Transportation planners are taking a victory lap in the Seaport following the expansion of the Silver Line and incremental but widespread improvements to subway and train frequency citywide.

The Seaport Transportation Management Association (TMA) held a ceremony on July 29 to honor Philip Eng, the general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). While the MBTA has been getting back on its feet in many ways following years of chronic underfunding, the TMA wanted to give particular attention to how it’s upgraded the Silver Line serving the Seaport, South End, Chelsea and Logan International Airport.

“In the last two years we’ve seen numerous meaningful improvements to the Silver Line. A new fleet, better frequency and improved service for the tens of thousands of riders that depend on it,” said TMA Executive Director Patrick Sullivan. “The Silver Line is more than just a bus line. It’s among the Seaport’s most critical pieces of infrastructure. Simply put, it’s the travel option we rely on most to get people into our neighborhood.”

Sullivan attributed much of the Seaport’s explosive growth in recent years to the easy access it enjoys to Boston’s travel hubs, in part through the Silver Line, which this year proposed an expansion to link up with the Orange Line in Sullivan Square.

The Seaport’s business community turned out as well to show its gratitude, with speeches from both neighborhood staple the Boston Children’s Museum and EMD Serono, a medical research company that just arrived in the Seaport this month.

“Today we see young families coming not just to visit the museum but also the parks, playgrounds, restaurants and waterfronts that have sprung up in the Seaport. Much of that growth would not have been possible without the Silver Line, and the continued investment to ensure it keeps pace with the growth of the neighborhood,” said Charlayne Murrell-Smith, the museum’s VP of external affairs.

“This move to Boston will be a huge change for many of our employees, which is why we opted to relocate to the Seaport instead of Cambridge or any other part of Boston,” said Kate Cingolani, head of NA communications for Serono. “The Seaport is one of Boston’s most transit accessible neighborhoods, with close proximity to the Silver Line and many other options. Public transit is important for getting our employees into the office consistently, quickly and affordably.”

Eng, for his part, highlighted the many new employees it’s onboarded as it expands to new areas and the steady progress it’s made toward more consistent coverage.

“You can’t just rebuild infrastructure without rebuilding our workforce, the men and women of the MBTA who we continue to hire. We just brought on 40 new Green Line operators, and I want to thank everybody for their efforts,” he said.

Eng hired 15 more employees just that morning, keeping up the pace that’s thus far netted more than 1,200 new workers since he began as general manager. The total MBTA workforce now sits at around 7,600, meaning almost one in five MBTA employees today has been hired in the last year under Eng’s leadership.

The Red Line reopened on July 29 as well after being shut down and replaced with buses over the weekend. That was originally supposed to allow seven speed restricted sections to be repaired, but Eng says they managed to remove nine, reducing restricted track to less than 7% of the subway network.

“We’re not just building back to where we had it, we’re going to build back better. The Red Line from JFK to Braintree, we’re restoring that signal infrastructure and increasing speed from 40 mph to 50. That will give people back 27 minutes of their day on a round trip. Those things are what gets people out of their cars,” he said.

Eng said all speed restrictions should be lifted by the end of the year, allowing the subway network to focus its infrastructure funding on expanding coverage.

In an interview after the event, he said the MBTA would again turn to the neighborhoods it serves to see what projects they want most.

“We want to make sure we continue to have open dialogues with the communities, businesses and riders we support. That feedback is invaluable. It’s just not us making decisions, it’s to make sure we actually deliver on what the public is looking for. We want to stay engaged,” he said.