“A private sector firm with this mountain of red ink would likely fold or seek bankruptcy.” - MBTA Review

Oh, it would have been so easy if the Patrick administration could have pinned all of the MBTA’s problems on Dan Grabauskas, the general manager whose ouster they engineered after a nasty internecine feud.

But an independent review commissioned by Gov. Deval Patrick and released yesterday unpacks all of the T’s dirty little secrets - and they amount to a decade’s worth of deferred maintenance and accumulated debt, in large measure the result of a financing model that has left the agency hundreds of millions of dollars short every year.

When Patrick asked David D’Alessandro to conduct the top-to-bottom review the focus was on safety, of course, and the report doesn’t sugarcoat it: Projects that would address critical safety or system reliability have not been funded - all because of a massive structural deficit projected to reach at least $550 million over the next five years.

And among the more than $2 billion in capital projects presently unfunded are many that address “urgent safety issues.” Example: The $80 million repair of tunnel leaks between the Red Line’s Alewife and Harvard stations, a threat to both safety and service. D’Alessandro even said he’d hesitate to ride that route, though he later downplayed those comments.

As any good private sector CEO would do, D’Alessandro has recommended against further expansion of the system “when the MBTA cannot maintain the existing one.” Patrick, who continues to promise the South Coast commuter rail service, ought to take that advice.

The report also recommends that the new leadership of MassDOT conduct an immediate review of the 51 projects deemed critical to life and safety but which are presently unfunded.

Yes, this report represents an important test for Patrick and his new transportation team. The T’s problems have been ignored at every level, but as D’Alessandro notes, it plays far too important a role in this state’s economy to allow it to deteriorate further. The “day of reckoning” is here.