2 MBTA Derailments Greet General Manager Phillip Eng To Job

BOSTON, MA — The MBTA saw two work equipment derailments on the Blue and Red Lines within an eight-hour time frame Monday night—Phillip Eng's first day as MBTA general manager—and Tuesday morning, a spokesperson told the Boston Herald.

T spokesperson Joe Pesaturo told the outlet that a “rail-borne vehicle with welding equipment derailed at a track switch near Orient Heights” Monday night, while Blue Line service was suspended for scheduled work on the tracks.

Hours later, at around 7:15 a.m., another derailment occurred on the Red Line when “the back wheels of a piece of work equipment came off the rails on a track siding along the Red Line,” according to Pesaturo.

No injuries or damage were reported as a result of either derailment, Pesaturo said.

Read the full report at the Boston Herald.

Governor Maura T. Healey announced March 27 that after a comprehensive search, they selected Phillip Eng as the new General Manager of the MBTA. Eng is an engineer with nearly 40 years of experience in transportation, including as President of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Long Island Rail Road and Interim President of New York City Transit.

Eng's appointment comes in a years-long period of trouble for the MBTA. The Federal Transit Administration in August released an inquiry into T safety, and ordered the agency to make immediate changes.

"Safety data show that, from Jan. 1, 2019, through April 2022, MBTA experienced a higher overall rate of reportable safety events, particularly on its heavy rail mode, and a higher rate of derailments on both heavy and light rail modes, than its peers and the total rail transit industry average," the report said.

At a news conference on the day he was appointed, Eng said "It is clear that that the MBTA's service is not at the level that it needs to be and it hasn't been that way for far too long,"

"It's time for a new way of doing business at the T," Eng added.

Patch reached out to the MBTA for comment.