Federal Report On MBTA Safety Investigation Expected Wednesday Morning

MALDEN, MA — The Federal Transportation Authority may release its report on safety issues within the MBTA on Wednesday, sharing findings months after it launched an investigation earlier this year.

Officials will gather for a press conference at 10:30 a.m., according to multiple reports from outlets including WCVB and the Boston Globe.

The agenda for a separate MBTA Board of Directors meeting also notes the pending federal report, acknowledging that the Federal Transit Authority may release its findings during the meeting. The board is scheduled to recess to review findings once they are released.

The federal government began investigating the MBTA in May after a series of safety issues, including an incident in April where a man was dragged to death after getting his arm caught in a Red Line train door.

While the investigation has continued, officials issued a set of emergency directives back in June, prompting the MBTA to reduce frequency on the Orange, Red and Blue lines due to staffing shortages at its operations control center, among other issues.

The MBTA then opted to implement its 30-day shutdown of the Orange Line earlier this month to accelerate maintenance along the subway route.

Just last week, officials announced that they would extend frequency reductions on subway line and cut service on more than 40 bus routes around Boston due to continuing safety concerns and staffing shortages.

Incidents have continued at the MBTA as officials wait for final results from the Federal Transit Authority.

This week, a woman was taken to the hospital after she fell and got her leg caught between a Red Line train and a platform at Alewife Station in Cambridge.

A fire on an Orange Line train in July previously attracted major attention and new criticism for the MBTA.

Local officials have voiced some of that criticism particularly in recent months, noting what many have said has been a series of decisions that led to drastic steps like the closure of the Orange Line.

“If we had been keeping up, we might not be in this situation,” Malden Mayor Gary Christenson said of maintenance concerns in a conversation with Patch on Aug. 15.

State Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian called the MBTA’s Orange Line shutdown and “indictment of decades of underinvestment and management oversights of the Commonwealth’s mass transit system” in a statement shortly after the shutdown announcement earlier this month.

“If the MBTA had done a better job maintaining its infrastructure over time, and especially addressing potential safety risks, then we wouldn’t be in this unbelievable situation today of having to completely shut down a major subway line for a month!” State Sen. Jason Lewis added in his own statement at the time.

The Federal Transit Authority’s final report is also expected to include an assessment of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, which handles oversight of the MBTA, as reported by the Globe.