Healey discussed T near misses with federal safety agency head

Gov. Maura Healey said she met Tuesday with the head of the Federal Transit Administration to assure the agency that just last week scolded the T for repeated worker safety lapses that her administration is taking the matter seriously. The meeting comes just days after even more incidents in which MBTA trains nearly missed workers on the tracks came to light.

Warning that "a combination of unsafe conditions and practices exist such that there is a substantial risk of serious injury or death of a worker," the FTA last Thursday further ramped up its scrutiny of the T and gave the agency until Wednesday to file a "detailed explanation" of the reasons a slate of near misses were not properly reported within the T and to overseers at the Department of Public Utilities.

Speaking on WBUR's Radio Boston Wednesday, the governor said the MBTA and its general manager "better" meet that deadline.

"I have confidence in GM [Phil] Eng and what he is is doing. As folks may know, I appointed a new GM to the T, he's the first engineer and first person with any transportation experience in the last eight years," Healey said.

"We have work to do. We have work to do and yesterday I met myself with the FTA administrator because I want to be clear with them that we are on it, that we will work with them, and that safety of workers and riders is our top priority. And so, nobody wants this with greater urgency than I do," she added.

Since the FTA put the T on notice last week, at least two additional near misses have been reported, first in The Boston Globe.

Just before noon on Monday, a two-person crew was inspecting northbound Red Line tracks between Harvard and Porter stations when a Red Line train approached. A T spokesman said it was reported that "a flagger signaled for an approaching train to stop but it did not." No one was injured.

But when a T investigator spoke with one of the members of the crew, the worker mentioned that a similar incident had occurred in the same area the previous Monday as well. The T said it is investigating the Sept. 11 and Sept. 18 incidents and that both were reported to the FTA and DPU.

Radio Boston host Tiziana Dearing asked Healey how something like Monday's incident happens "when we're on notice about making sure those aren't happening anymore?"

"Well, I think part of this is culture and this is one of the problems that we are confronting and that this new leadership team is confronting, and that we're working with employees on; making sure people understand that if there are issues, they need to raise issues, they need to say something as soon as they see them. We're not going to tolerate anything less and near misses are unacceptable," Healey said, adding that she had more meetings on the situation at the MBTA planned for Wednesday.