Governor Maura Healey Names Phillip Eng New Chief Government Officer of MBTA

BOSTON —

Phillip Eng shall be named the following chief govt officer of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Gov. Maura T. Healey introduced Monday.

Eng is an engineer with practically 40 years of transportation expertise, together with as chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authorities Lengthy Island Rail Highway and interim chairman of New York Metropolis Transit.

Phil Eng is the confirmed chief the MBTA wants to enhance safety and reliability all through the system and restore public confidence, Healey stated in a information launch. He understands {that a} functioning transit system is important to a functioning economic system and has a confirmed observe file of taking the reins of struggling public transit techniques and dramatically enhancing service. He additionally takes a collaborative strategy to his work and maintains open traces of communication with clients, employees, companies, native officers and communities.

Eng, who will start her new position on April 10, will trip the Inexperienced Line to Park Avenue station to greet riders and make her strategy to the MBTA Operations Management Heart, the place she’s going to meet with employees and evaluate operations on the facility.

Eng’s wage shall be $470,000 earlier than bonuses. Former GM Steve Poftak earned about $417,000 together with bonuses. Eng may have an annual retention of $30,000 and annually, starting in July 2024, he’ll earn success bonuses of 10%, 15%, and 20% of his wage.

Eng labored his method up the ranks of the New York State Division of Transportation beginning within the Nineteen Eighties, finally serving as govt deputy commissioner and chief engineer from 2013 to 2017.

He then served as Chief Working Officer of MTA, the place he oversaw profitable efforts to enhance the efficiency and effectivity of all companies, together with NYC Transit Authority, Metro-North Railroad, Lengthy Island Rail Highway and MTA Bridges and Tunnels.

It is time for a brand new method of doing enterprise on the MBTA. As an engineer, a 40-year transportation skilled and a commuter myself, I’ve centered on discovering progressive options to complicated issues and tackling them with a way of urgency that at all times places the client first, stated Eng. Mi We’re additionally dedicated to supporting the hardworking staff who hold the MBTA working and rising hiring to make sure we now have the workforce to offer the dependable service riders deserve.

ENG led the procurement and award of a $540 million contract to modernize the MTA’s cell ticketing system and improved the MTA’s procurement strategies to raised guarantee tasks have been accomplished on time, with lowered prices and with higher high quality and sturdiness.

From 2018 to 2022, Eng served as president of the MTA Lengthy Island Rail Highway, the place he managed a system of seven,600 staff and an working finances of $1.6 billion. He remodeled the system from having the worst punctuality efficiency in a long time to having essentially the most constant punctuality efficiency in railroad historical past.

Eng will face enormous challenges with the troubled public transport system that has come underneath fireplace in current months as he takes the helm.

One of many security issues was an Orange Line practice that caught fireplace in July on a bridge in Somerville, prompting dozens of passengers to evacuate the practice and one to leap into the Mystic River under.

The hearth was one in every of a number of questions of safety on the MBTA that triggered a federal investigation, which led to a scathing report from the Federal Transit Administration.

Video under: MBTA’s fierce safety report

Earlier this month, the MBTA carried out world pace restrictions on trains and trolleys after officers discovered they lacked correct security testing documentation.