BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is set to meet with MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak next week to discuss the state of the region’s transit system.
The Red Line is still recovering from a derailment last month. The MBTA recently released footage from the incident at the JFK/UMass station.
Walsh suggested possible improvements to the T’s service.
“Increased service on the Fairmount Line, increased service on the Red Line. If it’s going to be slow, we need it to have it more frequent. So, we need more trains,” Walsh told WBZ NewsRadio.
Earlier this week, Walsh wrote a letter to the MBTA, asking for the increased service.
“As we know, the MBTA is not currently a functional service for many of the residents of Boston,” Walsh wrote in the letter. “While I appreciate the progress and urgency expressed by the MBTA in recent weeks, I still firmly believe we need better services on a faster timeline. As the MBTA works to fix the ongoing issues with its service, Red Line riders need better solutions today.”
Walsh has recently become more vocal about the MBTA, changing his tune about the transit system from previous years.
In September of 2017, when Amazon was considering where to locate its second headquarters, Walsh said he wasn’t concerned about mass transit and traffic.
“Most days the MBTA is reliable here, it’s just that when something happens it gets spotlighted by the press so bad it make it sounds like it’s crumbling. It definitely needs infrastructure upgrades … but I’m not concerned about that,” Walsh told reporters in 2017.
(MassLive/YouTube)
(Photo: Mario Jarjour/WBZ NewsRadio)
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WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal (@Karynregal) reports