MBTA general manager says he’s reachable
As federal safety officials delivered a scathing report Tuesday on last year’s fatal Green Line crash, complaining in public about “a lack of safety culture’’ at the local transit agency, the MBTA’s general manager was notably absent from public view.
It turns out that Daniel A. Grabauskas was on furlough at an undisclosed location, where he will be all week, he said yesterday.
The absence at such a key moment baffled state transportation secretary James A. Aloisi Jr., who chairs the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority board and tried to reach Grabauskas Tuesday, a spokesman said.
Aloisi “was frustrated that he wasn’t there to answer questions,’’ said Colin Durrant, a spokesman for Aloisi (who also made no public comment following the National Transportation Safety Board report Tuesday).
After the Globe called the MBTA press office last night to inquire about the furlough, Grabauskas called back directly to demonstrate that he was reachable, by cellphone or through his office, and was in constant touch. He said Aloisi left him a message related to T business Tuesday, but did not mention the May 28, 2008, crash and did not ask him to call back. “I’m linked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,’’ he said. “If anybody claims I’m not reachable, they didn’t try to reach me.’’
Grabauskas said he had scheduled the week off as a vacation, and turned it into furlough time after he decided that all senior management at the financially struggling agency would have to take unpaid leave. Grabauskas would not say where he was: “It’s none of your business, but it’s a happy family vacation.’’
