Feds reject MBTA plan for track safety, which calls for 2024 completion
BOSTON - The MBTA's plan to improve track safety for workers and contractors has to be resubmitted, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) said in a May 19 letter to MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng.
The MBTA submitted a work plan on May 5 after the FTA requested immediate action to improve worker safety. However, the MBTA's plan suggested completion dates as late at 2023.
"Given the immediate risk to worker safety on the ROW (right of way), FTA requires direct and focused actions," said the letter.
The FTA has given the MBTA until June 5 to submit a plan to have right of way safety processes in place within 60 or the MBTA will lose its access to the right of way.
Earlier this month, five Amtrak workers were hurt and taken to hospitals after two trucks crashed in Hyde Park near the Readville MBTA commuter rail station.
Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan said one of the railroad's trucks collided with another Amtrak track truck. He said the collision "caused substantial damage to the vehicles involved." The workers were part of a maintenance group.
