Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing how to fix years of problems at the MBTA while state government stands on the threshold of a major change, and in the opinion of a former US transportation secretary, they should use that timing as an opportunity to “think very seriously” about dismantling and reimagining the entire transit system.

In less than three months, a new governor will enter office, and in the process take control of an agency under pressure to reverse service cuts, find funds to address budget shortfalls and fuel a hiring spree, and respond to a Federal Transit Administration investigation that identified glaring safety problems.

Many of the issues at the T have persisted for years, prompting Rep. Paul Tucker on Tuesday to ask former US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood if the best approach at this point would be to pursue “a complete reset.”

LaHood, who in 2019 helped produce a 69-page report about safety failures at the T, replied that lawmakers have “got to look at that” as a viable option.

“The current system is not working. It simply is not. The FTA said that, we said that, and the people that are riding the trains have said it over and over again,” LaHood said. “If you want to start at ground zero, the timing is perfect for that right now, politically, because you’re going to have new people in these chairs. If I was in your chair, I’d think very seriously about doing that.”

LaHood, a former Republican congressman who served as transportation secretary in the Obama administration, was the lone witness at the Transportation Committee’s third MBTA oversight hearing.

He brought a unique perspective to the topic. Three years ago, after a string of incidents including derailments and crashes, the Baker administration tapped LaHood, former FTA Acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers, and former New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco to investigate safety problems at the T.

Their findings were harrowing. The panel concluded in a December 2019 report that the MBTA’s approach to safety was “questionable,” marked by “deficiencies in policies, application of safety standards or industry best practices, and accountability.”

The FTA’s investigation and report this summer made many similar conclusions, prompting a widely asked question: What happened -– or didn’t happen – for the same issues at the MBTA to persist in a second probe more than two years later?

In LaHood’s opinion, the answer is clear: Covid-19. He told lawmakers he “had confidence” that MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak was equipped to address the problems his 2019 analysis flagged. During the roughly three months between publication of the independent panel’s report and the start of the pandemic, the former secretary felt the T was on the right track.

“I believe right up to the point of Covid, he was doing a good job. He was carrying out the recommendations. He was trying to implement the safety culture that I’ve talked about. And then Covid put an end to all of that,” LaHood said.

The pandemic prompted ridership on the MBTA and other public transit networks to crater, depleting a key source of revenue.

Speaking with reporters after Tuesday’s hearing, LaHood described the April 10 death of Robinson Lalin, a rider who became trapped in a Red Line door, as “very alarming.”

“You just can’t have that happen,” he said. “But you know, it is what it is, the FTA has stepped in, they’ve written a report and we move forward.”

Lawmakers offered mixed reviews of LaHood’s pandemic line of thinking. Transportation Committee Co-chair Rep. William Straus said there’s “no question that (Covid) played a role.” His counterpart, Sen. Brendan Crighton, said he believes there are “areas where the (the T) fell short, regardless of the pandemic,” pointing to Poftak’s push to transfer $500 million from the agency’s operating budget to its capital budget.

“The Covid excuse doesn’t really line up too well there,” Crighton said. “We’ve been told time and time again that ‘We have all the money we need.’ Clearly that wasn’t true.”