MBTA veteran delays retirement to become acting chief operating officer

John C. Lewis, a 23-year veteran of the system who rose through the ranks to management, was persuaded to delay a retirement planned next month and stay on as acting chief operating officer, effective Nov. 12.

The chief operating officer runs the daily nuts and bolts of the T, the nation’s fifth-largest public transit system.

He’s the man accountable for keeping the buses, trains, and trolleys safe and on schedule and making sure the system gets up and running after a breakdown.

The position is especially important now, when the general manager of the MBTA, William A. Mitchell Jr., is also serving in a temporary capacity and has no experience in transportation operations. Mitchell served as general counsel for the T for 14 years before he was promoted to acting general manager in August, following the highly publicized ouster of Daniel A. Grabauskas.

Lewis “was kind enough to commit to stay a little longer until we get my role clarified and a permanent team put in place,’’ Mitchell said. So far, given budget constraints, Lewis has not received a raise from the $111,000 salary he earned while serving as deputy general manager.

Lewis, 46, realizes he has several major challenges before him at the T, but he is still hoping to get the job on a permanent basis, he said.

“The biggest issue that I face right now is maintaining the infrastructure and service reliability as well as improving efficiencies and productivity,’’ Lewis said last week. The number of challenges the T faces right now is daunting: a large deficit projected for the next budget year in July, a multibillion-dollar long-term debt problem, a multibillion-dollar backlog of maintenance projects and equipment needs, safety questions raised by the National Transportation Safety Board following two serious Green Line crashes in the course of a year, and the recent management shake-up (Lewis’s predecessor told bosses he was retiring the same day he failed to show up for a safety presentation he had been ordered to give in front of the MBTA board).

“There’s a lot of issues with morale and uncertainty,’’ Lewis said. “I think, going forward, the fact that I have been appointed acting chief, at least people know that there is somebody in charge and things will begin to settle down.’’

Lewis started his career as a junior signal engineer, a rare path for the highest levels of MBTA management.

Even those who work their way up the ranks usually spend more time running trains, buses, and subways. Lewis understands the often overlooked parts of the system - the signals, the communications, the maintenance - that often break down because of age and a lack of money to replace them.

Brian Kane, budget and policy analyst for the MBTA Advisory Board, said Lewis is a good choice. But he would like the state to move more quickly in filling the top jobs at the T on a permanent basis. Jeffrey Mullan, state transportation secretary, has delayed naming permanent leaders because the state began a transportation overhaul this month, requiring a new management structure.

“There’s good people out there that are making moves nationwide that we’re not looking at because we haven’t made this fundamental decision about what our model should be,’’ Kane said. Mullan said last week that he will probably make two full-time hires: a high-level administrator who will oversee rail and transit strategy for the entire state and a second person who will serve as a strong chief of operations for the MBTA.

That structure eliminates the position of general manager, who has traditionally run the T.

Google Transit eases the way, but not without a few bumps in the road

The arrival of Google Transit to the Boston area this summer has been a boon to MBTA passengers, providing a pretty easy planning tool for getting around a sometimes tricky region. But it also has some hidden quirks.

Scenario One: Try planning a trip from 395 Boylston St. to 555 Boylston St. in Boston on the website. That’s about a 1.5-block walk, heading west. But Google Transit suggests walking a half a block east to Arlington Station, then taking the trolley for three blocks, before walking another half-block east again.

That trip would cost you $2 if you pay cash. But of course, you wouldn’t take it. You would walk. (And if you just looked at the map, the silliness of taking the T would jump out at you.)

Scenario Two: Try planning a trip from the New England Aquarium to Terminal B at Logan International Airport. Google Transit suggests taking the Blue Line to Maverick Station, then walking through the back roads of East Boston for 17 minutes until you reach the terminal.

That’s not a wise trip either. In real life, you would get off at Airport Station and then hop on a Massachusetts Port Authority shuttle to reach the terminal, without risking life and limb walking on an airport access road.

Danny Moraff, a senior at Commonwealth High School in Boston, told me about the second scenario. He learned about it while interning at the state transportation department over the summer. Danny loves transit and maps and has worked with Google to integrate the MBTA as well as the Lexpress bus service in Lexington into Google transit.

He says that some quirks, like the Massport shuttle scenario, depend on programmers adding data about the bus service and making sure the locations are mapped correctly. Because the Logan shuttle is not run by the MBTA, it has to be added separately. But other issues, like the Boylston Street scenario, are less likely to change.

“I assume if you search any two things close together for public transit, it will find you kind of a stupid route,’’ Moraff said.

The system is designed to give people transit as the first option, if that’s what they are requesting. Senior citizens often use the Green Line to travel a block or two, he noted. And even though transit is the first option listed, Google provides at least one pedestrian alternative on the results page.

Elaine Filadelfo, Google spokeswoman, gave a similar explanation in an e-mail. She said she would tell the Google programming team about the Logan Airport issue, because it may not be a safe route.