MWRTA Chief Ed Carr Stepping Down In 2022

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The leader of the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA) will step down in 2022, he told the MWRTA board during a Monday meeting.

MWRTA chief Ed Carr was hired as the system's first administrator in 2007. He'll leave the agency in June for retirement coinciding with the end of his current contract.

"As the RTA grew in size and personnel, it also became the vision of all of us on the team to carry out that goal," MWRTA employee Eva Willens wrote in the agency's newsletter released Tuesday. "Ed would be the first to ell you that this was certainly not something that could have ever happened without the support of others, but Senate President Karen Spilka would most likely tell you that it was Ed who made the RTA a reality."

Spilka helped create MWRTA in 2006 as part of a larger statewide stimulus bill. Service began in Framingham the following year, and Natick's neighborhood bus system was added soon after.

Framingham, Holliston, Hopkinton, Natick, Ashland and Wayland were the original members of the authority. Since then, Milford, Dover, Hudson, Marlborough, Hopedale, Wellesley, Sudbury and Weston have joined.

The system is served by a central hub in downtown Framingham, but also connects to commuter rail stops in Natick and Ashland, and the Woodland Green Line stop in Newton.