For many former employees at the MBTA, retirement came earlier than for most: The average age of people receiving payments from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority pension fund is 55, according to information released Thursday by the transit authority.
Managers of the T’s pension fund, which is considered a private trust under the law, have long been criticized for failing to make public the amounts of money provided annually to former T employees. A transportation finance bill passed in the state House in July required that the state make the pension fund information public.
On Thursday, the MBTA released a list 6,357 names, many of whom are receiving pensions as a vestige of a now-abolished program that allowed employees to retire and receive a pension after 23 years of service.
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According to the list, the highest annual pension is $76,881.84, given to Joan Martin, who retired in 2003 at the age of 53 as deputy general manager for organizational diversity, labor relations, and employee relations.
In the number two spot was Robert Prince, former MBTA general manager, who retired at 52 and receives $76,617.72 per year, followed by Alan Castaline, former deputy chief operating officer for the MBTA, who retired at 56 and receives $75,879.72 annually.
Compared with other state-financed pensions, the figures received by the highest-paid retirees at the T are relatively modest: Among all people receiving retirement payouts from the state, the highest annual pension is about $243,000, given to Aaron Lazare, former chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The lowest MBTA pension is $769.68.
But setting the T’s pension apart: About 22 percent of the people receiving yearly benefits from the fund are 50 years old or younger.
The MBTA pension fund has drawn scrutiny because of a controversial retirement program, dubbed “23 and out,” which allowed T employees to receive substantial pensions after 23 years of working at the agency, no matter how old they were. Critics complained that employees in their 40s were retiring from the transit agency with significant payouts.
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That program was abolished in 2009, when the state passed a law to restructure the transportation department.
Martine Powers can be reached at mpowers@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @martinepowers.