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10 MBTA employees on leave amid criminal investigation at South Boston yard
The allegations reportedly concern MBTA employees misusing T resources and working on private vehicles during working hours.
Ten MBTA employees are on administrative leave amid an investigation into allegations they were misusing T resources for non-work-related activities at a South Boston maintenance yard.
MBTA Transit Police are investigating potential employee misconduct involving non-MBTA vehicles at Cabot Yard, the T confirmed Friday. The agency did not say when the investigation began.
“We take these allegations very seriously, and any findings from this investigation will be addressed appropriately and in alignment with our core values,” MBTA General Manager Phil Eng said in a statement.
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Eng told The Boston Globe the allegations concern employees working on private vehicles during working hours, though he reportedly declined to give specifics on the investigation into the “potential of criminal activity.” WCVB previously reported the investigation includes surveillance video of T employees detailing and working on their personal vehicles inside the maintenance facility while on the job.
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An agenda for Thursday’s MBTA Board of Directors meeting mentions an executive session discussion “to investigate charges of criminal misconduct or to consider the filing of criminal complaints.” Speaking to the Globe, the board’s outgoing chair, Thomas Glynn, confirmed the Cabot Yard matter was a topic of discussion during the closed-door session. Boston.com has reached out to Boston Carmen’s Local 589 for comment.
“As public servants, we have an obligation to properly fulfill our duties, not only for the public we serve but for our entire workforce, and we will take all necessary actions regarding this matter,” Eng said in his statement.
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During his presentation to the MBTA’s board Thursday, Eng highlighted the T’s recent victories — chief among them, the vast reduction in speed restrictions systemwide — but also reflected on the agency’s recent struggles.
“Unfortunately, we had several incidents recently that remind us that we have so much more to do,” Eng said.
On Oct. 1, a Green Line train derailed near Lechmere Station, and a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that the trolley was traveling at more than three times the speed limit and failed to stop for a signal. Only a couple weeks later, a man was mortally wounded when an MBTA bus driver struck him at Forest Hills Station; Glenn Inghram died the following day.
In his comments to the MBTA’s board, Eng also spoke about his ongoing efforts to reform the agency’s culture and empower the workforce to speak up and pitch new ideas or say when there’s a better way of doing things.
“Let’s show that we can deliver,” Eng said. “Let’s show how we support one another and having each other’s back and knowing that speaking up, whether it’s a safety-related thing or procedural thing, that’s what we need to do, and it’s important for us to really do that.”
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Shifting the culture, he said, is “probably the hardest thing.”
“No one person can do this,” Eng added. “It takes the whole team, top to bottom.”
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