Riders ought to be able to set their watches by New York’s commuter railways, MTA watchdogs said today.
Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road should count as on-time trains that arrive within two minutes of their schedules, said the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.
But a while a new PCAC report embraces the two-minute standard, it adds that the railroads “should be striving for true ‘on-time’ performance.”
MTA commuter trains are now counted as on time if they arrive within five minutes and 59 seconds of their schedules — the commuter railroad industry standard.
“The industry standard is not mandatory,” the PCAC said in its report, which notes other railroads “do use a more rigorous standard.”
Last September, Metro-North and LIRR began reporting canceled and delayed trains in data on the MTA’s Web site.
But neither railroad offers what the PCAC considers a “true passenger-based on-time metric.”
“The standard OTP [on-time performance] measurement is still unable to capture the true passenger experience,” the study says.
The group says the MTA should develop a way of measuring the trains’ performance that accounts for the length of delays, how often passenger are asked to leave trains midway through their trips, and overcrowding on delayed trips.
MTA officials have not yet commented on the report.
“We are continually working to improve our metrics to provide the most transparent and helpful information for our customers,” the MTA said in a statement.
