In March 2017, Eng was named chief operating officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, then became the New York City Transit Authority's interim president for four months beginning that October.[2][5] In 2018, he became the 40th president of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR).[2][6] In that role, he enacted the initiative "LIRR Forward" to improve the system's reliability, setting on-time records in 2020 and 2021.[7]
After he retired from the LIRR in 2022, he was hired as executive vice president of the LiRo Group, a construction management firm.[8]
Eng was appointed by Massachusetts governor Maura Healey to head the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and started as general manager in April 2023.[9] At the time he assumed leadership, the MBTA faced a maintenance backlog worth an estimated $24.5 billion.[10] In his first year, he vowed to clear the slow zones that plagued many of the MBTA's lines and recover ridership lost to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.[11]
The MBTA had been widely criticized for mismanagement before Eng's appointment; the executive director of the agency's advisory board told Axios six months into Eng's term in leadership that "with Phil Eng, it's like the adults are finally in charge."[12] He is the first MBTA general manager since 2015 with previous experience leading a transit agency.[1] In April 2024, Boston.com ran an "unscientific" poll of its readers, finding the plurality of readers giving Eng a grade of 'A' for his job performance at the MBTA. While some were frustrated by the deliberate shutdowns created to clear the slow zones, most readers had praise for Eng's tenure in Boston transit, emphasizing Eng's positive changes in transparency, communication, as well as tangible improvements in their commutes.[13] Eng has also been lauded for his improvements in management and culture at the MBTA.[14]
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