Where's Charlie?

The Kingston Trio brought us a classic song about “poor old Charlie” who faced the prospect that “he may ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston” because he didn’t have a nickel to pay a subway fare increase.

That fate does not await Charles Duane Baker, who can scrape together an extra buck if he deigned to venture on to the MBTA Green Line. His problem won’t be Scollay Square Station (now Government Center.) Nope, it’ll be the $2.3 billion Green Line Extension.

Just when you thought the saga of Mr. Baker’s Transit Authority couldn’t get worse, the Boston Globe informs us the problem of misaligned rails was known as far back as April 2021, “before the project opened, when the ribbons were cut, and ever since.”

Phillip Eng, hired by Governor Maura Healey six months ago to run the troubled transit agency, said simply:

“I did not know the extent of it until recently, after having a chance to review the project documents. I wish I had known earlier. Yes. Because then I think we would have tackled this.”

Healey, who took office in January and has been loathe to criticize her predecessor, offered one of her most pointed jabs:

“…senior MBTA officials under the previous administration knew about issues with the Green Line extension tracks years ago and did not disclose them to our administration or address them on their watch.”

The Baker administration was quick to tout its role in rescuing the Green Line Extension from cost overruns and missed deadlines. It trumpeted the hiring of John Dalton as a manager to oversee the project. Heck, the transit-averse uber manager even deigned to take a joy ride in December 2021, more than a year before he left office.

But as they say, success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Listen to Baker spokesman Jim Conroy:

“[T]he governor’s office ‘was never informed of the gauging issues with GLX and Governor Baker hopes that MBTA and the contractors involved will address these issues as soon as possible.’”

Dalton and former T General Manager Steve Poftak have headed out, but it seems clear that there are current employees who were also aware of the issues but remained silent. A strong case can be made that they should be packing up their desks today.

A bigger question involves who else should be held responsible, something the Massachusetts Legislature should examine.

But those lawmakers would have to shine a spotlight on their own oversight, or lack thereof, on one of the principal causes of concern about the state’s “competitiveness.” — a public transit and highway system that causes people to stew in traffic or at T stops waiting for trains that run every 20 minutes in “rush hour.”

To borrow a phrase from the late Tennessee Senator Howard Baker during the Watergate hearings, what did he know and when did he know it?

And as for the current president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association?

“May he ride forever on the tracks to Medford…”