Ron Nickle, the MBTA’s top safety official for almost eight years, told the Federal Transit Administration that a top MBTA employee urged the safety department to alter an investigative report related to a 2015 runaway Red Line train, a high-profile incident that embarrassed the agency. In his 97-page federal complaint, Nickle alleged the MBTA also pressured the commuter rail system to put a premium on on-time performance, not safety.
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Nickle’s statement said he was told repeatedly to avoid blaming systemic problems for safety violations that affected commutes. When a Red Line train ran along the tracks without a driver in December 2015, MBTA officials revealed that an employee had jury-rigged a cord around the train’s throttle to override safety controls.
In public, officials had insisted the practice was exceedingly rare. But in his statement, Nickle said he had interviewed several employees who said it had been relatively common — and that Gonneville told him to “be careful” about revealing such information in a report.
Great.
I mean, the root cause of the safety issues is that the T is largely unmaintained, due to Charlie Baker wanting to stick it to Boston on behalf of his resentful base. But it is better to know about the issues than to sweep them under the rug.