Full article posted in Inside Worcester (PDF, page 5)

O’Neil defends maintenance-facility site

QUINSIGAMOND AVE.—No one is more sympathetic to the plight of embattled MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott, who recently resigned her position during “Snowmagadon” in the face of a furor over restricted and even eliminated commuter rail and bus service, than Steve O’Neil of Worcester’s RTA.

Mr. O’Neil knows Ms. Scott and like so many others who saw her in action on television he admires her pluck in defending the system she oversees. A virtual tsunami of snow and “not enough equipment” made her job in the present circumstances difficult, he said, plus “they had Big Dig costs dumped into their lap. Fifteen regional RTAs report to her” (she also has eighteen different unions to deal with). “We met with her on several occasions and she let us run our operations without interference.”

Her problem, he said, was, “if you operate service in the morning, you have to get (passengers) back.”

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