BOSTON (WHDH) - Congressman Seth Moulton, D-Salem, slammed the MBTA and questioned its ability to meet the goals laid out in a scathing Federal Transit Administration report that dug into the T, particularly for its prioritization of long-term projects over day-to-day maintenance.
“The T is a disaster,” Moulton told 7NEWS. “We’re not gonna fix this just by closing the Orange Line down for 30 days.”
The report, which makes its case over 90 pages, found that the MBTA “has diverted management attention and resources from the agency’s operations and maintenance,” has “adopted limited safety practices in the field,” lacked effective safety communication and hasn’t met its own standards for training and quality control.
Moulton said he thinks the MBTA is not equipped to meet the FTA’s expectations from the report. He noted that MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said that over half the recommendations laid out in the report “are things that the T hasn’t even considered,” Moulton said.
“This is really basic stuff, like making sure you have enough people operating your business and making sure that you have ways for people to report safety concerns,” he said. “What’s so shocking about this report is how basic it is.”
To remedy these issues, Moulton said the T needs a “top-to-bottom organizational change at the MBTA,” including new safety and operational cultures, better customer service and a better approach to routine maintenance. He added that the T’s announcement that they’re creating a new Quality, Compliance and Oversight Office “is just absolutely not enough,” and called it “a relatively small change.”
Finally, Moulton called for “a lot of people to be fired at the MBTA,” which includes Poftak.
More detailed information on the report, and a link to the report, can be found here.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)