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The general manager of the MBTA is taking the unusual step of visiting New Bedford and Fall River on Thursday to make an announcement about South Coast Rail.
Phil Eng will speak at Bristol Community College in Fall River and later at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, two months after the MBTA delayed the project without announcing a new timeline.
The reasons for the delay aren’t entirely clear. Most construction of the new stations is complete, though minor work on the stations and tracks is still going on. The project is now in a months-long safety testing phase. The MBTA is installing and testing signal systems, according to construction updates.
Top city officials around the South Coast said the MBTA hadn’t shared a firm timeline with them. The agency has not answered questions about the status of construction and safety testing in recent weeks.
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New Bedford Light transportation reporter Grace Ferguson will be joined by State Rep. Bill Straus and officials from the SRTA, South Coast Rail and the Realty Association of Southeastern MA.
Since April, a new project manager has been conducting a review of the project and its schedule. But an MBTA spokesperson wouldn’t say how long the review is expected to take and did not make any officials available for an interview.
“The MBTA will share more information once this review is complete,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We anticipate sharing more information with the community soon.”
The agency appears ready to break its silence this week.
On Wednesday afternoon, the MBTA suddenly announced that Eng will provide an update on the project at two public meetings on Thursday.
The meetings will be held at Bristol Community College in Fall River at 5:30 p.m. and at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford at 7:30 p.m. More information is available on the MBTA’s events page.
When reached shortly after the announcement on Wednesday, a New Bedford city spokesperson said the mayor’s office had not been contacted about the meetings in advance, but the planning department may have. A spokesperson for Fall River said Mayor Paul Coogan’s office had been informed ahead of time.
Chris Dempsey, a transit advocate who served as the state’s assistant secretary of transportation under Gov. Deval Patrick, said he will be watching Thursday’s announcement closely.
Eng’s presence at the meeting could mean the announcement will be significant, he said.
“The general manager is a person with a lot on his plate,” Dempsey said. “His personal attendance at a public meeting should be commended and shows the attention that the T is paying to this — but also potentially the seriousness of the news that will be delivered.”
Delays have plagued the $1.1 billion South Coast Rail project for decades. Late last year, the MBTA moved the launch date from late 2023 to summer 2024. Then, at a community meeting in Fall River on April 10, a South Coast Rail official said the project would probably not meet that deadline.
Since then, the MBTA has left local leaders and the public in the dark about the project’s schedule. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell has been asking the agency to share a new launch date.
“It’s a little frustrating,” he told WJAR last month. “They need to put some deadlines in place.”
Mitchell’s spokesperson denied The Light’s request for a 10-minute interview with Mitchell, saying the mayor had nothing more to say on the subject.
Mitchell is right to be frustrated, Dempsey said.
“This is about public tax dollars and public trust,” he said. “That’s a fundamental right of citizens and communities, to know that this public agency is being responsible with funds and thinking about the communities it’s trying to serve.”
He said the MBTA should be more transparent about what’s causing the delay and how it will be fixed. Pressure from public officials might have pushed the MBTA to schedule the last-minute meetings, he added after Wednesday’s announcement.
The MBTA has not shared any details on what the new project manager’s review entails. But Dempsey said it’s not unusual for a review like this to go on for as long as it has. It could mean that there’s trouble with the project, or it could simply mean that the new director is being diligent, he said.
“I think it’s totally reasonable, as a new director comes in, to allow that director to have time to get a comprehensive view of what’s happening,” he said. “But again, this is where the under-communication from the MBTA raises doubts and concerns.”
Karen Antion, the new manager, has overseen safety system installation projects for the agency since 2017. She receives a $445,000 annual fee and up to $540,000 in other benefits under her current three-year contract with the agency, which expires at the end of this year. The project’s previous manager, Jennifer Tabakin, made $230,400 last year, according to state payroll data.
New Bedford Station, near downtown off Acushnet Avenue. Credit: Antonio Beltrán / The New Bedford Light 
Wamsutta layover facility near New Bedford Station, where trains will be stored when not in use. Credit: Antonio Beltrán / The New Bedford Light 
Church Street Station, in the North End near Kings Highway. Credit: Antonio Beltrán / The New Bedford Light 
Church Street Station, in the North End near Kings Highway. Credit: Antonio Beltrán / The New Bedford Light 
Wamsutta layover facility near New Bedford Station, where trains will be stored when not in use. Credit: Antonio Beltrán / The New Bedford Light
See more drone footage of the stations →
Paul Chasse, chairman of the New Bedford-based Rail to Boston Coalition, said he can understand why the MBTA didn’t want to commit to a new schedule when it has already blown through two self-imposed deadlines.
“I don’t necessarily fault them for not having a date right now,” he said.
But he added that the MBTA should be providing the public with specific status updates on construction and safety testing, even if it can’t yet commit to a launch date.
Given that the pandemic happened in the middle of construction, Chasse said, it’s encouraging that the project is only running a year behind.
On Wednesday afternoon, Chasse did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the public meeting announcement.
The MBTA would not provide information about the cause for the delay in response to The Light’s recent inquiries. Some observers believe that it has to do with safety protocols.
In some areas, people have gotten used to riding bikes and ATVs on the train tracks because there hasn’t been regular daily train service in decades, said Jay Pateakos, Taunton’s director of economic development. He said the agency is still working on its safety analysis.
“This whole process has been so meticulous, and if it makes it safer, then it’s worth it,” he said.
South Coast Rail will make New Bedford, Fall River, Freetown, and Taunton part of the MBTA’s commuter rail network. Trains will carry passengers from the South Coast to Boston’s South Station via the Middleborough line. It will be the first train service from New Bedford to Boston since 1958.
New Bedford will have two stops: Church Street Station, in the North End, and New Bedford Station, near the Whale’s Tooth parking lot off Acushnet Avenue. The stations, including platforms, canopies, and parking lots, have already been built.
New stations will also open in Fall River, Freetown, Taunton, and Middleborough.
The stops will have bike shelters and electric vehicle charging stations. A pedestrian bridge, now under construction, will arch 70 feet above Route 18 to connect New Bedford Station with downtown.
A trip from New Bedford to Boston is likely to cost around $12.75 to $13.25, based on existing routes of a similar length. A monthly pass is likely to cost around $400. The agency will run three trains between New Bedford and Boston at peak commuting times in the morning and afternoon, plus some in the middle of the day, officials told The Light last year. They haven’t released a specific schedule yet.
A trip between New Bedford and Boston will take about 90 minutes. Another branch of South Coast Rail will connect Fall River and Freetown to points north.
Email transportation reporter Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
It’s a significant delay of the project, it’s the only reason they would be announcing it this way. I guess that it may be a year or more before we see the train.