Mass Live | By Gintautas Dumcius | October 31, 2016

“The only way to evacuate those passengers was to do what the [train] operator did – leave his cab to try to manually open each car door,” O’Brien told members of the oversight board of the MBTA on Monday. “But Governor Baker’s first public comments were a cheap shot, criticizing the operator for his actions, thinking it would have been better to do nothing more than try to speak to panicked passengers in smoke-filled cars on an intercom,” O’Brien said.

“You gotta love the governor – he’s a great Monday morning quarterback, sitting in the comfort of his trooper-driven SUV.” The “real problem,” according to O’Brien, is an “old, rundown train” caught fire on the Orange Line. A similar incident is likely to happen again, he said.

“The T’s answer to the Herald last week was to point out it will make payments this year on new cars – cars procured three years ago by the previous administration,” O’Brien continued. “Progress payments on new cars is a positive, but it doesn’t address failing tracks, switches, and malfunctioning cars that need to last for years until the new stock arrives.”

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