MBTA General Manager Out After 15 Months On Job

BOSTON — MBTA General Manager Luis Ramirez is leaving the agency after a little more than a year in charge. MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board Vice Chair Steve Poftak will take over Jan. 1, the transportation secretary announced Tuesday.

Ramirez was appointed general manager in September 2017. He is out 15 months into a three-year contract that paid him $320,000 a year. The MBTA said it was a mutual parting and is effective immediately.

“I was brought in to the MBTA from the outside corporate world to bring a fresh business perspective and skills to the MBTA,” said Ramirez. “With the progress we have achieved around financial and operational execution, this is a good time to transition to someone with different skill sets.”

Ramirez's departure comes at a time when the MBTA faces constant criticism about the system. The Green, Red and Orange lines are about to get serious upgrades to increase capacity and reliability. Since 2015, the T has about tripled its spending, up to $900 million annually, and that is expected to rise to $1.4 billion, according to the agency.

Poftak, the former interim GM, comes with 16 years of public policy experience, a network of relationships and familiarity with the key challenges facing the authority.

Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville will run the agency until Poftak moves into the role.

Poftak said his goal is to accelerate improvement of MBTA service and reliability.

“The more I have been exposed to the MBTA’s workings from the inside, the greater respect I have for the ability of the MBTA workforce and managers to operate this enormously complex system every day and to develop and implement ways to improve performance,” he said in a statement.

Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said Ramirez helped with key initiatives such as procuring a new operator for The RIDE dispatch center, advocating for bus lanes and ensuring on-time installation of Positive Train Control.

Pollack said the MBTA was looking for a seasoned leader, and found that in Poftak.

“Steve Poftak is the right person to facilitate a smooth transition and continue the important work to reform the MBTA for customers,” she said. “Steve knows the personnel, he knows the issues, he knows the system, and most of all, Steve knows the importance of accelerating progress toward fixing the MBTA.”

Poftak, who served as MBTA Interim general manager for three months in 2017, is stepping down from his current position of executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he has served in that role for6 1/2 years. Previously, he served for 6 1/2 years as director of research of the Pioneer Institute. Poftak also spent some three years in state government working on the state budget, including experience managing the Commonwealth's $1.3 billion capital budget at the Executive Office for Administration and Finance.

Related:

• Green Line Cars To Get A Futuristic Redesign
• MBTA's $723M Charlie Card Replacement Plan Approved
• $1 Billion Green Line Extension Approved Monday
  
• MBTA's Hopeful Vision Of The Future
• Winter Is Coming, And So Are The New Orange Line Trains

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff