The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority failed to use anti-icing fluid on its third rails or operate with reduced schedules during this winter’s storms, steps commonly taken by other cold weather transit systems to keep trains running, the T’s interim leader told legislators Monday.
Frank DePaola, the T’s interim general manager, told lawmakers that the agency made “eye-opening” discoveries when it compared its practices to peers in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Toronto, after Boston’s snowiest winter walloped the transit system and stranded thousands of commuters.
Among the discoveries was that other cities’ transit systems use special maintenance trains, rather than passenger trains, to remove snow.
Hearing this, legislators on the joint committee on transportation questioned why the T was so far behind other cities that experience winter weather. Representative Evandro C. Carvalho asked why the T hadn’t “caught up” with other cities.
“Some of these, especially the recommendations they made, sounded to me — and I’m no expert — but the anti-icing thing and that you shouldn’t be using the Red and Orange line cars to clear snow, sounded to me kind of basic,” Carvalho said.
