Responding to federal stress, MBTA GM Phil Eng has painted a passenger pushing an aged girl off a bus as not indicative of how the company has made “significant strides” in security.
The normal supervisor says he and his colleagues “appreciate” the Trump administration’s “interest in and concern for public safety on the MBTA’s transit network,” and federal funding is essential to its general success.
Eng’s remarks got here in a letter he despatched to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who demanded that the T submit stories that determine actions taken to discourage crime, cease fare evasion, and supply a clear atmosphere for riders.
Duffy’s order got here after a pair of assaults on bus riders on the finish of the summer time.
The U.S. Division of Transportation centered its assertion, which accompanied Duffy’s demand for info, on a 63-year-old girl being shoved off an MBTA bus at a cease in Roxbury on Sept. 8, weeks after a person allegedly eliminated his belt and struck a rider within the face and neck aboard a bus in Cambridge on Aug. 16.
Luz Pineda, the passenger arrested for viciously shoving the elder girl off the bus, is barred from driving the transit community, amongst different punishments, after pleading no contest in her case on Friday.
Roxbury Choose Connor Barusch additionally ordered Pineda, 32, of Boston, to finish an anger administration program, to keep away from and never contact the sufferer, and to proceed with psychological well being remedy.
By Sept. 24, the Transit Police Division has seen a 16% discount in recorded crime throughout the system this yr, responding to 528 incidents in comparison with 632 in the identical interval final yr, in response to Eng.
The lower in crime, the GM stated, aligns with the MBTA persevering with to see a gradual enhance in each day ridership, at a ten% clip, between 2024 and 2025.
Eng related the company’s “significant strides” in reliability and security to its partnership with the U.S. Division of Transportation and the Federal Transportation Administration.
“However,” he wrote, “I want to emphasize that this is only the beginning of our aggressive approach to accelerate the delivery of projects and service improvements for the riders, communities, and businesses we serve.”
Duffy warned that if Eng didn’t reply to his order for a report outlining the company’s actions to enhance security for riders and transit employees inside 14 days, there could be a threat that the T would lose federal funding.
Trump’s transportation secretary additionally ordered info from Chicago.
“President Trump cares about our great cities and the hardworking Americans who inhabit them,” Duffy stated in a press release on Sept. 19. “While local leaders seem intent on putting the needs of criminals first, we’re not waiting for the next Iryna. Chicago and Boston are on notice to take actions that enhance safety and reduce the crime affecting their riders and transit workers — or risk losing federal support.”
Duffy was referencing Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to demise on a prepare in Charlotte, N.C., on Aug. 22.
“This is about standing up for American families who deserve a safe and clean transportation system,” Duffy stated.
Eng highlighted how the MBTA has “made substantial progress” since 2023 after he joined the company.
The MBTA grew to become simply the second U.S. subway system to bear a federal security administration inspection in April 2022, following a collection of security failures that culminated in a passenger being dragged to demise by a prepare. Eng attributes that to “insufficient staffing and an extensive maintenance backlog.”
As of final Tuesday, the Transit Police Division has 228 sworn officers, a quantity that Eng acknowledged he envisions increasing considerably after adjustments have been made to state legislation permitting the division to rent “more officers outside of the traditional hiring process.”
The division has a objective of bringing its workforce to 276 officers by the summer time of 2027, Eng acknowledged.
“Over time,” the GM wrote, “through transparent communication about the issues we were facing, the trust we built within our workforce extended to our ridership. Throughout this process our commitment to safety has been paramount.”
“We understood then, as we do now,” he added, “that if riders do not feel safe and secure on our network, they will not use it.”
Duffy additionally directed Eng to focus significantly on “key transportation and intermodal hubs such as South Station.” Duffy’s deputy director of transportation, Steven Bradbury, prompt in August that the Trump administration was contemplating taking on the state-owned South Station to deal with safety.
In his letter, Duffy suggested Eng that the MBTA ought to goal federal funds for “capital expenses related to crime prevention and security activities” at South Station, “the second-busiest transportation hub in New England.”
In line with Eng, the Transit Police Division has recorded 22 crimes at South Station in 2025, a 16% discount yr up to now. Almost half of these crimes have been larcenies, the GM acknowledged.
Doorways have opened to a 51-story mixed-use tower above South Station, a $1.5 billion non-public funding that features 13 new bus terminal bays and three retail areas within the bus terminal.
The undertaking has additionally introduced new platform safety cameras, whereas fare gates are being put in and slated to be accomplished by the tip of the yr, Eng acknowledged.
“We recognize that our work is never done,” the GM wrote to Duffy, “and we continue to challenge ourselves to deliver a best-in-class transit system that the public deserves and expects — with safety as a core component in everything we do.”
MBTA Transit Police photograph
Boston girl Luz Pineda has been charged with assault and battery on an elder or disabled particular person with harm after final week’s MBTA incident. (MBTA Transit Police photograph)
