Saddled with a hulking fiscal deficit, massively over-budget projects like the Green Line Extension and a system of vastly outdated equipment, DePaola has his work cut out for him.

Brockton native Frank DePaola was thrust into the hot seat last year in the middle of a snowy, cold crisis that crippled subway services, causing shutdowns and chronic delays throughout the MBTA.

Saddled with a hulking fiscal deficit, massively over-budget projects like the Green Line Extension, and a system of vastly outdated equipment, DePaola promised to restore service and public confidence as the new general manager of the MBTA.



Gov. Charlie Baker called last winter’s performance by the MBTA unacceptable – the former general manager resigned, and eventually DePaola was tapped for the position on a permanent basis, with the expectation that he could help put the T on the right track.



“I think we’ve restored service,” said DePaola, with a laugh, during an interview in his Boston office last week. “I can confidently say that. We’re working still on the public confidence.”



Growing up in Brockton



DePaola grew up on Cambo Street in Brockton with a sister, a policeman for a father, and a mother who worked in a factory in the city that produced calendars and advertising materials.



In his family, DePaola said, there were two options for a career path – engineering or policing. As someone who is technically inclined, working on cars with an interest in the building trade, he chose the former.



DePaola, who has never been unemployed since graduating from University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth – except for the three days it took him to drive to his first job working on dams in Louisiana – said that his Brockton background helped shape the man he is today.



“Yeah, that blue collar work ethic that Brockton has been known for,” said DePaola, who graduated from Brockton High School in 1973. “I enjoyed growing up there. I feel I had a great education. It gave me a good foundation.”



Inside his Boston office, DePaola keeps a copy of a Rocky Marciano Stadium highway sign from his time as the state’s highway administrator. The sign is the same that directs motorists on Route 24 to the stadium and Rocky statue.



“Now they’ll know I’m from Brockton,” said the MBTA head, sitting behind a desk on the third floor of the Transportation Building on Park Plaza in Boston.



DePaola and his wife bought their first home on the North Side in Brockton, before he eventually settled down in West Bridgewater, two miles away from the home he grew up in the Campello section of the city.



DePaola said he typically starts his day at the office at 6:15 a.m., and that he likes to take the commuter rail train into Boston from the Campello station about half the time.



“I like to take the commuter rail so I can read and catch up on things, rather than driving,” DePaola said.



Budget deficit



DePaola was in Brockton for a public meeting in late January at the West Middle School, as one in a series of meetings across the state to discuss potential fare hikes as the MBTA deals with a $242 million budget deficit. The transit agency put forth two fare increase options for its array of bus and subway services, which would raise CharlieCard fares by 10 to 15 cents.



While the Brockton meeting was tame by comparison to others, DePaola said he is used to getting in front of crowds to explain tough situations and taking the backlash in stride.



He recalled doing so in a former leadership position with the MBTA, when people were irate about prematurely crumbling concrete ties on the commuter rail.



“I never see this as Frank DePaola at odds with our customers,” he said. “I see it as me attempting, along with the MBTA staff, to deliver service that everybody is asking us to deliver.”



With an operating budget that approaches $2 billion, there is a lot of pressure on the MBTA general manager. The fare hikes would only help generate between $30 million and $49 million, he said. At the same time, the subway system is using cars that are decades old. Last year, when the Red Line broke down, people complained that the MBTA kept the T cars moving during the Blizzard of ’78. But those trains are the same ones in operation today, DePaola said.



Despite the pressure, DePaola said he just tries to be frank with the public.



“I think they want to be assured that, as they pay that fare, that their money isn’t being wasted,” he said. “We are trying to turn the tide and put more money into the backbone of the system and get the reliability up, so people can count on the system on a day-in, day-out basis.”



Green Line setbacks



Another tough situation that DePaola is dealing with is the Green Line Extension project, which started with construction in 2012 to bring the subway 4.7 miles farther to Somerville in Medford.



But the project stalled after the cost cost spiked to $3 billion, about a billion dollars more than the original estimate. The MBTA recently cut ties with four contractors involved with the Green Line Extension and DePaola said that it’s back to the drawing board.



“We eventually ended up designing a project we couldn’t afford to build,” he said. “We’re doing all our look-back exercises to see if we can get the project slimmed down to fit back within the budget that we originally set for it.



By May, the MBTA is hoping to revisit the project and DePaola will make a recommendation to the agency’s board of directors on whether to go forward or to pull the plug. “Both options are on the table,” he said. “But we definitely have to get the cost of the project down to the original scope.”



Improving performance



When DePaola came aboard as the new general manager of the MBTA last year, the head of the company providing commuter rail service was just fired.



Since then, DePaola said he has worked with Keolis to reinvest $7.5 million in state fines that the company racked up in its first contact year for supbar service, late arrivals and dirty trains.



“We’ve worked with them very closely, and we’ve had some positive results,” he said. “One thing we did is structure a performance improvement plan. We made some key investments into Keolis.”



Those improvements include the hiring of 30 more conductors. Since then, fair collections have gone up, DePaola said.



“The second thing we did is invest money into the customer communication side, to keep people informed so people ... have a much better idea of services that day,” he said.



DePaola said the results show. This past December was the highest on-time performance the French company had since its contract began on July 1, 2014.



“The previous five-month period was their best period in the contract,” DePaola said. “Those investments are starting to show real, tangible results.”



South Coast Rail



The MBTA continues to move forward with the South Coast Rail project, despite the fact that some in southeastern Massachusetts believe it will never bring commuter rail trains to Taunton, Fall River and New Bedford.



Former Gov. Deval Patrick proposed $1.8 billion in spending to make it happen. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released an environmental report, stating that the project could go ahead.



The project is now in the design/permitting phase, but DePaola said state transportation leaders are being cautious with this one.



“We are being very careful and deliberate with how we move forward that project because of the sensitivity of the Hockomock Swamp and other wetlands in the Brockton and Easton area,” he said. “We learned a lesson on the Green Line Extension.”



For now, some early contracts in Fall River and New Bedford include bridge replacement projects and grade crossing upgrades.



A ‘knack’ for tough situations



Throughout DePaola’s career, he has been put in some tough leadership roles. But DePaola said that’s fine with him.



“I think I just have the knack of going in, identifying problems and issues, trying to figure out what the root causes are, making those changes you need to make so those problems don’t repeat themselves, and then move the agency forward to other accomplishments,” he said. “I’ve been able to do that my entire career. I like doing it. I like the challenge. The T is a challenge. But I believe things are better.”



So, would the MBTA be prepared if Boston got the same amount of snow as last winter, when 110.6 inches were dropped on the city?



“We’re confident that we’d be prepared in the event of a large snow emergency to respond appropriately,” said DePaola, adding that the agency now has new deep snow removal equipment at its disposal.



DePaola said that since he took the helm, the T system is becoming more reliable, ridership levels are up and revenues are rising.



“I don’t want to say that complaints are down,” he said. “They are level. ... I think eventually people will see that the system is becoming more reliable and something they can count on.”



