infrastructure and they don't have the Mr Bulger's Transit heritage. Finally - the last thing the T needs is an "academic-type" "Transit Expert."
On the other hand -- Before he was the LIRR chief -- he was essentially the 2nd in command of the MTA. He's also been in the private sector and consulted on transit problems.
He has exposure and experience to all of the same kinds of issues as the T and on top of that he has had to deal with major-league transit-associated crime in NYC.
I think if Eng is really committed to about 4 years of "post-retirement" hard work -- there is a chance for real improvement in the T
First he needs to find a nice place to live which is easily accessible to downtown Boston via the T
Then he needs to take the T for some number of weeks to get a full sense of the issues -- if he still on board at that point -- we might have found a real problem solver
May work well for the MBTA
I have associates at the MTA, and in rail advocacy in NY and nearby. I received word of this early this morning via e-mail. According to those who know him from his work in NY, they speak well of him.
They do agree that he has an upward skirmish on his hands.
He looks like a determined
He looks like a determined guy. Best of luck to him, to the T, and to us.
After extensive consultation with . . . . . .
Chaim Bloom.
Hey, Bloom has actually done his part for the T
There'll be a lot fewer people cramming Green Line trains to Kenmore in October than there could be
New MBTA tag line
"We put the Eng in Engineering"
For those asking why. It is a
For those asking why. It is a challenge but it also pays 470k and opens up a new pension. Not sure if the pension matters, you need ten years to be vested and I do not know how old he is.
The 470k is base pay and does not include bonus checks and other items. His compensation could easily sail north of 500k a year.
This would also be a great feather to put in his cap if he thinks he can reset the tracks.
Tom Glenn speaks highly of him
Tom Glenn was a great General Manager who made sure the trains ran on time and were safe.