The federal government has ended four years of intensive safety monitoring of the MBTA, returning oversight to the state. The change directly affects riders on the Green Line's C and D branches through Brookline.

Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday, Sept. 18, that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) formally closed its final special directive on Sept. 11. The move hands safety supervision back to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU).

FTA Acting Director Jamie D. Pfister signed the Sept. 11 letter crediting the DPU for strengthening its safety oversight capabilities, according to Streetsblog Massachusetts. A small number of corrective actions remain from the hundreds the FTA originally demanded. The DPU will now oversee the MBTA's progress on those items directly.

The federal intervention began in May 2022 after a pattern of derailments, collisions and injuries across the system, including the death of a man dragged by a Red Line train. An FTA investigation produced a 90-page report in August 2022 finding the MBTA was understaffed, undertrained and too focused on long-term capital projects at the expense of daily operations.

The report also found the DPU lacked resources and rarely used its authority to hold the agency accountable.

The FTA threatened to pull federal funding if the state did not act. That pressure led to some of the MBTA's largest recent projects: eliminating slow zones caused by track problems, hiring new workers and upgrading equipment, WCVB reported.

In response, the DPU created a Rail Transit Safety Division and hired Robert Hanson, a former Amtrak Police Department official, as its first director, according to MassLive. The division added 13 full-time staff over four years. It now employs investigators, engineers, data analysts and lawyers who conduct independent inspections of trains, stations and maintenance facilities.

Phillip Eng, who serves as both MBTA general manager and interim secretary of transportation, was hired in 2023 to lead the agency's turnaround. In a statement Sept. 18, Eng said the conclusion of the federal review "reinforces that the investments the MBTA is making in our workforce, service, and infrastructure are paying dividends."

DPU Commissioner Staci Rubin said in a statement that the agency had delivered on its commitment to build stronger oversight. Rubin credited the DPU's rail safety staff and support from the Legislature.

No Brookline officials had commented publicly on the development as of Friday. The Green Line's C and D branches are Brookline's primary transit artery, and service on both lines was directly affected during the federal oversight period that began in 2022.

The DPU will continue monitoring the MBTA's remaining corrective actions, though no deadline for completing them has been announced.