Phil Eng Skips Rare City Council Subpoena Over $164M Blue Hill Ave. Plan

MBTA General Manager Phil Eng will not appear Friday morning before the Boston City Council’s Civil Rights, Racial Equity, and Immigrant Advancement Committee despite a rare Phil Eng subpoena tied to the planned $164 million redesign of Blue Hill Avenue, the Boston Globe and NBC10 Boston reported Thursday.

Lisa Battiston, a T spokesperson, told the Globe that Eng will miss the hearing “due to a previously planned vacation with his family.” The session is scheduled for about 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in the Iannella Chamber. Eng also serves as Gov. Maura Healey’s interim MassDOT secretary.

What the Phil Eng subpoena demanded

Councilor Miniard Culpepper filed the summons order after Eng did not appear at an Oct. 14 committee hearing on rapid-transit inequities and a resolution backing study of an Orange Line extension along Blue Hill Avenue. Eight of 13 councilors voted for the order last month — only the second such subpoena the council has issued in more than a decade, the Globe reported.

The written summons, filed Oct. 21 and circulated by Universal Hub, ordered Eng to appear Nov. 6 at 10 a.m. to testify on Docket #1340 and #1341 and to produce 2022–2026 crash data for Blue Hill Avenue and comparable corridors including Columbus Avenue, where a center-running bus lane already operates. The order cites longstanding rapid-transit gaps in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan after the Washington Street Elevated’s removal in 1987.

Culpepper says court enforcement is still the plan

In a Thursday interview with the Globe, Culpepper said enforcing the subpoena through the courts is “still the plan.” “He can play around with it all he wants, but we’re not withdrawing the subpoena,” Culpepper said. “We’re not going to meet with him. We want him to testify under oath.”

Battiston said the MBTA has told the council it is willing to join more community meetings and meet councilors directly about the project. Culpepper also asked interim chief of streets Chris Osgood to attend Friday; as of Thursday it was unclear whether Osgood would appear, the Globe reported.

Attorneys quoted by the Globe have warned that forcing a state employee to testify could require the council to retain counsel and go to court, and that jurisdiction questions remain unsettled. Former city corporation counsel William F. Sinnott previously called the path “fraught with political and legal peril.”

Why Blue Hill Avenue is the flashpoint

The city and T plan a major overhaul of the crash-prone commercial corridor through Black Boston, eventually adding a center-running bus lane and other infrastructure. Culpepper and Councilor Brian Worrell have led opposition and pressed officials to weigh extending the Orange Line under Blue Hill Avenue instead — an alternative they say would take hundreds of millions of dollars and years longer.

Eng attended two September community meetings on the project and met privately with Culpepper and Worrell in June, according to the Globe. Mayor Michelle Wu’s office last month said it does “not believe that subpoenas are a constructive way to engage with close partners in government” and urged more productive engagement. Councilor Sharon Durkan, who voted against the summons, saw a 2024 USPS postmaster subpoena go unenforced after the witness defied it.

What happens Friday

The hearing proceeds without Eng. Committee members plan to examine civil-rights implications of rapid-transit inequities, NBC10 Boston reported. For riders already navigating November disruptions — including the Green Line shutdown beginning Saturday — follow corridor and Boston traffic updates through our desks. The political fight over Blue Hill Avenue now shifts from whether Eng would show up to whether Culpepper’s committee will take the rare next step of asking a court to compel him.

Political stakes beyond one missed hearing

Blue Hill Avenue is one of the region’s most watched street projects because it sits at the intersection of traffic safety, racial equity and scarce capital dollars. Supporters of the center-running bus lane argue the corridor needs fast, reliable bus service now, not a multi-decade rail dream. Opponents say a lane redesign without a rail study locks in a second-class transit future for neighborhoods that lost the elevated Orange Line a generation ago.

That is why Culpepper framed the summons around civil rights and crash data, not only schedule politics. The PDF order asks for fatalities, serious injuries and mode details along Blue Hill Avenue and Columbus Avenue from 2022 through the latest available 2026 figures — numbers that would let the committee compare outcomes on a corridor that already has a center bus lane with the corridor that would get one. Without Eng under oath, councilors say those questions stay unanswered in a public record.

Friday’s hearing still matters for the public file even if the subpoenaed witness is on vacation. Testimony from city transportation staff, if Osgood or others appear, and from residents who show up in the Iannella Chamber will shape how hard Culpepper pushes a court petition. For readers following City Hall oversight fights, the test is whether Boston’s legislative branch will spend political capital to enforce a tool it almost never uses.

Sources

• Boston Globe: MBTA’s Phil Eng will not testify despite subpoena
• NBC10 Boston: MBTA chief to skip City Council meeting on Blue Hill Ave. revamp
• City Council summons order for Phillip Eng (PDF via Universal Hub)