House Speaker Ron Mariano addresses reporters while Senate President Karen Spilka (center) and Gov. Charlie Baker (right) look on following the trio's semi-regular meeting on June 6, 2022. State House News Service Photo

Massachusetts lawmakers are pointing the finger at the governor’s office for the latest MBTA problems and promising an oversight hearing, a day after the agency slashed subway frequencies in the wake of safety directives from federal investigators.

On Tuesday morning, as riders adjusted to reduced subway service to help the agency comply with Federal Transit Administration safety directives, House and Senate leaders released a statement announcing plans for a hearing at some point to learn more about the T’s operations.

“The FTA’s findings and the MBTA’s subsequent service cuts don’t inspire any public confidence in our transit system,” Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka said in a statement. “Since 2015, at his request, Governor Baker has had control of the MBTA. It has since been the Administration’s responsibility to keep up with maintenance and manage an efficient system that customers can rely on. Given the FTA’s interim findings and alarming directives, there is an increased need to better understand the agency’s shortcomings and help restore public confidence. Therefore, we will work with the Joint Committee on Transportation to conduct such a hearing in the coming weeks.”

Baker and his appointees control the public transit agency and the governor has pointed to historic increases in capital spending at the T while swatting away calls for new operating revenues at the agency. The House in 2020 approved a transportation revenue proposal but it died without a vote in the Senate, and the transportation revenue debate has not revved back up since then.

Transit advocates have been warning for weeks that the T needs additional operations money to prevent FTA directives from sapping funds from current services. The House Ways and Means Committee began polling its members on Tuesday on the latest redraft of an infrastructure bond bill (H.4867), now bulked up with $400 million in additional funding to go toward “projects to address ongoing safety concerns related to the interim and final findings uncovered during the Federal Transit Administration’s Safety Management Inspection initiated in April 2022.”

In its emergency orders issued last week, the FTA criticized the state Department of Public Utilities, which is charged with overseeing the MBTA’s safety record and is itself controlled by Gov. Charlie Baker as part of the executive branch. One FTA official said the agency “has not fully exercised its authority over the MBTA to help work on safety culture,” and must ramp up its oversight. The MBTA also has its own chief safety officer, Ronald Ester, who reports to General Manager Steve Poftak.

Baker aides on Friday did not respond to a News Service request for his reaction to the FTA findings. The governor’s office did not release a public schedule for Baker for Tuesday.

An FTA investigation revealed that the T’s control center, akin to an air traffic control tower for the agency’s three heavy rail subway lines, is so short-staffed some dispatchers are working 20-hour shifts with only four hours between some shifts. On Wednesday, the FTA ordered T officials to immediately rectify the situation as part of a package of four emergency safety directives stemming from that investigation. A more complete report with additional directives is expected in August.

Shortly after noon Friday, the MBTA announced that weekday service on the Blue, Orange and Red lines – equivalent to trains every five, seven and 11 minutes, respectively – will be slashed nearly in half, to Saturday service levels. That will mean Red Line trains will only arrive every 14 to 15 minutes on its Braintree and Ashmont branches, Orange Line trains every 10-11 minutes during rush hour and Blue Line trains every seven to nine minutes, with higher frequencies before 9 a.m. when the many service-sector workers in Lynn, Revere, Chelsea and East Boston use the line to commute to work.

“If you’re not a regular @MBTA rider and want to understand how devastating this is, imagine if @MassGovernor announced that because of safety concerns half of all highway lanes in MA are now closed indefinitely,” former transit advocate and state auditor candidate Chris Dempsey wrote on Twitter.

The T carries nearly 680,000 people every weekday, roughly 259,000 of whom ride the three subway lines hit with the cuts according to April data, the most recent available on the transit agency’s public performance dashboard, and ridership has substantially increased over the last six months. The transit system is seen as vital to ensuring commuters can reach workplaces around the metro area and preventing crushing traffic on its roads.

“With a limited number of dispatchers, these new timetables allow the MBTA to schedule dispatchers in compliance with Federal Transit Administration directives, and continue delivering service in a safe and reliable manner,” the T said in a statement. “If dispatch capacity permits, there may be days when the MBTA can increase the number of trains in service. And as soon as sufficient dispatch capacity exists, the MBTA will revert to its previous level of service.”

The T said it is “exploring multiple options” to add more dispatchers to its control center, including an “aggressive” recruitment campaign with bonuses and potentially hiring back former dispatchers.

Prior reporting by Banker & Tradesman staff writer James Sanna was included in this report.