Gee, not to sound racist or anything, but she seems like a typical Deval Patrick appointment. She was most likely appointed for her political connections, and likely “diversity” as well, not her proven executive ability or knowledge of large-scale transportation systems and logistics.
She acted the part—doing little, putting off problems, and traveling 1/3 of the year, most likely pontificating on social issues.
My surprise is that she’s gone so early in Charlie Baker’s tenure, especially after she got the expression of confidence of the rest of the Department of Transportation honchos. Something big behind the scenes must have come to Baker’s attention. He must have caught wind of some gross mismanagement above and beyond the fact that the “T” couldn’t handle the snow removal.
Watch this press conference:
http://www.myfoxboston.com/Clip/11121760/raw-mbta-gm-beverly-scott-holds-passionate-press-conference
This is reason one.
The T has been awful these last 2 weeks. The excuses are absurd. Boston gets snow and it is cold every winter. Furthermore it is the newer sections of rail that are failing (built in the 80’s and 90’s). There are no 111 year old trains, rails and switches in the system. The T has spent most of their budget upgrading stations to ADA and of course pensions.
Gross mismanagement?
They don’t even have a database of required maintenance on rail cars. Someone wouldn’t do that unless they purposely intended to conceal problems.