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Minority transportation group to convene in Hub

Yawu Miller
Yawu Miller is the former senior editor of the Bay State Banner. He has written for the Banner since 1988.... VIEW BIO
Minority transportation group to convene in Hub
Conference of Minority Transportation Officials National Chairman Bob Prince speaks about the group’s upcoming conference in Boston as RMV Registrar Celia Blue (left) looks on.

Bob Prince began driving MBTA buses in 1976, a year when Boston was gripped by racial tensions. Riders on Prince’s decidedly un-diverse route routinely used the n-word, but he stuck with the job, rising through the ranks to general manager of the agency, which by 1999 had nearly a third of its workforce made up of blacks, Latinos and Asians.

Prince left the MBTA in 2001 to serve as vice president of the transportation consulting firm AECOM, but he’ll rejoin his old colleagues this summer for the annual meeting of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, which will be held in Boston this year. Prince serves as the group’s national chairman.

As much as the MBTA changed during Prince’s 25 years at the agency, the state’s transportation landscape has undergone substantial changes since then. Now, nearly 40 percent of the workforce at the MBTA is made up of blacks, Latinos and Asians — up from 32 percent during Prince’s tenure. And two of the top four state transportation officials are black women.

The changes came under the direction of Gov. Deval Patrick and Transportation Secretary Richard Davey, Prince said.

“It changed over time because people at the top wanted to make it change,” he commented. “It doesn’t work if you don’t have a governor who’s working with you, if you don’t have a Legislature that’s working with you. If you don’t have a general manager who cares about it, it won’t happen. We’ve been fortunate over the last several years to have people at the top who cared about making sure that equality and diversity and inclusion were part of what we did.”

Prince spoke during a COMTO meeting last week to announce the group’s 2015 Boston conference, July 11–14 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.

Mayor Martin Walsh also spoke at the COMTO meeting, saying, “Transportation officials from all across the country will see what Boston is all about.”

Boston is hosting the conference for the second time (the first time was in 1999), and that’s no small feat, noted Registry of Motor Vehicles Registrar Celia Blue.

“There is actually a competition between all of the chapters,” she said. “The significance of this organization coming is great.”

And with the planned extension of the Green Line through Somerville and new stations and rapid transit service planned for the Fairmount Line, Boston is undergoing significant growth in its public transit infrastructure. Major changes have taken place within the state’s four transportation agencies as well, Blue noted, which now share resources under the Mass. Department of Transportation.

“It was a major piece of reform that put us all under one umbrella,” she said. “This is where the innovation starts. We can look at our processes and your work and streamline it. We’ve moved to a shared service model where we have, for example, our HR department supporting the rest of the department. It’s not four HR departments, it’s one combined HR department.”

For many of those in the room, COMTO has provided a vital link, connecting transportation officials with mentors across the country.

“COMTO has been an unbelievable support to my career,” said MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott. “I probably wouldn’t be where I am without them. It’s a remarkable organization with a very big focus on leadership development.”

Prince said the 2015 conference will give the city another chance to showcase its progress.

“I’m hopeful that bringing this conference back from ’99 to now will show people the remarkable change in the city of Boston and the opportunities in Boston,” he said.