“You can go to ribbon cuttings, you can make big announcements, you can talk about innovation. But what makes a system run is the stuff behind the scenes you never want to think about.”

“This is progress,” Livable Streets executive director Stacy Thompson said. The work will be slow and it could be a “bumpy summer,” but she sees Eng as the right pick.

"It's the kind of nuts and bolts experience we want to see in the T," said Thompson. "This isn't about ribbon cuttings, this isn't about announcements, this is about literally getting the trains back on track. You want someone who is going to prioritize that in the weeds, behind the scenes operations work that he seems to have many, many years of work in."

“It’s not the sexy stuff, it’s not the ribbon cuttings. It’s literally getting the trains running on time,” she said. “And that seems to be what his specialty is.”

Thompson said the frequent nature of the MBTA's problems does not make them acceptable. She says they are the result of decades of neglect, adding that investments are needed now.

“There is a false narrative that the T is an impossible thing to manage,” said Stacy Thompson, executive director of advocacy group LivableStreets Alliance. “Maura Healey does not have an insurmountable challenge. She has a choice.”

"There is really no major city globally that has a thriving economy without a transit system," she said. "It really comes down to people can't get downtown to go to a great restaurant, they can't go downtown to go to work, they can't get across town to get to a doctor's appointment."

Stacy Thompson, LivableStreets executive director, said she expects slow zones to persist for a “couple of years” across many different lines.

“They should be aiming for people to have the information they can revolve their lives around,” she said. “That’s better than having an ambitious plan they know they can’t meet.”

Thompson pointed to a 2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study that found that low-income passengers who received a 50% discounted fare took more trips than lower-income passengers who paid a regular fare, including more trips related to with health and social services.