Don’t let MBTA go off the rails

Only a far-ranging effort that involves sacrifice from all those with a stake in public transportation - from elected officials to T managers to the agency’s rank-and-file workers to the millions of riders whose ability to get around depends on the system - will keep the authority functioning.

When Governor Patrick asked former insurance executive David D’Alessandro to conduct an independent review of the MBTA, he may have gotten more than he bargained for. D’Alessandro’s critique of the agency is devastating: Among other problems, the T is funding only a tiny minority of capital projects that its own managers deem critical to protecting life and limb.

On the Red Line between Harvard and Alewife, for instance, concrete slabs beneath railway lines are moving out of alignment because of water leaks, fasteners that attach the track to the concrete are deteriorating, and the signal system along the track is corroding. These conditions threaten to slow the Red Line to a snail-like 10 miles per hour, and raise the possibility of a train derailment. But the T lacks the $80 million needed for the repair.

The fiscal equation is simply impossible. Legislators badly miscalculated in 2000, when they assumed that giving the T a penny of what was then a 5-cent state sales tax would be enough, when combined with fares and other T revenue sources, to help the T cover its own operating costs and pay down its multibillion-dollar debts. Sales tax revenues have fallen short. Fare collections have turned out to be greater than legislators expected, but so have the system’s energy costs and other operating expenditures.

The MBTA can’t even argue that at least it’s paying down debt rapidly. From fiscal 2001 to 2008, the agency paid $515 million less on debt than previously projected. To balance its budget, the agency simply refinanced - read, postponed - some debts. That simply passes on the problem - at greater cost - to future administrations.

And yet D’Alessandro’s report isn’t an argument for pouring more money into the system. There are practical barriers: Amid a recession, T riders are feeling tapped out. But a reasonable system of planned fare hikes should be part of a multifaceted solution, along with reduced labor costs, leaner management, and greater state aid. Among the imperatives:

Improve oversight of debt. The MBTA can’t keep postponing its debts. Maybe the board of the state’s new transportation super-agency, known as MassDOT, will demand a better approach. But the Legislature has the ability - and the responsibility - to ask questions on behalf of taxpayers and riders.

Fix a dysfunctional culture. In an interview Wednesday, D’Alessandro echoed longstanding perceptions of the MBTA as a place where hardly anyone is rewarded or punished for what they do. He reviewed 100 to 150 personnel files of T retirees, and none of them contained a word about whether the employees were doing their jobs well or badly. Of about 5,700 workers, 2,200 have standing doctors’ notes saying they or someone in their care have a chronic condition that may require their absence from work. And while it’s possible for a T employee to be fired for a major offense - consider the Green Line trolley operator who was accused of texting his girlfriend before a crash - D’Alessandro said no one has been fired simply for poor performance in at least 10 years. It’s a slack culture. Improving efficiency could help morale as well. Unfortunately, the benefits of such reforms accrue slowly, and only after an enormous investment of managerial effort and political capital.

Hands off the jobs. D’Alessandro said T officials complained to him that legislative leaders involve themselves in hiring and firing decisions. Two lawmakers who acknowledge having made phone calls are Representative Joe Wagner and Senator Steve Baddour, cochairmen of the Transportation Committee. Both describe such calls as merely informational - “a heads-up,’’ as Wagner puts it, “that so-and-so has made an application,’’ or, as Baddour puts it, an inquiry into whether a constituent is being treated fairly. On the other end of the phone line, though, such appeals can sound like pressure, and Wagner, Baddour, and all other legislative honchos should keep out of individual personnel decisions. The MBTA is in way too parlous a state to take on or retain any employees for political reasons.

Invest in safety first. Under an agreement with the Conservation Law Foundation the MBTA is bound to push forward with several beneficial projects to mitigate the environmental impact of the Big Dig. The state expects to spend, for instance, $29 million on a design study for the Red Line/Blue Line connector. Yet that project will not be built anytime soon, and in the meantime the T also has to be able to guarantee the integrity of the assets it already has. The agency can make a strong argument that shoring up safety and reliability on the current network would help in preserving and expanding transit ridership.

Let’s not kid ourselves: The T will need more money, both from riders and the Legislature. Every day, hundreds of thousands of workers and their employers depend upon the system - and by taking people off the roads it promotes mobility even for those who do not use it. Yet the agency is stuck in a vicious cycle that promotes cynicism; enormous debts incurred in the course of building the system eat up money that could be used to operate the system - and make the benefits of seeking incremental efficiencies seem so vanishingly small as to be pointless. But the public needs to be reassured that the managers and elected officials with power over the sprawling, aging system take seriously their responsibility to run it well.

Patrick and the Legislature should come up with a comprehensive rescue plan as soon as possible, and spare no constituency in solving the T’s enormous problems.