A senior Harvard University fellow and former Romney administration official is warning the MBTA needs to make drastic changes to combat rising expenses and more than $16 billion in debt and maintenance backlogs.

In a seven-point plan released today by the Ash Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, Charles Chieppo calls for better customer service for riders, a halt in T expansion projects, fare discounts for low-income workers and an end to the MBTA’s controversial pension fund.

“I think the Baker administration has done the right thing so far,” said Chieppo. “We need to be realistic about this. This is a horrible mess. Even if we do everything right, this will take years to fix. Revenue is going up by 1.6 percent every year and the costs are going up 4.4 percent a year. That’s a disaster.”

The MBTA’s newly formed Fiscal Management and Control Board, charged with improving the public transportation agency that’s already $9 billion in debt with $7 billion in maintenance backlog, has asked for an extension for a key report — due to the Legislature last Tuesday — detailing the plan to improve the T.

Meanwhile, Chieppo, a former member of the MBTA’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Forward Funding, suggests a number of changes, including:

• New customer-service standards at the T with updates on how well the agency is meeting those goals posted to the MBTA’s website. The state would pay a portion of the MBTA’s debt based on how well the agency is meeting those customer service goals.

• Fare discounts for low-income riders.

• A halt of all new expansions projects until the T eliminates the current backlog of repairs.

• A partnership with the state to reduce the costs of The Ride. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ transportation office provides similar service at about one-third the cost of The Ride.

• A push to take advantage of the MBTA’s three-year exemption from Massachusetts’ anti-privatization laws to contract out maintenance for its buses.

• An end to binding arbitration for the T workers’ union, a move which would put the MBTA under the same rules as the rest of the public sector and could save tens of millions of dollars.

• Closure of the MBTA Retirement Fund and a move to put all T workers and retirees under the state’s pension fund.

“It would be hard to do, but it’s been done before,” said Chieppo. “Pension funds have been closed and employees have been transitioned into other funds. The fact that this fund is not public is not acceptable. They are losing all this money and taxpayers are on the hook for all this money.”

Chieppo stressed the most important change needs to be better customer service for riders.

“I really like the idea of low-income fares if you can possibly afford it,” he said. “You need to have the first focus on customer service. The service has to be good so that middle class people who have other options chose the T because it’s the best value.”

Chieppo also suggested the MBTA could cut soaring costs for The Ride service for disabled and elderly riders by follow the much cheaper model set by the state’s Health and Human Services office.

HHS sends regular cars to pick up most riders and only sends specialty vans for those who may need it, including riders in wheelchairs, according to Chieppo.

“The T just sends out these tripped out vans for every person,” said Chieppo. “The contractors are paid by the ride, so the contractors have an incentive to do as many rides as possible and never double up on people going to the same place. I’m not talking about anything in anyway that would diminish the quality of service, but there’s a way to do it that would save a lot of money.”