BOSTON — Membership for the new Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority board of directors is complete after Gov. Charlie Baker appointed five members to the seven-member board.
State House News Service reports Betsy Taylor, a veteran of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation board, will chair the new board, which replaces the Fiscal and Management Control Board. Its legislative authority expired earlier this year.
Baker’s other appointments are Robert Butler, vice president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, who fulfills a requirement for a representative of organized labor under the law that created the new board; Thomas (Scott) Darling, a safety consultant who has previously worked for the MBTA and Chicago Transit Authority; Travis McCready, executive director of the U.S. Life Sciences Market; and Mary Beth Mello of Mello Transportation Consulting, who has previously worked with MassDOT and the Federal Transit Administration.
State Transportation Jamey Tesler is also part of the board, as is Quincy, Mass., mayor Thomas Koch, appointed by the MBTA Advisory Board representing municipalities that help fund the transportation agency.
All members except the transportation secretary will serve four-year terms without compensation, although they can be reimbursed for expenses up to $6,000 per year.
Good to see the mayor of Quincy on the board. MBTA’s Red Line South Shore extension helped turn Quincy and adjacent Braintree from okay suburbs into booming cities. Quincy, my former home town, has four stops on the Red Line – North Quincy, Wollaston, Quincy Center, and Quincy Adams. Quincy Center is also a stop on commuter rail and a major bus transfer point. Pronunciation is “Quinzee” as in the name of the 6th President. The 2nd president and John Hancock also were locals.
For those not familiar, MBTA’s five transit lines, Red, Green, Blue, Orange and Silver, are dissimilar. The Red LIne is the star of the show. Some of the others, well, could use some help. Here’s hoping for the new board.
Well Charles, my favorite, the Green Line, could be a “star” if the T would implement a technology that is hardly new, traffic preemption. But if they haven’t done it by now given the delays the trolleys have sustained for years waiting at a road crossing for the light to change, doesn’t seem there is any hope.