We’re taking a break from the political shenanigans today. For some time now I have been fed up with those click baity articles, “I ate FireBalls for a month and here’s what happened,” or “I moved to a treehouse in the middle of nowhere and here’s what I wish I had known.”
First of all I don’t know you and I don’t care, and second of all, maybe you should read more quality books and leave the shit writing for your journal. Just sayin’.
But my irritation hasn’t stopped me from kinda wanting to do it in my blog — just to mess with you. I may use that kind of title as a joke, but if I ever start writing that feces, please, please do an intervention.
However, a recent article in the Boston Globe Magazine gave me the amazing opportunity to have my click bait cake and not trigger an intervention. The June 1 issue profiled Phil Eng, the MBTA general manager, who I have admired since the Globe did a profile when he started, about 2 years ago. He arrived with great promise that **gasp** he has actually managed to fulfill.
Early in the article it says when T riders see him on the train they take selfies with him. This was my favorite line: “One woman has called the longtime civil servant her ‘celebrity crush’.”
That wasn’t me, but it could be. You have to understand that as a T rider since 1983, I have lived through multiple cycles of the system breaking down, the governor calling a committee to review the issues, the committee issuing a scathing report with a list of fixes from Haverhill to RI, the fixes costing a bazillion dollars, and the governor hiring a new GM who gets half of what they need, fixes 5 things in 2 years and then leaves. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
It can bring a public transportation girl down. But Phil, oh, Phil. He was different. The first profile the Globe did when he arrived highlighted his energy and his no nonsense approach. It gave me hope. He’s a civil engineer who likes people and solving sticky problems. He’s not just fixing the trains, he’s also changing the heretofore immovable MBTA culture and helping empower people. Crazy, right?
And yes, he has had entire lines shut down to do the work (and still does–hiya Green and Blue Lines!), but he met his goal of eliminating all slow down zones — and there were boatloads — by last December 20. It was the first time without slow zones in 22 years. Note that the slow downs were required for safety reasons, so that gives you an idea of what he was up against, I know there are still tons of issues, what with trains derailing and breakdowns, so don’t come at me. All this indicates how bad the problem is; it’s not his evil wish to make our lives worse, like *ahem* some people currently in office. He’s one of the good guys.
I saw him in person on the Green Line about a year ago and he was exactly as the article described, intensely talking on his phone the whole time, clearly a person in charge. When we got to Copley, he looked up, seemingly confused about where he was and he started chatting to a fellow passenger. The article says he commutes on the T daily from East Boston and asks people what could be improved. I got all giddy when I recognized him. What if I had been the one he asked? I probably would have gushed something silly like how much I liked him, like that time I served Aimee Mann a sandwich in the ’80s. Sigh. So, per my click baity headline, that’s my brush with civil servant stardom and what I did: nothing except admire him from afar and save myself some embarrassment.
Sadly the article is behind the paywall, and I’m a subscriber (quaint, right?). I really, really wanted to give you guys a link to a PDF I made, but as a writer and person over the age of 35, I know that is bad. Also a good friend works with copyrights, and would have, rightly, read me the riot act. You can take my word for it, he is all that and bag of Charlie Cards. In a world that’s running down, Phil Eng is working tirelessly to make sure that if nothing else, the trains will keep running. Thanks, Phil!
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/28/metro/phil-eng-mbta-general-manager/
Photo credit: It’s a a snip of one that appeared in the Globe by Joanna Fiona Chattman.
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