Unsuck DC Metro: Results?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Results?

What have been the cumulative effects of a year of near constant track work, fare hikes and a new general manager?

Decide for yourself.

According to Metro:

"On-time" performance (December 2010 vs. December 2009)
Metrobus 2010: 75.7%; 2009: 75%
Metrorail 2010:87.9%; 2009: 87.6%
Metroaccess 2010: 92.9% 2009: 92.8%

Escalator availability 2010: 88.6%; 2009: 90.6%
Elevator availability 2010: 96.4%; 2009 97.7%

Comments (12)

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+3 Vote up Vote down

Anonny · 737 weeks ago

SO I guess Metro will be good in like 100 years.

+2 Vote up Vote down

null · 737 weeks ago

that sarles is really shaking things up!

+2 Vote up Vote down

abc · 737 weeks ago

These numbers don't mean a lot of to me. My biggest issue is when I see metro bus drivers arrive late when it is the first stop and you know they just got there late. Once I heard this one driver on the 29 bus say how she was late because she usually drives 90 miles an hour to get to work and she had to slow down because she saw a cop.

If a driver is a few minutes late though because of traffic that isn't there fault, but it is often the fault of metro being to lazy to update schedules to actually reflect the current state of the route, not how the route was 10 years ago. I don't want to see a driver, driving like a maniac to stay on an impossible schedule-I've seen it-it's dangerous.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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Guest · 737 weeks ago

It's also bad when drivers depart from their first stop early, even a minute early, because I've missed a number of buses that left the first stop too early. And I have set my time to the time on the station manager's kiosk, and compared it with a bus driver's, to make sure it matches.

+2 Vote up Vote down

abc · 737 weeks ago

That too. If they are ahead of time when they hit certain major landmarks, they also should wait there. It is like a lot of the bus drivers are trying to leave the station before the train arrives. They get to go home 1 minute earlier and paying customers get home 20 minutes late.

+1 Vote up Vote down

Sam · 737 weeks ago

Is there any change to how "on time" is measured? It perturbs me that a bus is considered to be on time if it us up to 9 minutes late (I believe it is still 9 minutes). But if it has been expanded by a single minute, that can really skew their numbers in their favor. Unfortunately, I can't find any documentation on Metro's website about what constituted "on time" in 2009 and what constituted it in 2010.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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Guest · 737 weeks ago

I thought "on time" was up to 2 minutes before the scheduled stop time, and 7 minutes after the scheduled stop time, giving the drivers a 9 minute window...

+2 Vote up Vote down

Sam · 737 weeks ago

That might be where I got the 9 from. I remember 9 for some reason. Either way, it should be a smaller window. If the bus is 7 minutes late, it isn't "on time". It is 7 minutes late. I can understand having a grace period, but it should be 2-3 minutes.

I wouldn't be surprised if WMATA increases this to say "buses that come 8 minutes after the scheduled stop time are now considered to be 'on time'" and thus, their "on time" numbers go up since they now include buses that were considered to be late.

+7 Vote up Vote down

WTF · 737 weeks ago

The sad thing is those are Metro's own numbers and we know Metro lies. If those are the best fake numbers they can come up with.... it's Enron all over again.

+2 Vote up Vote down

bullsumner · 737 weeks ago

If you believe these numbers, I have some prime real estate for sale with a very large bridge you'll be interested in.

+2 Vote up Vote down

Joolz · 737 weeks ago

The "escalator availability" numbers make sense only if they're not talking about individual escalators (as the report seems to imply) but instead refer to the availability of at least one of the two or three escalators at any given entry/exit point.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Count von Count · 737 weeks ago

That's probably the case. I've spot-checked their outage reports before and a station with 4 escalators actually out of service will typically have 1 or 2 reported.